Saturday Snapshot -- Summer Garden

Join West Metro Mommy for this weekly meme of photos people have taken and share on their blogs.

This week, we spent some time digging up two strips of grass in front of our stone wall and planting it with flowers.
I mostly considered this an unimportant job because I thought the grassy area was fine, but apparently it always bugged my husband. And truthfully, I didn't do very much.
I did go to the store to buy plants, manure and mulch, which subsequently spilled in my car and I'll need to vacuum it now.
After one side was planted, I realized we didn't buy enough flowers, so I went back to the store for more and spent one steamy afternoon digging holes to add the extra flowers. But my eldest son discovered me in the act and came to help.

He also dug up the grass on the other side so my husband could plant, manure and mulch there. So mostly, I'm a bystander in this project.
Even though I didn't think it was necessary, it does look nice.

The morning glories come back up each year around our porch. Usually I take a picture to show how they cover the railings, but I wanted you to see one up close. They look silky and velvety.

And each year, I buy a flat of zinnias to plant. I don't know why sometimes they look like this. One or two simple stems and flowers.

And other times, they outdo themselves, like these.

Hope your summer and your gardens are doing well too.
Hope you'll also visit French Village Diaries today where she posted a review of Paris Runaway, my latest novel. There's a giveaway too, so be sure to enter.

Peaceful

Shhh.
Don't tell anyone, but I have a day to myself.
I have work to do, but I don't have to go to work.
I might spend the day writing or reading books or swinging in the hammock as the sunny day hovers around 75 degrees today.
The kids in the neighborhood started school today. They start early so the high schoolers can finish the semester at Christmas.

My guys have headed out to go white-water rafting. It was an effort for them to get out the door. Husband urging them to get out of bed, gathering sleeping bags, the right shoes, light-weight jackets for the rafting trip. A coffee run.
One last trip to the store for a can of gas to heat the cookstove. And finally.
The car pulled away.

The boys let our house cat roam free as they prepared for the trip, so I had to track him down before the car pulled away. I held him and stood by the garage. When the car started to move, he dug his claws into my collar bones. Just a reminder of why he isn't an outdoor cat. He's petrified by cars.
As they pulled away, I pushed the button to close the garage door. The cat's claws dug into my other collar bone.
Now, the house is serene, plus fairly clean. So I can relax and do nothing or everything.
I know what you all are thinking: after next week, when my boys have gone to college, I'll be longing for the noise and the bustle.
Maybe. But it might take a few weeks before I'm anxious for those boys who stay up late, sleep in late, use three towels a day, eat constantly, to return home.

Balloon Flowers

My favorite flowers are blooming right now. And that right now means both that they are currently blooming and they are currently my favorite, until the next ones bloom.

Purple balloon flower. They are gloriously star shaped, but mostly I love how they open, like one of those paper secret keepers that a middle-school girl folds. Then it pops open to reveal the five silken petals.

Do you have a favorite flower blooming in your garden this time of year?

Nature in the City

Sitting on my front porch this afternoon grading papers, I took great joy watching a silly bird trying to build a nest in three different places. From looking it up, I would guess that it's a Carolina Wren. But it could be any kind of wren. It has a loud, musical call and did not seem to mind flitting closer and closer to me.

We have two Black-Eyed Susan hanging plants on the front porch and Earl recently attached a bird house to a nearby tree.

This little bird, with a sharp beak and long tail, flew into both plants carrying sticks and leaves. He also stuck his head into the bird house and looked all around before discarding that idea. Luckily, for the black-capped chickadee, who actually went in the birdhouse to see if he could fit. He's a little chubbier.
The weather, at 81 degrees, is perfect and in the garden along the front of the house below me, I could see peeks of pink zinnias and purple asters along with a strand of purple delphinium.

The colors and the birds helped make the afternoon of grading papers much more pleasant.

Later in the day, the cat realizes birds are building a nest on his front porch. He is quite perturbed.

Busy End of Summer

I've fallen off the blogging wagon here toward the end of summer. Getting kids ready to go back to college, preparing four new classes for the fall, and sheer laziness have overtaken me.
I spent all day Saturday revising an online class.
Today, I'm creating a new online class. No rush. The semester doesn't start until Wednesday!
I always debate the teaching banner I use at this time of year now that the semester is 16 weeks long. Do I use one for winter or do I use one that fits the warm weather we have now.

