A Stranger's Yard

We happened to see this house and yard while garage sale-ing . I have no idea who these people are but I am quite fascinated by what they've done.
The front of the house faces to the left. This is the side yard. This is, in fact, a false "front". You can see that there are plants right up to the fake garage door. Isn't this so creative and lovely? I hope you enjoy it as much as I did ( and do. )

How I would love to do something like this but I can only dream.  Would this be something you would like?


Granny Marigold

Couldn't resist

It has been very hot and by the afternoon DH and I just don't feel like working. Yesterday we went instead to the thrift store ( nice A/C)  where I browsed. Found a copy of Still Alice by Lisa Genova, a book I've been wanting to own but was not willing to pay a lot for.  THEN I spied this tea set and I stood there and had a nice talk with myself about how I really did NOT need any more dishes. Started to wheel my cart away but just couldn't do it. So here it is on my sideboard. It's called The Vintage Garden and it's by Princess House.  That tea pot holds 64 oz , by far the largest one I own.

I also got this adorably cuddly sheep. It has a velcro opening on its tummy with a clay pack that can be removed and either heated in the microwave or frozen, depending which you prefer. I just love its softness and its suede face and legs. It is in perfect condition and has the word SAJE on the bottom of one foot.

Because of the heat my flowers are not doing as well as they would if only we'd get a good rain. I brought  these Casa Blanca Lilies  indoors where I can appreciate their beauty from close up.

I did get a few more treasures but will leave those for another day.  Stay cool and enjoy August!!

Thanks for visiting,


          Granny Marigold

Another Sunday Walk

On Sunday we went to check out McDonald Park which is not far from us but where we seldom go. Don't know why not because walking there is great and we literally met not another soul as we walked.  This park is British Columbia's only designated dark sky park and is officially free of light pollution for  clear-sighted gazing at the stars and this coming week will have many coming to watch the Perseid Meteorite Showers which are predicted to be super this year.  I believe Wednesday to Friday nights are to be the best and we can only hope for a cloudless sky.

There were cars in the parking area but they might have been down by the water fishing.

I don't know what these wild flowers are. Maybe Queen Anne's Lace?  The seed heads are very strange, I thought. Big and bushy. My wild flower ID book is no help because they don't show the seed head. I'll bet Karen will know what these are.

Has your week gotten off to a good start?  Do you enjoy watching the sky?  I've been known to sit out on the swing in the middle of the night just to see their beauty. Was it Anne Sullivan who said that if the stars were only visible once a year we'd be a lot more impressed by them?


Star-Struck Granny Marigold

Yellow

At this time of the year yellow seems to be the predominant colour. There's corn of course. At least once a summer we like to make a meal of just corn-on-the-cob and that is exactly what we did today.  How do you cook your corn?  We microwave ours one cob at a time for 4 to 5 minutes, depending on the size of the cob. After cooking we cut  the end off the cob right through the husk and pull the end off. Ideally it brings all the corn silk with it.  This method would be too long if you were cooking for a family, of course, but works well for the two of us.

I neglected to take any photos so these are all off the internet. Pretty well what I would have taken but these are probably clearer.

Brown-eyed Susans are at their best now.  Mine have self-sown a lot and will need some thinning out next Spring.

Gold Finches have been coming to the bird bath lately.  Because of the dryness we've also had a Nuthatch coming. He's not yellow but deserves a mention because we don't see him often.

The hot weather has made me very lazy and uninspired when it comes to blogging. Thanks for coming by faithfully. I hope to do a better post next time!

Granny Marigold

Sunday Walk

It was cloudy this morning and cooler than it has been for a while. We took advantage of the coolness to walk in an area that has no shade and we hadn't visited for some weeks.

As you can see it's a wetlands park. Lots of ducks and geese on the water and this unusual heron which I had to look up when we got home. It is a Green-Backed Heron, the first time I've seen one.

Kingfishers are not easy to photograph. They take off, scolding as they fly, as soon as you stop to look at them. This one stayed just long enough for me to get a pic.

This female Wood Duck had a number of cute babies. She wasn't happy about us watching her but couldn't fly off and leave her little ones so we didn't look for long.

I'm glad we were able to get that walk in before the clouds drifted away and the afternoon sun brought the temperature back up to what we've been having.  There is a chance of rain this week and we could use it. Here's hoping.

Thanks for visiting.

Granny Marigold

Books

Now, is that not the most unimaginative title of a post ever?
Maybe the heat has dulled my brain. It is so hot that I realized that the water in  the concrete birdbath was HOT. No birds would drink it so I put cool water in and put an ice pack into the water to keep it that way.

Made a short trip to the thrift store to take boxes of stuff  then had a quick look at the books. I'm so glad I did. I am enthralled by this book of pencil sketches and water colour pictures of wild flowers. I'll show just a couple of the lovely pages here.

In the bargain section I picked up this one. I tried to read a Mitford book some years ago and just couldn't get into it. So many of you love them so I'll give it another chance 

Have a great weekend and keep cool!


Granny Marigold

Thrifty treasures and a cosy porch

I visited the thrift store this morning and had a leisurely browse. Didn't find much but that's okay. It was fun.  I did find these cute little bowls. They were .25 each. I also found a Harry Potter mug for my  GD who is a big fan.

I came home with a nice stack of cooking magazines to look through while doing my porch sitting. This is my swing where I spend my free time reading and sipping tea.
This is the 'wrong' side of my old quilt. There seemed to be a lot of sunshine coming through the skylight and I didn't want the right side to fade.   I guess an antique quilt should be protected from the sun completely but I'm determined to actually use my lovely things. If they fade or get broken then that's  okay. At least I'll have the pleasure of seeing them used.

At the other end of the porch is this spot where my DH and I eat our meals in the summer. Unless we're all eating together, then we need the big table inside.  I'm looking for a different round tablecloth for this glass topped table. I'm thinking something blue and yellow would be lovely.

On Saturday we were at a garage sale and I was looking at this slightly faded old box with magnetic closure. The woman whose gs it was said I could have it. She didn't want anything for it because it smelled of lavender  and she was allergic. She just wanted  to give it to someone.  Now I will figure out what to keep in it.

 I know I said I would not buy any more notebooks but I couldn't resist this cute one. I think by now I qualify as a hoarder of notebooks. It was from the same gs as the free box.

I hope you had a pleasant Tuesday. I know I did.

I always love to read your comments.

Granny Marigold