Thursday 31 July 2014

Good-Bye to July





The week has flown by and so has this month!  It continues to be hot here and I have been taking things easy. Mornings are the time to get things done because by afternoon the house is more than warm and outside is almost unbearable. 
  The campers came home today and it sounds like they had a great time. I asked the little man what his favourite part was and he said it was walking across the river. The water must have been so cold and my DH said the water came as high as the little guy's chest at places but he walked across that river!! Of course, he was holding his grandad's hand otherwise he would never have been allowed to try.
   I know the Susan Wheeler picture is more fallish than summery but I thought it perfect for August. What do you think?  I love Susan Wheeler's illustrations and they make me think of the Brambly Hedge books ( Jill Barklem).  I like them almost as much.
  
I hope you have an enjoyable weekend !        Granny Marigold

Tuesday 29 July 2014

Teddy Bears

As you know ( if you've been following me for any amount of time) I have a soft spot for Teddy Bears. At the thrift store this morning my DIL spied this one that she thought I'd like and she was right. It was the only thing I found but I left happy. Isn't she adorable?


                 The front of her. I like the brown polka dots on pink of her dress!


                  The back view. Incidentally, I think that is a cat she's holding.



 Here she is making friends with a couple of bears that have been around for a few years.





             These little guys didn't want to be left out.


And then there's the mob on the wardrobe looking at me as I come and go, always friendly because that's how Teddy Bears just are. 
  ( This  display changes with the seasons.)  Hope you are having an awesome week.
                                     Granny Marigold



Saturday 26 July 2014

A Winter's Worth of Reading


Garage sales this morning yielded such treasure... free books. Not just any old books but really good reading. My stack is delightfully tall and I know that come the dark days of winter I'll have lots to keep me occupied. Here are some pics of some of my treasure trove. I'm especially excited to have the book with the contrasting views of C.S.Lewis and Sigmund Freud.




                Obviously some of the books were for my little grandson.


These are for my collection of Jan Brett books!   One of my sisters and I collect children's books in general and Jan Brett in particular!



I have no idea about this author but will give her a try.  Also in this picture are four as new tea towels that cost a dollar for all.  I do love a bargain.


I'm off to make  supper now. Hope your weekend is going along smoothly!!   Granny M.

Thursday 24 July 2014

Rain

At last we had rain. Drenching rain which caught me on my walk! That was yesterday morning and it continued to rain until this morning so the ground is very wet and my poor Hydrangeas are hanging their huge mopheads towards the ground. I hope they will recover as they dry off.  Our temperatures are forecast to be near 30 again come the weekend so they will definitely dry off.



While I was outside poking around and seeing how much damage the rain had done I discovered this lovely Lily hidden beneath a Rose bush. Since it was so hidden I thought I'd cut it and bring it inside so we could enjoy its beauty. 
 

Now I'm off to the kitchen where I plan on making some thing delicious with the luscious cherries I bought on Tuesday. I think the cherries this year have been better than years past and I'm going to buy more tomorrow. The season isn't that long so we have to enjoy them as much as we can. 
    Are you enjoying the fresh fruit that is so abundant right now?

           Granny Marigold

Sunday 20 July 2014

A Quiet Sunday


The weather has cooled down quite a bit and we might even get some rain... which we really need. Everything is so dry and farther north wildfires are raging. A good downpour sure would help.  It's been a quiet week in more ways than one. Tonight our DIL and the two littles return from a 10 day trip to see her dad and stepmom.  The house has seemed unnaturally dull but that will change once they are back.
Yesterday, there were  very few garage sales and not one thing did I find that appealed to me. I may have to get my "fix" by visiting a few thrift stores in the week.
 I like to post at least a few pictures in each post so I will show you some tea cup pics I took yesterday.  I must point out that the white Hydrangea tinged with blue is not some exotic new kind. I wanted to see how it would look if I spray painted the white with blue ever so lightly but I didn't get the effect I was looking for,   smile







As you can see the Hydrangeas are already beginning to dry a bit. I just can't give them as much water as they need.  I will be bringing in some of the pink ones to dry because I'm planning ahead for Christmas ( can you believe it? in July?)  For many years I've had an all-white Christmas tree but this year I'd like to include some pink. And I thought the dried Hydrangeas might work. 
              Granny Marigold

Friday 18 July 2014

Pansies

I can't think of anything special to blog about today so I went around my house and took pics of anything with pansies on it. Hope you enjoy them.












