My little tire garden today.

I just got outside to water and take a few pictures of my garden at start of our best gardening season ((Oct.-April). It is alive with color right now. You can see all the zinnias, which are blooming their fool heads off right now, the roses, some succulent shots, and how full the Black Knight has gotten and covered in blooms! The puffs are at each branching along each stem.....you can trim them and still have millions of blooms! Incredible. I love them all so much! My mum is shaggy right now, but is covered in more buds, so hope to see more flowers soon.  The one picture of two tiny flowers were weeds just handed to me by Emily, my 4 year old granddaughter, and of course i needed a shot of them!  The one picture of a restaurant we visited in Okeechobee, Florida, was called Cowboys. It was pretty cool. Our steaks were not all that great, but I feel they are doing a lot of things right, as it was packed on a Monday night.....clearly the place to be for food in this town!

Zinnias and Roses

Hello to everyone! I have been so busy! Update on my knee: conservative treatment only. This is good. Went to physical therapist....will only do exercises to strengthen it, and open up my knee joint....sounds like fun, eh??? Just 2 weeks. I can walk, so I am happy.

Looking forward to some fall fun. A corn maze in November, with hayrides, and get this.....a hayride with paintball guns to shoot zombies (for the younger adults in the family), a train ride for the kiddos. It will be nice in the cooler weather to come.

Creatively my DIL and I have been embroidering. It is done late at night in the few moments between getting kids to sleep, and us nearly falling out ourselves....still we like to squeeze the time in there. We are both working on surprise gifts for friends.....I will get pictures when we are done, for sure!

Life is good.....even with temperatures that reach into the 90's some days!  We have been getting some rain every day it has been nice not to have to water.  Here are a few pics of the tire garden (the tires with flowers).  Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Xoxo- Julie

Busy weekend...

Well, this weekend was a blur! My sister and nephew were in town for a quick 4 days. As we were leaving the restroom we came upon this large oval mirror, and I couldn't resist taking our picture! I am the shorter, fat one on left, and my sister is 1 inch short of 6 ft. tall, so in some ways I can still look like a shrimp! LOL.

Emily had her 4th birthday party and she was, of course a doll. Here she was dressed and ready to go to her party.

Her party theme was "My Little Pony", and the cake was impressive! We used two different cakes from Walmart, topped with 6 small ponies, and a large one with wings that light up, and the pony talks! I added 4 sparkler candles around edge, and I'm telling you it was amazing when lit up in a semi dark venue!

And last I will leave you with another miniature rose bouquet. Never mind the dirty windowsill, screen and windows!!! I am enjoying being able to go out and cut these adorably cute little roses and slipping into a tiny vase! Soon you will see more colors as I want to add a white and orange one!

Have a good rest of the week! I am grateful for you all, and am sending special loving thoughts and prayers to LGW!!!

Roses after the rain!

I looked outside today...after two days of wind and rain...and saw my roses looking good! I cut a few to make a bouquet. I use a small vase perfect for minature rose cuttings. Aren't they sweet???

Periwinkles, Roses, and a Lizard Friend

Nothing influences you like the wishes (especially sweet ones) of your precious grandchildren!!! Going against my efforts to go all perennial, Donovan REALLY WANTED to pick out a few periwinkles yesterday at Home Depot! Of course, Grandma Julie said "Yeah, OK...sounds good, Mr."! So here are 4 new ones, one reddish, one purple (violet), one light and one dark pink. I wanted a white, but none were available. I just got them into a tire this morning, while to was still bearable to go outside...(heat and mug)... Should be very pretty in a few weeks!

Oh, BTW...my Home Depot no longer carries miniature roses...I have to go to Lowes or an independent nursery. Interesting.

Here are a few shots of my miniature yellow roses...gosh they are so fun! You deadhead, and BAM...a few hours later, you are seeing tons of buds! This could be enough to EVER keep me from returning to work! LOLOL. Yeah. Right.



This pink one below is what the buds sometimes look like in the early stages! Strange, eh??? Then they turn yellow. So sweet.

Here is a little friend who met me this morning, and seemed to be unafraid as I spoke to him, and got closer for a photo...he was out a'courtin...with a lot of dancing and flapping of his dewlap! So amazing.

Garden Pony (Doozey), some spectacular roses, and Moms Amaryllis!

Look at this!!! Mom and I went out to a garden center yesterday and found these unbelievable roses, labelled GOLD METAL. They start out like yellow tea roses and as they open they get lighter, but they do it in a sort of clumping fashion where you see them at all levels of opening up! WOW! I am still recovering from shock after seeing these!!!



Here is Moms Amaryllis...all in the pot are open and I say they are in a fairy ring! They must like crowded roots, cause this pot is busting open! They must get divided this year, without fail. Are they not gorgeous?????

And last, but not least...my little garden pony, Doozey....covered with hitchhikers! (Click on photo to see better). She was really bothered by them being on her, so I picked them all off (quite a job, I tell ya)...I'm not sure if they are toxic to animals, or not...so just played it safe! My little dolly doggie is # 1. I love her so....