If I Could Bottle Today

If I could capture today and put it in a bottle to release... It's absolutely beautiful. Windy and cool, no humidity, the beauty of the clouds. The earth and plants know what season it is; that it's almost time to sleep but for only a while. 

It's the small things such as the beauty of clouds that make me smile.

Parade of pansies. One of my favorite flowers. It seemed to have been a difficult growing season for them. There were lots of varieties but not as many as I've seen in previous years. They had also suffered from  possibly the high temperatures during growth as they were leggy in both places I shopped.

Removing the impatiens and coleus was almost joyful. No more petals all over the sidewalk from impatiens and wilted foliage begging for water more than once a day.

I didn't buy many mums for outside this year because the blooms die so fast and then they're an eye sore.

I finally had the cement replaced on the sidewalk, It looks so much better. The downside was that my flower bed border was removed and of course I didn't know where  to replace each rock. It looks okay but water is leaking too much from between the rocks. Those are old rock and I probably couldn't find any like them but I'm going to see what small pieces I can find to fill in the gaps.

I had a beautiful patch of montauk daisies here before about 20 years ago. They took over. I didn't know much about plants and how to take care of them and prune them so they aren't so gangly and sprawling come fall.

I love the lavender but lets see if it returns.

I left the coleus in here. It's still so pretty and requires a little less water with the cooling temperatures.

There's a good article on Rodale's Organic Life web site about clouds.

This is the first year I've seen miniature ornamental cabbage and kale in big box stores and nurseries.

I hope you day has been beautiful.