Summer!

I love summers like this. It's been hot, but it's a dry heat where a quick splash in the sprinkler cools everyone right off. A little time in the pool goes from refreshing to chilly (and turns Oliver into a shivering popsicle). Once the sun starts to go down the evenings are breezy and cool. There's been so much sunshine and blue sky.

I didn't realize how quiet evenings in July were until we reached August. Every afternoon and evening there's an outdoor serenade from all the crickets. It's lovely. I never realized how much I missed it until it was back.

The butterfly bush in the mailbox garden is attracting so many butterflies! Sometimes I see 4 or 5 swallowtail butterflies fluttering around it.

We finally had some rain the past couple days, after almost a month of solid drought. Not only did we finally get a break from watering and moving the sprinkler around constantly, we also had a huge rainbow over our house, it was so beautiful.

I'm like a 5 year old girl when it comes to rainbows, they make me giddy with excitement. IT'S A RAINBOW! A REAL RAINBOW! OVER OUR HOUSE! It's not science, IT'S MAGIC!

I know all I've been doing all summer is making excuses for not blogging much. We've been busy, just not with a lot of house stuff. Even though I'm done with traveling, the days are just flying by. Work, freelance, trips to the pool, the beach, family and friends... it's been a lot of fun, but it definitely doesn't make for a lot of good blog content. To be honest most of the time I can't even keep the house clean these days. Since we finished the porch, the only thing I've really done is clean up the basement (in between trips outside to move the sprinkler of course because everything is so dry!).

Believe it or not, this is actually pretty good shape now - some tubs, toys and things to go back into the crawl space, the rest of the mess is tools and electrical stuff. One of these days we're hoping to a break from yard work so Mike can finish the outlets down there. Then we'll get the last of this put away, but for now we can safely walk down there again without stubbing our toes or knocking a pile of something over.

On the plus side, the garden has finally kicked into high gear. It doesn't even fit in my big colander.

A rainbow of heirloom tomatoes (pink, red, orange, yellow green, purple!), cucumbers, peppers, blackberries and musk melons (which taste like cantaloupe). Not shown is the giant pile of green beans that came in next.

We've also had fresh flowers in the house from the garden at all times. When one bouquet wilts I just go outside and pick more.

We haven't forgotten about the driveway or garage either...  I keep checking the weather and my calendar, it's a challenge to find a day where it's not too hot, no chance of thunderstorms and I don't have a hundred meetings and to-dos. It just needs to happen before Labor Day right?