Maybe I need to create one for the autumn, or ask the teaching tech support team to do it.

I have two more weeks of a class that is driving me crazy. It is a developmental English class, which means the students aren't quite ready for college English. This class is three different levels all in one. Some of the students are pretty good at writing and reading, while others can't really write a complete sentence. I know I didn't make the situation, but I feel like I've been fairly incompetent at the whole thing. Three levels in one class do not work -- at least for me.

Earl and me posing with Grace
after her last performance of Emma. 

Grace has been sick for about three weeks, since she performed in Emma. We kept thinking she had allergies and urged her to take a daily allergy medicine. Finally this week, she went to the doctor and learned she had bronchitis.
Ooops. Bad parenting moment.
She leaves on Wednesday for college, but we don't have to drive 10 hours to get there since she is going to school closer to home this year. I'm excited for her and she's a little nervous about joining a new environment.

I hardly have any photos of Spencer.
Here he is waiting for the doctor this week.

Spencer has a few more weeks yet. Earl will drive him to Florida at the end of the month, still we've been doing the necessary doctor appointments, back to school shopping, book purchasing for him too.
Last Sunday we got as close as we'll get to a vacation this summer with a drive down to my cousin's house in Kentucky. We grilled out and hung by the pool enjoying their company.

My boys enjoying the pool before they went hiking into the woods.

So as my family and I prepare for school or moving to far away dorms, I wanted to leave you with this shot of Grace. I think it's an analogy for the way I feel at the end of a summer.

Grace, in the midst of her summer of working plus performing in two plays,
collapses on the grass in hope the cat will join her. 

Hope the end of your summer goes smoothly.

A Year of Finals

My youngest son is a rising senior in high school. That means, in August he'll be a senior. So I'm sure my year will be filled with final times. A final first day of school. A final homecoming dance. A final spring break.
But the finals already began today.
I went to Tucker's final outdoor swim meet, league championships, today. He didn't want to swim in the summer league this year, so I'm sure I won't be able to convince him to swim next year.
These championship swim days are always unbearably hot and start very early. They had to be at the pool by 7:15. Luckily, the coach volunteered to take Tucker and his best friend Josh. I didn't have to be there until 9 and I went with a mocha for me and a frappucino for Tucker, trying to jolly him into a good mood.
Tucker and his team were lined up already to swim. They did well, especially considering that Tucker only went to one practice this summer.

That's Tucker in the center and his bestie Josh on the right. 

I took this picture at the end of the lane, but it looks very bizarre because his foot is so far out of the water.

They decided to stick their goggles to their faces like when they were little kids. 

Here they are on the blocks getting ready to swim the 50 freestyle. (Tucker won but it was close.)

Goodbye summer swim team.
Goodbye sitting in the sun and sweating.
Goodbye volunteering to time at swim meets.
This is just the first of many finals in the year to come.

Saturday Snapshot -- Summer

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

I don't know about you guys, but I really need some summer pictures about now. Here's one from the Scioto Mile. That's a new area along the Scioto River in Downtown Columbus.

I'm trying to remember how unbearably hot I was that day when we rode our bikes down and walked along the riverfront.
And here's one of the flower arrays along the Scioto Mile.

Aaah. Summer will be here soon.

Now It's Summer

As if the weather could see the calendar page ready to turn, today became hot and muggy. I stood in the garden and breathed in that earthy smell, shrugging off the bugs that landed on my bare arms and feeling the air thick around me.
July has been almost cool. We haven't had the air conditioning on at all. I think the French would call it "fresh." Our skinny French girl has spent a lot of time under the throw blanket.
I walked home from the garden with a bag full of tomatoes and two red peppers that are candy apple red. I'd already told the boys that I wasn't cooking this week. What I meant was, I wasn't cooking for them. I made some risotto with apricots and white onions for myself. I had a side salad of fresh tomatoes with vinaigrette, and for dessert, a peach cobbler.
Seeing the end of my five-week classes gives me a chance to breathe. I feel taller, as if a weight has risen from my shoulders. I sat and read a book tonight after I ate. I still have lots of papers to grade and a class to plan for tomorrow and the next day, but the end is in sight. I might have a life again someday soon.