Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.  ~Sam Keen

Just a small offering for Jane's Flowers in the House. The heat of August plays havoc with even the hardiest Southern gardens and especially with one that has been neglected over the past few weeks. However, there were a few wayward hydrangeas, beautiful blooms from a butterfly bush, and colorful zinnias.

 The zinnia's are a bit straggly. I could only bear to clip a few. Even in this late stage, they looked so pretty hugging the fence and adding a welcoming touch to the backyard gate.

The early summer gift of a dwarf magnolia tree has also produced surprises with it's lovely blooms in the heat of summer!

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Please visit Jane - Flowers in the House

Dog days of summer... and a country swimming hole

       Growing up in South Georgia always meant hot summer days, a neighborhood pickup baseball game with boys and girls, the local library's summer reading club, and at least a weekly visit to Plains, Georgia to the nearest community swimming pool or to our favorite country swimming hole known as "Fussell's Pond."  

      These days the gnats and heat are still around, library's continue to sponsor reading clubs, kids play "organized' sports, and kids swim in backyard pools with few even knowing what a "swimming hole" really is. On a recent day trip to visit our son and daughter-in-love, we passed a unique swimming hole. The spur of the moment "turn around" produced a pretty good photo op.  Even in the early morning hours, the girls were eager for a dip... giving new meaning to the term "contented cows."

     Summer in the South... where we are all just trying to stay cool and fight the humidity...where everyone thinks we're all so friendly... we are, but most of the time we're also fanning gnats. Enjoy your dog days of summer... in or out of your local swimming hole.

Flowers, just not in the house

The plum trees blooming in the hedge-rows on the highway along with sweet honeysuckle on countryside fences make for a picture perfect springtime day. Yesterday, the sky so blue, a bit of a breeze, the sunny day so appealing, it would have been difficult to have spent the afternoon inside. Piddled with some re-potting of plants, floated lazily in the pool, and enjoyed watching (again!) Forrest Gump with my husband on the patio.  

The fence is covered with little white pinwheels 

of Confederate Jasmine 

whose fragrance is so sweet and thick, 

it filled the air around us.

No flowers in the house for this last Monday in April, but seeing these outside my kitchen window ... amazing! 

I know I should have brought some inside, 

but I just couldn't bring myself to disturb the beauty.

Visit flwrjane for Flowers in the House 

the last Monday of each month 

@ Small but Charming

Bet there will be some lovely offerings from all over the world!

The first of the pink daylillies with promises of more to come.

Please check out Susan's wonderful tablescape for Michael Lee West's new book, a teeny bit of trouble, at Between Naps on the Porch.


The bridal couple reminded me of our son's and his fiancee's engagement party cake....

Maybe Teeny's next book cover will feature this one!

Radiant Beauty...

Just could not resist... more amaryllis

There were seven wonderful stems ... all blooming at the base of a favorite crepe myrtle!

Their red with white cousins are beginning to bloom in the beds inside the fence...

A friend posted on facebook today..."Have you ever thought that humans decorate for Christmas, while God, Himself, decorates for Easter? Everyday when I come home there is a new bloom, a new leaf, a new bird. I love Spring!" Diana... Thanks for the reminder!