  Why not leave a comment to show you were here?

              Granny Marigold


Thursday 17 July 2014

Mrs. Tiggy Winkle


I can't find my Beatrix Potter books but I'm quite sure it was Mrs. Tiggy Winkle who was " an excellent clear starcher". Anyway, I thought of Mrs. TW as I washed and starched my pillow shams and covers. I boil up my starch in my biggest saucepan then take it and my washed linen outside. Wearing rubber gloves ( the water is HOT and I am too impatient to wait for it to cool a bit) and hang everything on the line. Hours later I bring  it in and iron away. This is now done for a year at least. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment and I can feel entitled to doing nothing else all afternoon.






           Do you bother starching anything any more?    

                      Granny M.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

The Tale of a Quilt

A few weeks ago at a garage sale I spotted this black and white quilt. You know how crazy I am about quilts and this one was so different with the black fabric mainly denim and all the fancy stuff making it pretty.  It was not very big, 41 inches square to be exact.  The price was ten dollars and I couldn't justify buying it so I left it there ( reluctantly).  Imagine my surprise when yesterday I dropped in at one of my favourite thrift stores and saw the quilt hanging there with a price tag of $2.50 !!  Guess no one wanted it so at the end of the g.s. the leftovers went to the thrift store.  You can imagine I grabbed it up and stuck it in my basket so fast.   It's perfect for the bench on the porch where I already had a black throw and pillows.  I've taken a couple of pics of the detail so you can see why I love it.




Are you having a good week?  I hope it is cooler where you are because it sure is hot here. I was out early with my DH getting some of that compost spread. By ten o'clock it was just too hot to be out in the sunshine. Oh well, guess this is what summer is all about. I do hope we get some rain soon though because I'm only watering select plants and the others are starting to look stressed.

                                                                                                          GRANNY MARIGOLD

Monday 14 July 2014

Banana Loaf

I was going to name this post 'What I did today'  or maybe 'This and That'  but I thought those would sound too boring . Banana Loaf is much likelier to attract someone. I did have bananas going soft and speckled and I did turn them into Banana Loaf, which we call Banana Bread around here.  Considering the heat you might wonder why I would use the oven but I find it doesn't make that much difference at the end of the day.  This way we have something delicious to munch on and while the oven is on I popped a chicken and rice casserole in for my men folk. Not being a carnivore myself I will have soup. Not just any soup. Soup made from the very first green beans from the garden. I had sowed Summer Savoury but none of that came up. Instead I have volunteers amid my flowers. I'm so glad they were not hoed out as weeds because I consider Summer Savoury essential to green bean soup.





One more thing that we did today was to pick up a load of mushroom compost  which I hope to spread around my perennials over the next few days. In the cool of the mornings I can do that. I always mean to do it early in Spring but the constant rain makes the compost too lumpy so I'm doing it now when its crumbly and dry.  After an hour or so of hauling that to the back yard I will feel quite alright about putting my feet up and relaxing with a nice glass of ice tea and a book.


                                                      GRANNY MARIGOLD

Sunday 13 July 2014

Super Moon

I wonder if you went out last evening to look at the "Super Moon"?  I love looking at the moon any time but especially when it's full. Not that last night's moon looked any bigger to me but nevertheless, I looked. In fact I was out there in my housecoat, all ready for bed,  with my next-door neighbour
 ( the strange one) staring at me as if I was the strange one. I think he was out there to look at the moon too but obviously found the sight of me too distracting. LOL  Anyway, I went in and got my DH to come out on the street  with me  because that was the only way I could get a good look at the moon.  Obviously I did NOT take the pictures below .I haven't figured out the night-time setting on my camera yet so these will do.




                                     GRANNY MARIGOLD