First Day Home and Happy Father's Day

Good morning,

Happy Father's Day to My Honey!  He's my terrific guy and we will all do the best we can to make this day super special for him. Happy Father's Day to all the other Dads out there, too.  We will have family here for dinner to celebrate this important day.

Guess what I did when we got home from Miami?  Yep, you got it.  I went to the kitchen and made bread.  I didn't write this recipe down, but click here for my bread recipes if anyone hasn't seen them yet and is interested.

There are more bread recipes coming in the next few weeks.

I took a stroll around the garden to see how it fared for 47 days while we were gone.  I planted two of these planters with pinks and petunias before we left and put them on the front porch.  They are doing quite well all by themselves. 

Yeah for Mother Nature!

Our daughter and a friend did an excellent job of keeping the grass cut and the bushes trimmed, but the flower beds were on their own.  This is a seed pod ripening on the top of wild garlic that we used to call wild onions when we were kids.  I wouldn't have this pretty picture had I been home because I would have pulled this plant out of my garden long before it could have gone to seed.  I like this.  Very pretty.

Sadly, the sunflower and some of the other seeds I planted before I left were not protected against bugs and slugs.  Awhile back I published my solution to slugs that eat your garden.  Had I been home, I would have given those slugs a little slug fest beer party.  As far as the bugs are concerned, I usually chase those away with some hot sauce.  I bug a gallon restaurant size at Sams and mix 1 cup of sauce to 1 gallon of water, then spread it around my roses and other flowers.  It does a good non-poison job of keeping the buggies away.  That's OK, the bugs and slugs got away with it this year.  I have plenty of other pretty flowers.

The peaches are doing well.

And, my front garden Rose of Sharon is just gorgeous.  These came with the house 31 years ago.  I replanted this one when it was a little seedling about fifteen years ago from the back yard to the front.  I made a point of shaping it as it grew into a tree-like shape instead of a bush.  Ah, so nice. :)

Back to the back garden, the water lilies are coming along nicely after becoming dormant last Fall and dropping to the bottom of the pond for the winter.  That shiny leaf gave more of a reflection than I realized and flowers should appear soon.

The fishies look very happy. This is a self sustaining pond so no feeding is necessary.  Those fish grow fat on the bugs and plant life they find right there in the pond.

The "calico" fish to the bottom of the image has a story of his own.  He was a pet of the grand children's until the cat caught him for the third time and they decided he would have a better life in our pond.  That was several years ago.  The kids come to visit him often.  :)

Since I was looking in the pond, Erik had to come check out what I was seeing.  He is my pond helper, you know. 

And, the final image is of a classic day lily that also came with the house 31 years ago.  This one is in the back near the pond.  I moved some of these here from the front of the house about 20 years ago.

My work is cut out for me!  I have plenty of weeding to do and the bushes are growing out way too far over the little pond.  I am sure Erik will help me in the garden.

But, first, I have to make a super dinner for My Honey for Father's Day while he is rowing on his new rowing machine that he wanted and received for Father's Day.  :)

Happy Summer!

Very best,
Lois

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 Breeding Koi For Fun and Profit

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