Summer sunshine

Look at these sunny faces!  My flower garden is just bursting with color.  I have been picking some veggies as the zucchini, lettuce and peas are putting on.  But this gaillardia was a gift from a friend my garden guru),  and I will be saving seeds.   There are about 30 species and from this one pot, I have the typical orange "blanket flower" and the more common burgundy color, but I personally have never seen the completely gold color above.  What a surprise for me and what a wonderful addition to the flower bed.  Our lives have been a whirlwind the past week and until the end of September, it appears that the merry-go-round won't be stopping.  We have a great niece coming in this week from Texas and friends coming for Frontier Days festivities.  Then our daughter comes for a reunion and we go to California later for one of our own.  In between, the Mr. will be participating in the Senior Olympics and we have some other events to which we must attend. I haven't seen much of my quilting friends as my schedule hasn't allowed it and we have also had some finishing up projects around the place. 

Hopefully, things will slow down soon.  I am still here so don't go away!!

garden

 A few posts ago my garden was but a twinkle in someone's eye.  Now it is bursting with joy.  A gift from a dear friend, the old wooden ladder serves as property space for Peter Rabbit's bed and breakfast.  From the front door of each bird house stands a magnificent view of radishes gone to seed due to hot weather and now fodder for finches.  My peas are ready for picking and the beets and carrots are thriving along with zucchini, potatoes and tomatoes.  The spinach is long gone except for a few small new plants and the lettuce is ready.  The herbs are mostly blooming and really, I cannot possibly use them up fast enough.  We especially have a great cilantro crop.

Our retirement has not been retirement.  With the large amount of renovation and remodeling we have done, some of the smaller projects had to wait until good weather.  Re-routing the dryer vent, venting some plumbing, fixing a soffitt which became home to an industrious bird who built a nest in a portion of it and had babies--all had to wait for summer.  One project leads to another always!!
We are fortunate to have been able to do these things, but alas, we are getting older and need to be done.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes it seems a bit dim. 

Week after next is Frontier Days, the grandaddy of 'em all! With concerts, rodeos and parades among the festivities, our western town is always hopping.  There is so very much to do and see for a full week and we will be having family and friends in now for some of those activities plus more.  We hope to take some time away from the "job" and enjoy!

Mother nature and construction

 The wildfires in our state and Colorado allow smoke drifting our way to change our sunsets.  Last evening this was the view from my front porch as I watched the red sky turn to black.  There is a fire west of Laramie in the area where my parents used to camp and fish near Lake Hattie and Woods Landing.  Many have been evacuated and the fire is not nearly contained and has burned tousands of acres so far.  The rains are being predicted for sometime in the next few days.  We hope so. Below, the after picture of our privacy fence.  It needs to be stained yet and we hope to get a vine on it. 

 This is the "before" picture.  I do have garden pictures to post next, and a better picture of the ladder in the far background, which has become a bed and breakfast for the birds. 

"Life is checkered with shade and sunshine." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(Seems like a lot of shade right now, in spite of the heat and fires.)