September

 I looked up some September poems, but they all spoke of "golden", and on this first day of September here in my garden the grass is spring green. That's what days of rain in late August will do.

Now it's on it's way to HOT. That's September here, days when school kids will lose their coats because they wear them to school for the cold mornings and throw them on the ground at first recess, forgetting them because they no longer need them...until tomorrow morning. 

Yes, school has started or is starting now that September is here. No school shopping for me anymore. But yesterday I did have to pay the bills and do the monthly accounting, an end of month ritual. 

I see that another week has gone by since I posted. How can that be? There was working in the yard and doing stuff, I guess. On Wednesday Jill and the kids came for dinner, a gathering I requested before everybody gets too busy. Irene is home from her Girl Scout Camp Counselor job. She reports that while some groups of kids were fun and she enjoyed being with the other counselors, she had some very nasty experiences with middle school girls, and will be looking for different employment next summer. 

Isaac will be taking online classes while he sits idly during down time at Boeing, which there apparently is too much of.  Soon they may be on strike.  

Jill has been back to work in her office in the school district administrative office. All three report breakdowns in communications in the multiple layers of supervisors in the administrative chain of command.

It was really good to spend time with them and catch up. We will see them on again Sunday when we go to Whidbey Island for the annual Phosie-Gertie family picnic.  I baked a cake.

I haven't made a chocolate zucchini cake for several years because we just haven't had much success with zucchini in the garden. I even asked a friend to bring me one from her garden because I usually don't let my few get big. 

But I did grow one this year finally and now the house smells really good of chocolate and cinnamon. It will get a chocolate glaze when it is cooled.

Now that it is late symmer the sedums are showing color.

And attracting bees. 

Fall blooming hardy cyclamen are popping out of the ground. 

White is a color.

And so is green, accented by hardy fuchsias and Abutilon/flowering maple. 

Happy September, everyone!

Sunshiny Flowers

 After days of rain, the sun is shining, lighting up the sunshiny flowers in the garden. That makes me smile, kind of like this little pottery face.

Of course the real things are smiling at the sun too.

After some busy days we have had a slow few days as the DNC ended and the rain began. The rain was much needed and for now the long summer drought has ended too and the wild fire danger is down. 

I watched all of the Democratic Convention, from 4:00 in the afternoon till 9:00 in the evening. Of course I did other things while it was on, like read blogs, work the Wordle, cook and eat dinner. By the time it was over on Thursday I was filled with joy. I really hope the upbeat feeling much of the country was feeling then will continue. This campaign could be brutal. 

Friday morning we had an enjoyable time with our friends at breakfast, groceries got purchased, I got in a stationary bike workout, and dinner got cooked and eaten. We watched an OK and somewhat inspiring movie, "Tyson's Run".

Is it just me or do you have trouble remembering what you did yesterday? That was Saturday and I had to do my "long program" PT, which takes about an hour. We did a little shopping in the morning and I was back on my bike in the garage before tuning in to a Sounders soccer match in Minnesota. Seattle won. Sorry, Minnesotans. After a dinner of leftovers, we had a preseason Seahawks football game to sort of watch as we played on computers. 

Now Sunday is speeding by. We walked this morning. Walking was hard today but I got my mile +. I took a long time reading the newspaper while Tom worked in the garden. This afternoon I strolled around in the garden, took a few photos, and got a mosquito bite on my neck. Tom can work outside for hours and never get a bite. I can be outside for minutes and they find me. 

I just have time to sit and work Wordle and skim FaceBook before it's time to prepare dinner. I always like the Memories. There's be salmon for dinner. 

See you later. 

NPA Open Gardens

 We finally got around to visiting some Northwest Perennial Alliance Open Gardens on Sunday. We saw four gardens in the Burien to West Seattle area. Rather than share all the photos, I'm just going to post an assortment of pretty pictures I took in these gardens. 

The Garden of Peter and Cathy Barton, Gregory Heights

The Garden of Janyce and Kent Horton, Shorewood

Dave Peterson, West Seattle

Robin Mers, West Seattle

Most of these were hillside gardens, many with steps without hand rails. I relied on Tom for support and my legs got a workout, climbing and steadying myself to maintain my balance. I paid for it the next day, but it was worth it.