High Summer Yard Scenes

Quite a few thoughts come to my mind when I am caring for the yard, but so far I haven't found them profound enough to share here, so today all I could think to post these photos. As you can see, it  is quite wild here. I have a cousin coming from Canada who is a gardener in Vancouver, and I hope to learn a lot and get some ideas about how to make things more interesting and happier looking.

Yonder is our cottage, but it is not as small as it seems. I know that, by how long the housekeeping takes.

It is high summer here and no sign of waning so I am going to start the season over,  because with all the usual rush of activity I didn't stop much.

I am having lunch outside and drawing my summer sewing wardrobe on paper, and hope to get back to sewing soon. Most of the summer I spent eyeing the patterns!  A few years ago I did a sewing planner sheet based on old paintings. I am thinking about doing something like that, combined with activity and location themes.  I have been particularly interested in the old sketches of flowers that look like gowns but have not fully explored that creative idea yet.

I know I have asked for subject ideas from you, and I have received some in the past but did not follow through on all of them. If you can remember any subject you would like to see covered here, please leave me the idea in the comments or email me.

As always, thanks for dropping by. Without you I wouldn't have as much motivation or inspiration. 

Here is a teacup story for you.  Cellphones are so much fun and in many ways bring family closer together as we share our comings and goings. The nasturtium teacup  I posted here a few weeks ago, which I got at Goodwill, made a trip out of someone's hand onto the floor and split in two pieces.

Mr. S. Had some errands so he dropped me off at Homegoods which is a "seconds" store, like the reject stores in Australia.  (We try to combine our outings to save gas). The goods are all new but perhaps out of season or a little imperfect.

I noticed the Gracie China brand teacup was only $3 something and sent a picture to my daughter to show her how I found a replacement for the nasturtium cup, and what's better is it is brand new, a lower price than the used things in Goodwill, and still has the vivid colors.  I very much like the lightweight porcelain of new Gracie China. It is dishwasher safe and in doesn't seem to have lead in it.

I sent a picture of the 4 matching cups in my basket (the price being so low) and texted to her:

"Look what I found, and look at the price.  I think it takes four of these to replace the broken one."

 She wrote back:

"It is never wise to break up a family of teacups."

When we used to shop the thrift stores we never felt right about leaving the matching teapot when we found a teacup we liked.

The family of cups now has a good home. The other one in the basket is a gift  for someone.

Some pictures from my market visit the othe day.  These colors inspire watercolorists!

Then there are the pastel ones.

Naturally it all makes me think of fabric, but I might look at what the water color people are doing with these vivid displays!

We visited a waterfall too. Can you see the blue in the water? So pretty.