Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Joys of August







I have decided to count count the many joys of having and endless winter-summer.
  1. A greatly reduced power bill when your air conditioner has gone only for less than one hour all summer.
  2. A much lowered water bill when you do not have to keep everything well moistened.
  3. An early appreciation of the autumn colors when the trees are already changing into their gorgeous yellows and reds.
  4. A full on turkey dinner with all of the trimmings so you can heat up the kitchen.  Trust me...it smells and tastes wonderful in August!!


    5. A garden that is so slow in coming around that we will still be enjoying tomatoes in December.



    6.  Weather reporters having lots of statistics to share with us and endless reports on our record cool summer. 

Can you tell how happy I am that we are having such a wonderful summer this year?  Can you sense my happy face?????  I am rejoicing because we do have a forecast of highs in the low 70s for the next seven days.  We haven't seen a 70 in the forecast for weeks now.

 Certain things say summer to me and one of them is sunflowers.    DH always plants a row of sunflowers for me to pick and bring in for bouquets during the summertime.  Don't they just look happy? 



They are always wonderful to have inside the house as well.




We are really enjoying the orioles this year.  We have had so many of them and between them and the hummingbirds we are going through five pounds of sugar a week.  They are at the feeders from sunrise to sunset.  Next to one of the feeders we have a wind sculpture.  It is hysterical to see the orioles sit on it as it goes around and around.  I wonder if they ever get dizzy.


The colorful male.


Two females.

Several of the males have now left for their long journey South and the females will be following shortly.  We will miss them when they are gone.   Some mornings I will have more than a dozen hummers at each feeder as well.




We took some more of the grands to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  I enjoyed it as much this time as last - maybe even more.  I apparently missed a few of the good lines last time.





Sewing this week has been one of those frustrating events.  I would love to sit and sew for hours at a time, but it seems this week was more sewing in bits and pieces.  It is just a good thing that I have a room designated to sewing so that I don't have to clean it up each time I sew.  I finally tackled the large mending stack and finished that off.  As well I managed to get the last block finished on my Jelly Roll Quilt Along.  After putting all the blocks together I decided to change a few of the blocks. 



I absolutely love this quilt top now.  The colors are so perfect for our home and will be a welcomed covering for the cold bones.




I have also been working on my seemingly endless pile of blocks for this months Schnibble quilt.




Then there is also this little pile of pinks for the newest granddaughter. 




Blogger is not allowing me to center some of my pictures on this post so I apologize for your eye having to wander here and there.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers regarding my cousin.  They seem to have come to the conclusion that it was a heart attack.  It is a shame and such a shock that an athletic young man should be struck down like that at forty four years of age.

36 comments:

  1. Hi Mary......my, that turkey looks wonderful! I'd love to do one, but it would heat up the house something terrible! We are having record-breaking heat that seems endless. The A/C is running 24/7 and I do hate to see the bill. Outdoor activities would be more enjoyable if it was a bit cooler. Looking forward to fall and winter. If I could "can" the heat, I'd send you some.

    Hugs, Karen

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  2. Summer here was a 2 week spell of heat and so much rain the rest of the time. Not good. I think we will be eating tomatoes in December too....they are still green and small at the moment! No time for sewing though, but I am crocheting, so that is something. Wool keeps me warm while I am doing the crocheting too! Ridiculous for summer. Sipposed summer. Hah. The leaves are turning here too. But there have been blessings with the cooler weather, of course, like the water bill!

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  3. I cant even imagine cooking a turkey in this heat!!! and I have tomatoes coming out my ears....
    I loved all the toy story's! they are great movies and I love your gang with the glasses....

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  4. Wish I was having 70's now:(
    Pretty blocks & quilt!

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  5. We're had such a hot summer this year, I've had the AC on most of the summer! Our electric bills are through the roof! Love your JR quilt!! :0)

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  6. I have two A/C units..one for up and one for downstairs. They are getting a work out this summer as we've had record breaking 45+ days of heat in the 90's

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  7. Enjoy the rest of your beautiful summer Mary and look forward to the fall. I love fall best with that gorgeous yellow, gold and green - Hugs Nat

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  8. Turkey looks yummy! We have been enjoying our garden this summer to, but the weather has been very hot and our air conditioners has been run quite frequently. Last summer it was only used a few times. Your quilt is beautiful.

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  9. The weather is certainly backwards. We have hardly had a break from the a/c running. Your turkey looks wonderful...had my mouth watering. And I loved seeing your flowers, your birds, your quilt blocks AND your grandkids!!!

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  10. I was in So. CA in June and it was HOT! Not hot like here in Florida, where we would expire without a/c. In fact, I'm scared to see our power bill for this month!

    Your quilt is gorgeous. I'm envious of all you talented people, but not enough to learn to do anything! :)

    Your grands are sweet!

