Greetings on this lovely soggy Sunday morning. As usual, I am happy to see the rain, a much needed little spritzer for the foilage, the last check an hour ago revealed a quarter of an inch. It will do wonders for the blooms in the garden.

The Hungarian Poppies are doing great, producing nice big heads for the everlasting bouquets that will come into play this fall. They will also make nice additions to bouquets now if I’m willing to let them go without waiting for their seeds, but that’s unlikely! There are more poppies getting ready to show themselves, it will be exciting to see what’s new!

The sweet peas are starting to climb their hogwire fencing we put up two weeks ago. They are also giving me a few stems here and there, so very pretty!

I picked some Marigold heads the other day and put them in the greenhouse to dry with the Calendula, Frosted Explosion grass and rose petals. All smelling lovely as ever!

I have a few heads on the strawflowers peaking through their lush green leaves.

I have volunteer Apple of Peru that is starting to bloom, they might actually save my rear end this year when it comes to the weddings I am doing.

The over wintered Yarrow is doing great, the new stuff just seems to be hanging out and waiting….for what I’m not sure, but it’s not putting on much growth. Of course it is only mid June.

I’ve been slaying the weeds, putting up a good fight putting in more perennials, making plans for a garden that will be less work next year and the years to follow.

The Amaranth is doing very well, I think I was supposed to pinch it, but alas, I didn’t…it will be okay.

The Cosmos have already given me some tiny little blooms that I sacrificed in the name of getting a bushier plant.

The Dragon Heads are growing well, I’m looking forward to seeing what they look like and how they perform in the bouquets.

I’m excited about my Blue Flax also, I’m not sure why because I have no idea if they are even usuable stems or what they will even look like, I grew it because it sounded fun. I can look up pictures, I can look at the picture on the packet, but one never really knows what it looks like or how it behaves until you grow it. And there are so many different types of flowers that go by the same name, that even if you find information on it, it’s possible it won’t be the same as the one that is in your garden. So, I’m growing it, to try it out for myself. So far, the leaves are very pretty – whispy, spiky things so far.

Lisianthus, Artichokes, Dahlias, and Bells of Ireland are marching forward.

I have perrenial Cosmos, Lupins and Zinnas in the greenhouse that need to come out, that was on the agenda for today, but….we shall see what happens with the rain, housework, and other things that happen on Sunday – like visits from family, and naps…!!

The question is why….in the world did I not take care of those things yesterday? Well, we took the boat out into the San Juan Islands with the in-laws. The boys had a great time showing us girls where they spent a great deal of their childhood, and a lot of their adulthood with their parents on their boat. Often times five day spans out on the islands – fishing, swimming, hiking – good memories for them! Lots of great stories.

Jill and I made some great memories of our own….like the one where I said “here, this is a nice log Jill, lets sit here and have the boys take our picture”….Jill proceeded to sit down – with the log cracking under her, she jumped up with lots of screaming and flailing of the arms in anticipation of a grizzly bee attack that thankfully never happened….or the time when we were posing for a picture and getting handsy with each other. The boys couldn’t get us to hold still to save their lives – thankfully they were both very patient and tolerant of our antics. Lunch on the boat was tasty – honestly – I could probably eat sardine sandwhiches and think they were tasty – everything tastes good when out on a boating trip?!

I even got to drive for the boat for a bit, taking us around the back of Matia while the boys fished, and then around Clark Island then zipped along for a bit, I was zig zagging a bit more than I should have been, so I let Joe take over back to Blaine Harbor to load up the boat. We stopped in Lynden for a quick bite to eat, then home to bed. The travel time back from any trip, be it it a road trip, a drive to Seattle, a trip to Italy or even back home after wor, – for some reason the return trips seem to take forever!

We have plans in the very near future for more boat time, more camping time and more fun!

Unfortunalty, I kind of messed up our plans for our trip in July. We can still make our trip, but not for as long as we were planning. It’s a bit of a bitter sweet situation, but I’m sure it will be okay. I’m very excited to report that my friend and I managed to snag a spot in a wheel throwing pottery class coming up in July-August. I hadn’t checked the calendar when I signed up for the classes, they go quick, so I snagged what I could, figured I could check the dates after I got the spots. They only had 40 openings, 10 spots on four different days and times, so I picked what I thought would be best…Friday mornings. Wouldn’t interfer with dinner times for Joe and I, woudn’t interfer with weekends….but it happens to start on a Friday where we were supposed to leave on that Wednesday, so now we have to postpone that trip just a few days. We coudn’t add days to it on the other side because I have a wedding I’m doing, and of course there is also another class the following Friday, but it will be a nice chunk of time at a very nice lake. It will all work out just fine.

I did buy a chunk of clay to have a clay day here at the house with a group of family – grand kids, my mom, sister-in-law and anyone who wanted to join in. A day in the yard playing with clay, seeing what kind of crazy things we can make. It will be fun to play a bit-because I need more things to do in my life! I have a few sewing projects on my list to take care of also. And of course more social events – friends to invite over for lunch and bevys in the yard, family get-togethers, time with the grands…all sorts of fun summer stuff!

Here I blog about all the things I need to get done – all talk no action….so I best get a move on. Thank you so much for stopping by. Until next time my friends, hugs to you!