Soupy Saturday

Well, it wasn't supposed to be humid again today. Guess what? It's gross gross gross and I don't even want to go outside. Sadie is groaning at me and keeps coming up to me and stomping because she wants to go for a walk. Between the spasms in my back and the weather? I'm feeling a bit uninspired for a walk!

Good news is that the weather is supposed to break tomorrow back to more seasonable temperatures and that clean, fresh, crisp fall air. I'm quite seriously DONE with this weather. I hate hate hate!

Other good news is that I was able to get an appointment on Monday with the chiropractor, and I cannot wait. The pain has been keeping me up and I'm just so tired from the pain. Chronic pain sucks; this is my first experience with it and it's just plain exhausting, you know?

Let's continue with the photos I took yesterday. I thought I'd have time to post them all yesterday, but hubby came home and I had agreed to go down to our boat with him to hang out for a bit. So, that's why I left so abruptly yesterday! We only had a little time to spend on the boat, as we decided to go to the 4pm matinee of the new Wall Street movie. It was hugely disappointing. So sad. I loved the first one! LOVED it! But this was just eh. Too long and just not that good. Too bad.

Ok. Back to fleurs.

Side yard is looking good except for the phlox there on the left:
Two of the phlox stalks did this this year. Don't know why. It looks like they're not getting enough water, but everything else around them is fine. Plants are weird sometimes!

This is the view up the street from our house:See how fuzzy that looks? That's the humidity. Blech!

This is the new snake plant:

I had originally bought this for my client, but I couldn't find a matching one for her - I needed two of them for the entry area of her home. So, I kept it! I spent a whopping $10 on it! Saw them in other places a while back for up to $30 a piece, so this was a steal!

And, same story for the peace plant! I bought two of them for my client, but ended up only needing one, so we got this one!
Not very exciting, but it brightens up the guest room a bit.

Ok. That's all I gots. Poor dogs are looking so pitiful, I'm going to take them now!

Ciao!

Ding dong dog days of summer

Whew. It's a hot one out there today. Hot and humid. And you know how much I just adore that combination. Oy. And vay.

Worked yesterday and managed to screw up my back again. Nice knots in there again. Spasming kept me up again last night, so I've taken the next step and called a highly recommended chiropractor in town. I'm totally freaked out by the concept, but I know I could use some aligning. My lower back has always been out of whack and now these spasms are just taking the ouch to a whole different level. Will keep you posted on progress in that department.

I did some watering and wandering around the yard today and everything is still going strong over here! Phlox still blooming, tomatoes are tomatoing and everybody is still looking good and healthy despite the longest growing season I can ever remember! As you may recall, everything bloomed about a month or so ahead of schedule, so my fear was that things would be all pooped out by now, but I'm happy to say, all is good! Cannot believe it's almost October. That's a special month here in Salem. Another oy and vay on that!

Let's take a look at some pretties, shall we?

Sadie, of course, helped. I had to go over and get the camera which was charging near my computer - and here came my shadow!Isn't she so cute?

Ballon flowers still ballooning:I love the little whirly-gig in the middle and the way the water droplets look on the petals.

My neighbor's planter is looking quite pretty:

Daisies ready to burst!

Gotta run - more later!

Fleurs, veggies and more!

So, the big gala event was a total success last night. I felt utterly underdressed - everyone was in black dresses and such and I wore linen pretty pants and a striped linen shirt and cute leather sandals. I was not very cocktail-dressy looking whatsoever, but, oh, well...The flowers were a hit, so that's all that really matter, right? I got quite a lot of compliments and a big hug from the Executive Director, so that's all a girl can ask for, right?

Here are the vase arrangements I forgot to photograph the other day:

So, since the weekend was spent doing flowers, today was catch-up day on chores. Dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, putting around the garden, watering, and general errands! Woo hoo! Fun fun! The nice thing was that the temperatures are glorious and the sun was shining and it was just generally a great day to be alive and out and about! Delicious!

Lots still going on in the garden, too. Back yard we have the tomatoes reaching ever-new heights:


Eggplant is coming along nicely:
Many new blooms arriving almost daily! Here are three new ones!

Hydrangeas are turning the most gorgeous hues:
SO pretty.

Forget-me-nots and mystery plants are doing swimmingly:Methinks the mystery plant is some sort of evil weed, but we shall see.

Side garden is very happy right now!A pretty combination of phlox, angelonia, brachyscome, and nemesia. The boltonia on the far right is getting a bit tired looking.

Flower boxes are feeling good again after I fertilized them last week. They just needed a little boost:It's crazy how long the shadows are already. I took this photo at 4pm and it's already starting to be so fallish. I saw on the calendar that the Autumnal Equinox is Thursday. Phooey on that. We just better have a wonderful, long autumn is all I'm saying.

And I'm loving my new white echinaceas:
I like how they start out looking like a flower-flower and then they do the thing where they get cone-shaped like this:


So that's all I've got to report today...Oh, one more thing. I'm going to my client's house tomorrow to take out two dwarf scheffleras that I suspect got root-rot from over-watering. Too bad...I'll be putting in snake plants instead. Do you know of these? I think they're sort of interesting in a spiky, snaky, upward-motion sort of way!

Hope you all had a good weekend and a fine Monday.

I will talk at you later!

Whew!

Yesterday I didn't post because it was the world's craziest busy day in the history of time. Well, maybe not quite the history of time, but certainly the busiest day for me in recent history. I awoke and basically hit the ground running. Had to get the dining room cleared and then set up for making 22 flower arrangements in silver mint julep cups like these:
Pretty, no?

And then there was also a huge arrangement to be done for the entry at The House of the Seven Gables for the big gala event today. I didn't put together the big arrangement; I invited a friend of mine - this 80 year old woman who you might think was in her mid- to late-sixties. She's incredible and the most incredible gardener. This woman is unstoppable and absolutely hilarious! She has the best best sense of humor and I hope to be just like her when I'm 80!

Annnywho, she created this beautiful monstrous arrangement in my kitchen:
Isn't it amazing? The pictures don't really do it justice; it's really, really pretty.

Then this other woman volunteered to help me with the smaller arrangements for all of the tables and for the ladies' restroom. We did up all of these:
Certainly not my favorite color combos, but according to the history books, Victorian flower arrangements would be very colorful, bright colors and seasonal - we definitely got that covered! There are 22 in the mint julep cups and six in small vases. It was a lot of work - 3 hours of non-stop flower arranging. It was fun for the first hour and then it became a chore! Anyway, it was good to do, good for my business and just good practice!

Sadie, of course, was most helpful!She's a real helper, that one! Such a sweetie-bee!

Then, had just enough time to clean up, walk the dogs, change my clothes and then we went up to my mother-in-law's to have our first official dinner in her beautiful new house overlooking the ocean. It was absolutely gorgeous! Didn't get home to relax until almost 9pm! Pooped!

So, I must go - have to deliver all these flowers and make the final touches on a few of them for the bigger tables and then go down to the boat for a bit to relax. It's a gorgeous, warm day - the return of summer, so I have to get outside to enjoy it!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Talk at you later.