From Fried Lawns to Thrift Store Finds

 "Lean forward into your life... catch the best bits and the finest wind. Just tip your feathers in flight a wee bit and see how dramatically that small lean can change your life." (Mary Anne Radmacher)

Hello, my lovely friends!

    Finally, our weather is starting to cool down over here. We’ve been so completely baked for what feels like forever, and honestly, I was starting to think the heat was just never going to let up. But the forecast for this next week is actually showing temps in the 80s, plus a few days of rain scattered in there. I’m crossing every finger that it helps save the yard because it’s been suffering so badly with the strict two-day watering limit and the relentless sun. Part of me is ready to just give up and cut the front yard down to the dirt because almost everything out there looks totally crispy anyway. It is so depressing to look out the window and just see brown, crunchy patches where actual green grass used to be, but I guess that’s just the price we pay for surviving another brutal summer season together.

I must not have been too concerned earlier this week because I planted some hardy lettuce and herbs in the other pots in the container garden. Hopefully, the rain we are supposed to get will really help them get going and take root properly. I managed to harvest a couple of cherry tomatoes yesterday, and they were honestly so sweet and delicious. I hope I get a few more before the sun completely loses its power for the year. I’m pretty sure the lettuce and herbs will grow just fine, mostly because I know they usually do so much better in cooler weather anyway. There is something just so cozy about potting up new little greens when the air finally starts to change and lose that horrible, heavy humidity.

I think we all reach a point in late summer where we just want to throw in the towel and surrender the yard to the elements. You spend months hauling hoses around, praying for clouds, and watching your electricity bill skyrocket, only to end up with a garden that looks like a bag of potato chips. But then a single cool breeze rolls through the porch screen, or you find one perfect, bright red tomato hiding under a fried leaf, and suddenly you remember why you bother doing it every year. It’s the little reset button we all need after months of feeling like we are melting every time we step outside the front door.

Now I am just looking forward to throwing open the windows, letting that crisp rain air drift through the house, and putting on a cozy sweater without immediately sweating through it. I hope you guys are finally getting a little relief from the heat wherever you are, too. Tell me what your yards are looking like right now, or if you’ve already given up and started dreaming about autumn like I have.

    It is officially official, you guys. Mike is a card-carrying Coloradan now. He had his driver’s license appointment yesterday and managed to breeze right through it without any of the usual DMV horror stories. Now all that’s left is getting his new license plates, but as far as the state is concerned, he’s one of us. To celebrate, he wanted to go thrifting, though I’m pretty sure I ended up having way more fun than he did. You know how it goes when you step into a thrift store just to look around and suddenly the universe decides to hand you gold.

First off, I stumbled across one of those classic vintage CorningWare dishes—the ones with the little vegetables painted on the side. My mom actually has a set of three of them, but she didn’t have this specific size. Plus, miracle of miracles, it actually had the matching glass lid intact. There was no way I was leaving that on the shelf, so into the cart it went.

Then came the real holy grail of the day. My mom has been dying to watch Call the Midwife, but every time I checked Amazon, the box set was floating around a hundred bucks, which felt a little steep. Well, I found the first twelve seasons on DVD for thirty-three dollars. I grabbed it immediately and am officially hiding it away for Christmas. She is going to completely lose her mind when she opens it.

Thank you for sharing a moment of your day with me. I hope the hours ahead treat you kindly and bring you a sense of comfort. Warm wishes, and see you next time!