Friday, July 10, 2015

Some of This and Some of That

Silly me ... I thought that once we got through June (which was in the top three of the wettest Junes on record in these parts), we'd be done with all. this. rain.  It's rained every day this week ... a lot.  So it's no surprise that we're losing the battle to keep our tomatoes and cucumbers alive and thriving.

Pretty pathetic looking, eh?   Our neighbor is reporting the same sorry state in his garden.

But thankfully some of our garden is flourishing with all this rain.  My hydrangea is looking as good as it has since I planted it.
Our green beans are also thriving.
(Ignore those puny tomatoes in front.  Ha!). And my hostas as doing well, too.
As is our lawn, which needs mowing yet again.  It's still too wet from last night's rain to mow yet ... hopefully it'll dry out enough to be mowed before the next front moves through.

We had the third of three swim meets in three days last night.  Once again, I had to wear jeans and a hoodie ... who knew that in July I'd be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt to a swim meet?     The Ts did well ... T#1 swam well, going head to head against a swimmer who's always "had his number" ... T#1 was determined in the 200 IM to take that race, and he did, coming from behind in the last lap to go ahead.  It was exciting.  T#2 swam up in two events - not in the next age group up, but all the way to the 15-18 y.o.  And held her own, finishing second in the 100 Breast!  And T#3 won all of his events.  Woo hoo!  Can you tell that I'm one proud Nana? 

We stopped at Five Guys for dinner (it was on the way and I'll confess that I'd been having a hankering for a cheeseburger) and allowed a little too much time. No problem for Nana and Papa who are "old pros" at this swim meet business ... DH read the book he brought along, and I worked on my EPP bow ties. 
I don't get to stitch much during the meets since with three swimmers, there's not much "down time" for us between their events ... and I have to pay attention, lest I miss an event.

I got my glasses Wednesday, but there's a problem with the location of the progressive bifocal and with a special anti-glare coating, designed to cut glare from electronic devices (computers, iPads, etc.) and to reduce risk of macular degeneration (which is a bit of concern because both maternal grandparents and both maternal aunts suffered from it). Unfortunately the glare from any light source creates a purplish tint to the lenses (thus no photo of me modeling my new glasses).  This morning they remeasured for the bifocal and will be getting new lenses cut. It should take a week to ten days ... hopefully they'll be here before we set off on our Blue Ridge Parkway road trip. 

So far, it looks like we've got a quiet weekend coming up, but something tells me that it won't end up that way.    DD has finals coming up for two of her classes, so I suspect I'll be getting some T time so she can have some study time. A win-win situation, for sure. 

I hope that whatever you have planned for today includes a little something that brings you joy ... have a great day!
Kathy

14 comments:

  1. my garden while it looks ok hasn't really been producing all that much - your green beans are much better than mine - I already tore half of them out and have so far only gotten about 2 quarts. the cucumbers are being slow but still look good and I have gotten about 5 out of it so far with a lot of little ones going.
    Good luck with the glasses hope you get it all straightened out before your trip.

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  2. My garden is so far behind. Not one cucumber yet although they have been blooming for two weeks. A little summer squash and the butternut squash is taking over eveything. I am ok with that at least the weeds won't grow. Hopefully the peppers will start producing so we have a big fall crop to freeze.

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  3. I hope the new lenses work better for you. Enjoy your time with the Ts. Summer will be over before we know what happened. I'm hoping we get some time with our grandsons before school resumes. The oldest is taking driver's ed and will be needing to log some driving practice with his grandpa.

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  4. Your garden puts me to shame! Mine is all weeds... Ok - I should just mow over it except for one mound which is attempting to make a baby watermelon. The rabbit ate my few swiss chard and the cucumbers laughed at me and died! Too hot down here for me. At least I know I can grow lettuce in containers and my son can grow peppers from real pepper seeds! He is keeping me in peppers for another month!

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  5. Sure hope your new lenses are ready soon. This has not been a good year for some plants - afraid we'll all pay the price Think we got lucky this week - not much rain here. However next week will probably be at least 3". Too bad we can't ship some of it out west.

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  6. Oh, so aggravating about your glasses. I'm wondering what you meant by anti-glare coating helping to prevent macular degeneration. I've never heard that but my Daddy has MD and I pray I can escape it. I take the ARED eye vitamins and have for many years. Happy weekend!

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  7. It was good catching up with you and yours. Congrats to the T's on their accomplishments :)
    I feel your pain with the excessive rains. Been there, done that. We're now in the middle of a heat wave!
    Hope you get your glasses straightened out soon, especially before your trip. You'll want to be able to enjoy that beautiful scenery in all its glory :)
    Kathy (from Reflections by Kathy)

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  8. Your beans looks great....enjoy! Also miss my Hostas that I had in Illinois. I had Five Guys with my dad last week. We love them and he really enjoyed it. Sorry your glasses didn't work out.

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  9. It's been a crazy weather Spring. We had rain in a bit too much abundance, too. Our tomatoes look worse than yours, and the cucumbers are history. I've replanted those, so we'll see. Our hydrangeas have been the prettiest ever, too. Interesting, isn't is since we are no where near!

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  10. You have too much rain, and we have not enough! We should all be sharing our over-abundance with each other. But at last some rain has come through the Pacific NW and into Alberta, so some of the forest fires will be under better control.

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  11. Rain has made our garden challenging this year as well. Even keeping up with the lawn mowing has been tough. Our hydrangea's didn't do so well this year, I think we got a late frost and it killed some of the buds. We only have a handful of flowers from the two bushes we have. Interesting summer for sure

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  12. I don't have a garden, but a good friend of mine does...and he is a gardener for a living, and he has been plagued with these Japanese beetles who love to feast on leaves and other things. Here in Montreal, Canada, we have had more heat and humidity than rain, but the high heat and humidity have killed/dried up the lilacs on a tree near where I live. Your photos are lovely and it is sad that you are struggling due to the rain. You have a very nice blog.

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  13. HI, If you weren't a proud Nana, I'd be shocked. Great job your grands did with swimming. Can't wait til you get your new glasses; I've put off mine due to buying a new a/c. When I get them though, I'll be without my glasses for a bit-oh no.
    We are having 7 granddaughters over night tonight-so much fun.
    Have a great Thursday.
    Hugs, Noreen

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  14. Hey,
    In answer to your question about why our chickens are kept separately-- It's because the older two are allowed to go "free" all day, but the younger ones aren't (yet). 9 hens are too many to leave out all the time because they'd kill all of my flowers :(

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I am SO glad you stopped by! No proving that you're a robot here ... I want to hear what you have to say! ;-)