Pigeon House or What ?

How about this little gem. Some people see throw away, I see treasure.

I'm fixing this up for my yard. The worst has been cleaned out of it, well almost, now I'll do the final cleaning. Then the fun begins. Where to put it in my yard and deciding just what to put inside. Oh !  The possibilities are endless.

This will keep me busy as Jim is working now so I do have lots of free time. I'm so use to him being here I really miss him.  I mean you can only read and watch TV so long. I'll keep you in the loop.  Tootles

Lavender, Lavender, Lavender

Oh, how I love this sweet smelling plant.  I told you last week about making lavender oil. Well, here it is

That was fun and interesting. Will be doing more fun things. Until tomorrow. tootles

Elviria. Trying new things

My beautiful Elviria.  She is very sweet. I'm trying new things.

Angus and more

Our Newcomer  " Angus "

Our newest member to our household, "Angus".  What a character he is.  He discovered our door for the animals, as we have 4 dogs and 2 other cats besides Angus.  I swear he would not stop going in and out.  It's like he couldn't believe it was that easy.  I'm a firm believer in dog/cat doors. I do it for me as I'm a much happier person if I don't have to deal with accidents.
     Now as far as getting along with the other animals we have, I mentioned 4 dogs, no problem.  Even out biggest dog Eddie just puts up with hime.  He is forever jumping on their necks and wrapping his arms around them, then flying off.  The one it's a problem for is Elviria.  She wants nothing to do with him at all.  I can't believe it but he takes off after her and she runs !  There has only been a couple of times that she growled really loud and He ran off.  So we try to keep them separate.  I don't know if that's what we should do or not.

Today is suppose to be another scorcher.  Then it suppose to cool down.  When it's hot and the temperature just keeps going up, up, up you try and figure out how to stay cool.  Okay, in this day and age it's not that hard to do something about it.  We stay indoors with the air conditioning on.  We go to the beach or if that is not possible we jump in our own pool or friends pool or public pool.  We go to the Mall, walk the afternoon away.  Growing up myself, we certainly did not have air conditioning.  No one I knew had it in their houses.  We did however have lots of fans and the tall windows that were wide open.  Even at our school, once again those tall windows did get a lot of breeze in and of course the ceilings were 10 or so feet.  So the heat would go up their.  It was still hot but not having experienced air conditioning we were fine.  I went to the public pool in the town I grew up in.  A large pool with plenty of space in the different levels.  It had a high dive and several other boards lower.  That is where we spent the summer months.  Mom would buy a summer pass and all I had to do was sign my name and I was in.  Fantastic.i

Enjoying the Summer !

I'm learning how to work all of this then I can write on my blog.  This is so.  cool

Making Lavender Oil

You know somethings we have planned just don't come about.  I did not pick this picture but this and 4 others came up so there must be a reason,  I'm going with it.  I love this lady with her arms loaded with grocery bags and the look on her face   content, quiet happiness, just happy the things are.  Wish we all could be like her.  My shelf is different now but you know what I like this a lot.  I just might change it back.

So much is happening at this time of the year.  Mainly School is out. I am not real crazy about the hot weather.  I try to get everything done in the morning, including exercise.  You know I have been having a hard time doing exercises.  I really don't know why but was telling my daughter about that and she said, " I've always thought that was great that you exercised".  Well, that is all I needed to get back into it.  Sometimes you just need a little push to get you going.  I do feel better.

Wanted to talk a little about my lavender plants.  This is where they were, now I have separated them as well as moved them.  They were in the shade just not getting enough sun.  Where I moved them I still don't know if they are getting enough sun.  I love the smell of them.  I have even found a recipe to make lavender oil.  I took the blooms and blossoms smashed them gentle in a bowl with the back of a spoon, put them in a mason jar, filled it to cover them with Vodka, put wax paper on top of jar, then screwed on the lid.  Put it on my closet shelf for 10 days, poured everything through a strainer and coffee filter, put that in a jar with just a coffee filter and rubber band holding it.  I have to wait another 10 days for the Vodka to evaporate and what is left is Lavender Oil.  Pretty cool uh?  Will take a picture when it's done.  So that is why I want my plants to do good and I need to find the prefect spot for them.  Tootles

Outdoors / yards / and Playing

North and South side of yard.  The side with the BBQ is the north and it stays cool there until late afternoon as we have so much shade.  The south side is where we spend the mornings right now.  It still is a little cool in the mornings yet and we like the sun on us still.  We do still have a shade cloth but the sun feels nice.  Tasha is relaxing on the seat cushion.  You can see the Angel in the middle of the picture.  She lights up.  We have been adding a lot to our yard so will have to take more pics.  We really enjoy being in the yard and try to stay out most of the day.  That is until the temperature gets over 90.  It is just too hot unless we are in the shade and we have a breeze going.

Our daughter has given us a lot of beautiful flowers and plants so we have been busy, busy get everything planted.  I don't want anything to die because we didn't get it in the ground.  It really is fun deciding where it's going to go.  It's funny as we have changed our yard, even moved plants around because they just didn't suit where they were. We have a problem right now.  You see there is a big bush that has beautiful white flowers on it and red berries But it also has long thorns.  It is in the wrong place, you see it is in the North side of the yard where the swing set is.  We have small Grandchildren now and one Grandbaby that will soon be toddling out there.  I do not want them to go near this bush.  so have already put in a request to Jim he must move it.  On the south side of the yard we do have volunteer raspberries and this year they are coming on strong and full.  Hopefully I will be able to get out there and get me a bowl full before the birdies get them all.  I don't care that the birds get the berries, I would just like some also.  Anyway, I think we could move the thorny bush next to the berries maybe close to the fence.  You know, keep all the thorns and stickers together.  Sounds like a plan.  Tootles