Hi guys! Too hot to walk!? Not if you have a puppy in the house.
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| cool and shady beach lane |
I love my doggy but this gets a smidge boring. So what we do as we meander through the neighborhood, is peek stealthily into everyone's gardens....
Lots to admire. Look at the immense 2o foot sunflowers!
The edges of this beach lane's sidewalks are so prettily planted in the margins of the old weathered fences.
Funny sidewalk ''volunteers"...
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| a tomato? |
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| squash? |
Pretty wildflowers...
Daylilies...masses of daylilies.
A LOT of black eyed susans. The seeds must have been very dispersed after Sandy.
The hurricane flood, almost two years ago now, and the very cold windy winter weather really damaged a lot of my area's gorgeous hydrangeas. It's been fun and interesting to see the new varieties that people are planting instead.
I love this new delicate lavender hydrangea.
Mo likes the blue ones! Even if they too are turning pink in our ''wrong'' sandy soil.
This blue lace cap is amazing! I believe it has also now turned dark rose though.
It's hot at midday but this has been a fairly cool summer. These past few days have been blue skies and sea breezes and just about perfect. Like Kelley here in the comments, the late summer days make me a bit nostalgic and homesick. For years in mid-August I'd pack up the kids and head up to my family's home in Cape Cod. Usually we'd fly up, in the crummiest little planes! If we were lucky the pilots would fly low over the Cape for a stunning aerial view. (Unlucky could mean fogged in on Natucket!)
Today was such a Cape Cod day---I could just see myself there: a morning spent with my mom shopping in the wonderful boutiques and stores of the Cape, then an afternoon of sandcastle building at our little beach. Drinks on the deck at sunset, and maybe a lobster boil dinner---with a big extravagant steak for me, since I don't eat seafood. Maybe--ice cream at Lulu's? Some perfect things and ways should never change, I think sadly. But of course change happens, and those days are gone except in our hearts.
Does summer's beauty make you sad sometimes? Or it brings back fond memories to enjoy?
love
lizzy
gone to the beach
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What a fun post, looking into your neighborhood. The tall sunflowers, the flowers and volunteers growing in the margins, the black eyed susans. My brother sent me some black eyed susan seeds that I haven't planted yet. Not sure if they'll grow here. Huh, just had an aha! moment. Probably I subconsciously assume they won't grow, and I am avoiding the disappointment. On a lighter note, I am with Mo, I like the blue hydrangeas!
ReplyDeleteYour time with your family on Cape Cod sounds idyllic. (Is that the word?) Does your family still have the house? There is a bit of melancholy associated with summer memories, but the smiles come too. I find myself trying to carry on some old traditions, and also trying to create new memories that I'll look back on....again and again.
Thanks for sharing. Scratches for Mo.
Kel
Hi! Oh you must try the blackeyed susan seeds! Tho I admit I ve never had success from seed with them either. I know your growing climate/ season is so different, but maybe sow some now for next spring early growth, then the rest in early spring too. Perennials can take a few years to develope into anything much, so be patient!
DeleteFamily times on Cape Cod were fun, tho I suppose the requisite family bickering always ensued. Both my parents hated the tourist influx each year, and we'd try to explain that was like moving to Disney World then complaining. Cape Cod is a huge tourist trap, has been like that for 100 years. We have NO tourists here where I live, the beaches are private and there s no place to park. Yay.
And no, we couldn't keep the house. Too extravagant to own a summer house ''at the beach'' when I live at the beach anyway. And my brother lives way out west.
I made your mango salsa! Recipe here next week, or maybe Sunday. It was a HUGE hit, evryone loved it. Thanks!
Pretty hydrangeas. I think they're lovely, but I don't think they flower very long here. I always thought it was too hot and windy, but maybe it's our soil?
ReplyDeleteSunflowers are always cool! Left standing, the heads will droop over and dry, and lots of birds will visit them and pick them clean over the winter. The stalks are REALLY tough, though, you almost need a chainsaw to cut them down!
My favorites, though, are the volunteers and 'escapees' - that tomato (could be a tomatillo?) and the squash or maybe cucumber vine. Whoever planted the tiny row of marigolds is wonderful! Just makes that narrow shaded walk that much nicer!
I watched a TV show a while back about an area where older homes in bad shape in one area of a California town were being taken over by artistic eclectic types, and there was almost a competition to make your house and yard odder and more interesting than the neighbors - no cookie-cutter yards and shrubs! And one person over a period of several years had turned a walking alley into a wonderland, with painted murals, little doorways crafted at the base of trees, hanging stars, etc. It was the neighborhood's favorite place and sort of the inspiration for others. Dang! I wish I could remember what show and what town it was! If I can find it on youtube I'll send you a link. Anyway, your shady walkway sort of made me think of it, especially where the plants peek out from under the fence! Wouldn't someone have a cow if their fence got painted in murals, though?!
Cool neighborhood, I think I saw it in a magazine? And oh yes, no murals on our grey fences which are , oddly, prized as being very beachy. Murals here would reek of subway graffitti, I think.
DeleteHi Sweet Lizzie
ReplyDeleteYes, I, too, reflect on lazy Summer days as a child - it seemed the Summers were longer back in the 1960's when you were out of school from mid June to after Labor Day. The magical time of staying up later and getting up later, playing...fresh lemonade...your pics are always so lovely. Mr. Precious Paws is adorable.
Strawberry Sue
Hi Sue, thanks for visitng. Mmm, I had forgotten summer lemonade, yum.
DeleteMr Precious Paws just ate a heart pincushion, after he pulled out ll the stuffing and made a huge mess. He is very very bad this week. Pre teen?LOL>