The Week In Pictures

I love this time of the summer.  Lake Michigan is warming up enough to swim if you're a hardy soul (the water was 64°F). The lillies are blooming and my pots of impatiens are filled out and lush.  You can even go out in the evening without a sweater or jacket (sometimes anyway).  Tonight it is still 70°F at 10 pm.
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....and sometimes mother nature leaves you a surprise in your yard.  The color of robin's eggs is my favorite color.  This nest was abandoned.  

We went to the park again this week.  A walk along the pier brought another little surprise....a young otter sunning on the rocks.  He seemed very unconcerned that we were there.  The girls were excited and thought we should take him home!  A lesson in why wild animals should be allowed to be wild ensued.

There was time for making friends at the playground

We went to the weekly community concert.  The weather was perfect.  The music was billed as Great Lakes music.  We weren't quite sure what that was.  The only song I really know is the one about the sinking of the Edmond Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot.  They did songs that were about the Great Lakes....interspersed with Great Lakes lore.  Stories about a ghost, Diana of the Dunes....stories of ship wrecks....and facts about the Great Lakes.  It was quite interesting.  There are several hundred ship wrecks in the Great Lakes that have not yet been found.  

I finished the simple little top that gave me so much trouble.  I think it looks fine with 2 buttons.  I still don't know how I missed putting in the middle buttonhole.  Those are not the buttons I am going to use.  I set them there just to see how the buttons will look.   It still needs to be blocked and a couple ends woven in.  

Today was a perfect day for the beach.  It was a day for cousins to bond and be silly eating blueberries at the waters edge.  

I wish I could bottle these days and save them for my granddaughters.  But we are making memories.  I never really knew any of my grandparents.  I have a couple very vague memories.  I hope these little girls will have lots of Nana and Bapa memories.

I hope your week is sunny and you are making some good memories.

Til next time,
Peace

A Quick Update

First of all....thank you for the well wishes for Salem.

I took him back to the vet yesterday.  He turned up his nose at food yesterday morning and sounded more congested.  I swear, he sounded like he was trying to breathe through his nose through just a little pin hole for air.
Actually he checked out pretty well.  No fever, lungs sounded fine.  But his nose and eyes were running like crazy.  He got a steroid shot and a long acting antibiotic shot....no fighting to get medication into him this time.  He is refusing his usual dry food but with a little coaxing he is eating some canned food and drinking tuna water.
So I hope we are through the worst....I do believe he is moving a bit more air through his nose today.  All I can do at this point is keep him eating and drinking and keep 3 little girls who want to "take care" of him away and let him rest.

On my walk the other day I saw these wildflowers.  Does anyone know what they are called?  I would think black-eyed susans, but they look more like a cone-flower?  I am not good with names of flowers and I have walked this area before without truly seeing them I guess.  Its a very pretty area to walk, on a path by a lake.

We are getting tired of salads and the lettuce in our garden is still flourishing.  It is nice to shop and by pass the lettuces though.  We should have broccali soon.  We have never grown either before and I have no idea why.  We eat a lot of both.

I have made little progress on any knitting lately.  The days are busy with a 10  (almost 11) year old to drive to summer school, vacation bible school, swim lessons.  We really have to keep her busy....all she wants to do is be on the computer watching you tube.  So, we feel like we need to keep her busy and entertained.  I will be relieved when school starts again.

I want to welcome a new follower, Lilly's Mom, Pat.  Drop by her blog, Lilly My Cat when you have time.  She's a very interesting lady.

Well, that's all that's going on here.  I have plans for a very quiet evening and some knitting.  The girls are on their way back to their parents and Hubby is meeting a friend for dinner and 9 holes of golf.   Ahhh...peace and quiet.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Til next time,
Peace

Flower Day

We picked a freezing cold day to go to the greenhouse for flowers.  It was my daughter's day off and she wanted to go with us.  I love to go to this greenhouse.  It is about a 45 minute drive and they have what seems like miles of flowers at very good prices.

We got a hanging basket of purple petunias for my mother-in-law,  a hanging basket of red stripe petunias for me, a flat of impatiens, some tomatoes, a lavendar plant, and a basil plant.  The impatiens will fill 2 pots on the deck and 2 hanging baskets.
I tried to limit our spending a lot this year.  We are on a budget, no impulse buying.
This is enough to add some color along with the perennials I already have.

Little Miss had a great time.  We had to visit all the birdbaths, yard and garden statues, and all the fake animals in the place.  Are these big animals to put in your yard?  A deer or a gnome, sure....but a tiger or an elephant?

                               

(sorry this picture is blurry....no idea what happened)


A cow maybe?

Our Little Miss had to pick out a flower to take home to her Momma ( my DIL).  Pink of course!

Hope it is warmer where you are.  

Til next time,

Peace