I’m posting a picture of my first-pick Cosmos. My “card friend” encouraged me to plant some seed so I did. Our rain quit soon after planting but they survived with watering and TLC. I got excited when the first buds appeared and finally the first blossoms were popping out all over. They are absolutely beautiful in person. They scream summer and sunlight in an explosion of orange, yellow and rust. I was so proud of them I had to take a picture for all to see.

It is one thing to pick flowers for the cards but when those beauties come from your own yard it is even more rewarding. My friend has had butterflies hatching over the weekend and I’m going to try and visit in hopes of seeing the butterfly emerge from it’s confines. Almost everything in our yard blooms to invite butterflies and hummingbirds. I am fond of both. While I was watering in the back yard this morning I discovered a half of an egg shell. I’ve never seen a white one before so I wonder if any of you know what kind it would be? It was a little larger than a robin’s.

Our temperatures are in tune with most of the country……..hot, humid but dry. It seems a conflict to say dry and humid…..but it’s what we have. I have to water early in the morning because of so many bushes and plants…… when I’m finished it’s time to get out of the heat. I haven’t been able to work outside for the past few days and now I’m going to have to do over what I had accomplished. How the weeds thrive in this weather I don’t know. With the extreme heat everything else dries out or barely hangs on with what water they get. The small trees that come up in the middle of my flowers have to be cut down two or three times. Maybe I should try hacking and chopping my flowers like I do the trees…….maybe they would show a renewed growth.

My yard work has cost me three pairs of gloves. I have a bad habit of taking them off and laying them somewhere……I know I’m the only one who ever does that. They get covered up with cuttings and end up being burned with the brush I have cut out. I will have to tie them together with a string like my mother did with my mittens. Time to get busy here so I’ll stop with this. Another page of my mother’s special things she wrote down….. and I liked this one.

“Tearing the Bible apart is like tearing up a road map…..it doesn’t destroy the road.”

Essentially Esther