It's HOOOOMID

Happy Friday! Today's post is brought to you by a smattering of pictures from around the garden and a couple of babies thrown in there for fun. Aren't squash blooms gorgeous? The bees love them. This particular bloom had two honey bees happily making use of the center of the bloom. It was so nice to say "hi" to them. I snapped the picture, sent them love through the airways, and moved on very quietly so as not to disturb them. 

The domesticated raspberries are coming along beautifully. At least we didn't lose these in the late April freezes. Once they get larger and ripen up, I'll cook down a pot of these to create a thin syrup to pour into glasses of ice tea or over ice cream or in coffee - I pretty much use it in anything I want to taste like a mid-summer day. They will get much bigger than this and will turn a beautiful purple/nearly black. These are not typical blackberries and were planted on purpose (thank you, Dad, I love these). They are thornless, so picking them is not a nightmare. Soon, my little friends, you'll be a delicious syrup. . . . .

The zinnias are going wild. All of my pictures are taken with my phone, so a zoom out with the phone creates a weaker picture. I choose instead to take pictures using the phone settings, as it doesn't distort the picture so much. This is just a small portion of the largest zinnia garden. It's stunning in person, pictures don't do it justice. I also provided a couple of closeups so that you can see just how velvety looking these are. I love them so much, and they are the highlight of all my summers and have been for years and years.

Here is one of my favorite corners of the garden. The butterfly bush borders one of the smaller zinnis patches and from there, you can see the hint of the herb garden picket fence, as well as the plush tomato and squash plants. July and early August are our plushest months around here. It goes fast, so I go out to the garden at least once a day to feel the love. Soon, our Mexican sunflower patch will give us some brilliant orange colors. It's always the last flower garden to bloom, but the calendula patches haven't bloomed yet, either. So we'll see who reaches that finish line first!

Sigh. Look at the tomatoes. One word: STUBBORN. It's not their fault that the weather has been so weird this year, it's really not. But for nearly two decades, we've had platter after platter of ripe tomatoes by July 4th. Right now?? They're all still green. Granted, we have tons of them, but no sandwich material yet. I may have to make some fried green tomatoes to go with cheese grits. Cannot beat that for a meal. 

Aren't the onions pretty? I love when they get so large that they pretty much pick themselves! Very little effort is needed to harvest an onion that is ready to eat. They grow so large that they pop out of the ground themselves, as you can see. Home grown onions taste much earthier and have more flavor than store-bought. You can 100 percent tell the difference when you eat them. 

Here are two babies with huge eyes. They've both spotted a bird (NO, we are NOT allowed to go after the birds, we keep a close eye on the kitties and they are not allowed outside if we are not with them). Have you ever seen yummier babies? They are as plush as anything I've ever had, my little tiny miracles who have given me more gray hair in a year's time than pretty much any other life experience so far. If you've never had kitten rescue experience, trust me when I say that it's not easy to keep sickly kittens alive, nor is it easy to get them healthy. This last round of rescues have taken a good year to get in a place where I don't worry constantly about them. I wouldn't trade them for anything, though. 

The weather. What can I say? People are saying "wow, it's so humid today," and I feel like correcting them and saying that when the humidity is this bad, the word they should use is hoooooomid. And it is. It's HOOOOOOMID. It's awful. The loop of humidity where rain breaks through and the humidity lifts briefly and returns with a vengeance is upon us. Generally happens more in the month of June, but this year, it waited for July, I guess. We're in that phase where nothing dries really well on the clothesline, but we persist in using it because it's summer, dadgummit, and I'm going to use the clothesline. The consolation prize is a good one, though. Our July sky is here, and it's beautiful. Thank you, God, for that blue, blue sky. 

My Sonic drink this past week ended up being good, old Cherry Limeade. Generally, I go with Ocean Water this time of year, and I have had a couple of those already. But for some reason, I wanted my throwback favorite this go-around. It was nice for a change, but I did kind of miss my Ocean Water. So next week, we'll curb that craving with a trip through the drive-thru. 

I'm so very grateful for the weekend. It always seems to arrive just in time to save my sanity! It looks like a rainy weekend off and on, so maybe a house project is in order or a movie with popcorn and a Cadbury fruit and nut bar in on the fun menu. We'll see which way inspires me! Wherever you are, I hope your weekend is wonderful and that the weather is lovely and perfect.