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  11. Yum that turkey looks good! :-) We don't have AC in this house and have been having a few hot days~ nights are ugly. I can't wait until we've moved and I can sew and make a mess! LOL :-)

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  12. What a good list of thankfulness, even though I know you were a bit sarcastic - I want to cook a turkey, but it'll have to wait. Though it has been delightfully pre-autumnish this last two days. I love it! I can't believe you've had such a cold summer - I don't know where in California you are in relation to LA and SF.

    It seems that our round robin of memories has faded away, huh??

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  13. My goodness you have been busy. MMM I can smell your turkey here, YUM!! I love your jelly roll quilt, it turned out wonderful! Our summer here has been so hot, I so wish I could turn the AC off but somehow my family would not like that!

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  14. I just love all your birds Mary. We also get a lot here but different ones to you. Just had a Willy Wagtail visit on the verhandah.
    You are doing well with all your projects.Your Jelly Roll one is lovely.
    I really enjoyed Story # as well.

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  15. You may not be having a hot summer but you are certainly having a busy time! Our hot weather has been and gone too..not sure if it is coming back! Lovely photo's of sunflowers and birds, thankyou!

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  16. Your quilt looks absolutely amazing!! Sounds like you have been flat out! Good stuff that it's been fun too! I was salivating looking at your scrumptious Turkey. I love sunflowers too. How can you not be happy when you see them:)

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  17. Nice flowers, and birds and offcourse your Grandchildren with the 3d spectacles.
    Greetings Dorine

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  18. Wonderful post! Love it all! thanks for sharing!

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  19. My mouth is watering looking at that turkey! I guess we got your hot weather and you got our cooler weather this year! Last year our summer was more like yours is this year. Go figure!

    Oh the quilt came out so wonderful!!!!! It is just beautiful, I am so glad you like the colors! How I agonized on which ones to get for you! ha!

    So sorry to hear about your cousin! Also about your friend Diane's husband. I went over to her site and just felt so deeply saddened for her. We just had a memorial service for my cousin on Saturday, she was in her early 50's and had cancer. So many sad things.

    Hey that's a cute bunch of grands that you took to Toy Story again!!!! We have had Mr. D here today and he is going to spend the night. It was his turn as Miss T stayed over one night last week. They DO keep score!

    I can't get over all of the hummers that you have!!!!!!!! I put a feeder up at the lake and finally saw one this weekend. DIL's Mom has tons of them at her place, I'm jealous! ha!

    We're taking the kiddos on a trip this weekend if all goes well. R's brother is in the hospital with some kind of obstruction that they are trying to deal with without surgery so we are kind of waiting to see how he is going to be by the weekend. Started feeling ill at the lake on Sunday and they took him into the ER. Could be adhesions from a surgery he had as a youngster.

    Had a big horse scare last week. They got into the grain bin that I neglected to close. Had to give them all shots of banemine and hope for the best that they didn't get laminitis. It was AWFUL, I was a mess and felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest!!!! All seems to be well and no one foundered for which I am so thankful!

    Got to get Mr. D in bed, it's way past his bedtime! How schedules change when at Grammies house! ha!

    Take care dear friend and hugs to you and E!!! xoxox

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  24. Wow! Beautiful post! I love the turkey dinner :o) What fun!

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  25. The turkey looks wonderful! I can almost smell it!

    Cutest Grandkids!
    This is a wonderful post!

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  26. Came here from Mrs Moen´s and just loved you blog. Good taste is everything!

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  27. What a fantastic outlook! We're experiencing a cooler summer as well, and I must admit that I'm enjoying it. I haven't had to water the yard at all this season and everything is green and growing. Can't complain about that!

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  28. Isn't bird watching so fun. The turkey sounds delicious. Love your quilt! So sorry to hear about your cousin. Send prayers of love and peace your way.

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  29. Great pictures.. I'm trying to catch up on everyone.. Bunches of hugs.

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  30. Looks like you've been having a great summer. Can't believe it's winding down. Take care.

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  31. It looks like you are having a wonderful summer nad appreciating it. What lovely blocks you made!
    Micki

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  32. Cute Mary! I so relate to your post. I just cooked a turkey and since it's 105 outside again, I think I'm losing my mind. But we needed a lot of meat for our church dinner. So I slow cooked it over night. It didn't seem to heat up the house too bad. Our a/c is on all the time.

    Praying for a break! I'm sewing like that too..if at all!

    Thanks for dropping by. :o)
    Donna

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  33. what a beautiful sampler...beautiful.

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  34. Love the grandkids in sunglasses photo. I would be a puddle of mush without a/c. Ohio is quite humid. I love Fall and turkey dinners are the best.

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  35. Hi Mary, I just wanted to let you know that I had a few minutes and changed out your profile picture for the one with your daughter and granddaughter. It was so sweet!

    Donna

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  36. Weather topsy turvy everywhere it seems. After our extrememly hot spell it has been wet with torrential rain ever since with temps in low 60's. Set to be upper 60's with some sun later in the week. Suddenly feels very much like Autumn.Feel I missed the summer!
    Good seeing the different birds in different places.

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