August: A Perfect Summer Continues

Garden

The weather has been stunningly beautiful this year.  We're having less rain going into August so I will need to begin watering the outer yard to keep the trees and shrubs and grass happy.

My lilacs along the north facing roadway are suffering from having snow mounds dumped on them over the last few winters.  I'm going to try to prune them to a happier state and see if they respond.

Without question it is the weight of the snow because five other lilacs in from the property line are vigorous.

My annuals in pots are still happy and gorgeous as long as I water them daily.  In this heat, if I miss a day, they droop and wilt and look tragic.

My very old bench which has at least one rotted leg but which when propped against the fence somehow held many pots was finally undermined and undone by beagle digging.  I wouldn't have minded at all if he just went under there to keep cool, but no, he had to dig one of his trenches.

Desperate to have a plant holder in that prime sunny spot, I dragged out an old headboard from the garage and it is serving well enough.  I may spray paint it and use it again next season.  I'll need to take the back off for air circulation.

My sisters came over one day and re-did the border of this bed. They're younger and can tote bricks and patio blocks as if they're marshmallows!

Small Garden Before

Small Garden After

I may remove one layer of bricks, but this garden is retaining moisture much better with this frame.

My knees are demoniacal, and were so bad at the beginning of July that I feared I may not to able to walk at all anymore.  Warm packs, Bufferin, Advil, Tylenol in rotation and treating my legs as if they are made of glass resulted in a much better start to this month.  I was even able (gasp) to get down on the ground and reach in to weed this bed which I had been trying to get at for most of a month, but I just couldn't reach the center from my garden tractor.

 Random garden photos, proceed with caution.

Books

After years of customers highly recommending the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, one of those Amazon $1.99 deals caused me to purchase Relic, the first in the series.  It is one of those things, I think, where I was just in the mood for something adventurous and mysterious.  I loved the book immediately this time around.

As soon as I finished it, plink! I snared Reliquary, book two, which takes place in the world underneath the city of New York.

These are set in New York City, and the stories revolve around the Museum of Natural History.  The Museum is a character in and of itself, with its miles of tunnels and rooms filled with collections of so many amazing things they couldn't possibly ever be displayed.  The personalities of those who work in the museum or are associatedwhich  with it are so vivid.

Agent Pendergast is sort of a visiting expert in the first two novels, and apparently comes to the fore in book three, Cabinet of Curiosities which I've just begun.

 The New York Museum of Natural History

Preston has a non-fiction title all about the museum which he wrote before this series of novels.

Must read list!

I'm determined to read through the series before the new book comes out this November.  I love these books so much.

Sara Paretsky's most recent novel Brush Back came last week, so I'm alternating reading Cabinet and Brush Back.

The VI Warshawski character is a wonderfully brave, smart PI, but she is very grounded by her friends and family and her South Chicago background.  The stories are action packed. VI has a strong emotional response to the world around her and it is easy to be carried along with her feelings about events and people, making for a wonderful read.

Beagles

My older beagle is ten.  I hadn't even realized he was that old. He looks really good, but the vagaries of age are creeping up on him as his allergies and ear problems and dental problems cause him ever more trouble.

Beagle two is a lucky dog indeed as she gets a lovely walk through a wooded set of paths with my son daily.

Although there are nice grassy spots in the beagle area of the yard this year thanks to the rain, they like to lie in the dirt. Silly bozos.

I haven't posted much because you know, TYPING.  How easy it is to just jot things of interest in my notebooks, for possible posts sometime, but they don't make it off of the pen and paper page.

I'm composing this outside in my garden in my comfy Adirondack chair on my lovely iPad Air 2.  The breeze is keeping the flies off of me ( I was writing in the cool shade of the garage, but I was circled by flies...doesn't bode well does it!)

I'll add corrections and pictures later from my PC which is simpler to compose and add pictures on, but I don't tend to retire to my computer room/craft room till later in the evening when my head isn't so interested in composing anything at all.

edited and enhanced, lrs 8/5/15