Late August Garden Update, Projects and a Storm

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

In my last post, Suddenly You're Retired, Now WHAT?????, I spoke about Joe's Mental Adjustment to Retirement and also about how I was dealing with first being not able to work because of a Medical condition that required Surgery and now that I am retired, how am I Mentally Adjusting......

I invite you to share your feelings about how you adjusted to retirement or the loss of a job or maybe how you adjusted to being a Stay Home Mom and now have an Empty Nest ......

Click HERE to read the post and hopefully, leave a comment telling your story...

Today, we are going to go back out to my Cottage Garden.....

I want to share a few projects, how my Cottage Garden is doing in late August and a Storm.....

But first, I would like to Thank Katherine, over at Katherine's Corner, for choosing my post, Front Porch Update, from last week's Thursday Favorite Things Link Party!!

 Thanks again, Katherine!!

And thanks to Marilyn, over at Marilyn's Treats, for choosing my post, Fall Haul, from week's Thursday Favorite Things Link Party!!

 Thanks so much, Marilyn!!

Thanks to Kristie, over at Love My Little Cottage, for featuring the same post, Fall Haul, from last week's Little Cottage Link Party!!

 Thanks again, Kristie!!

And Thanks to Maria Elena, over at Our Home Away From Home, for featuring my post, Front Yard Update, from last week's Tuesday's At Our Home!!

 Thanks so much, Maria Elena!!

Please stop by and link up to these lovely parties!!!

 And I am thrilled to share that on face book , Country Sample Magazine has started Fan Boards featuring photos from readers and our Front Porch has been featured on the Country Sampler Fan Board Out Door Spaces!!!!!

 Yes, that is our Front Porch picture in the face book post!!!

Thanks so much for choosing to feature our front porch , Country Sampler!!

Do you have an old stepping stone whose colors have faded????

I forgot to take a picture of this old stepping stone before I started to freshen it up with some paint.....

You can see how faded it is and how almost all the color has disappeared......

In the picture above, I stated to paint the vines and leaves a dark green.......

And this is how it looks after I finished painting it and sprayed it with a sealer.....

I used some bright colors for the flowers.....

And bright yellow and orange for the butterfly.....

I am afraid that it will get "lost" in the garden.....

So I decided to place it under the table to add a pop of color......

 I think I now have to freshen up the other stepping stone....

I wanted to share how the flowers, mainly the impatiens, are doing out in the back yard.....

 Those are asters behind the Fairy Garden Tub which will bloom in September....

We have had a lot of rain this Summer but not constant rain every day like we had last year....

By this time last year, the impatiens were starting to rot from all the rain.....

I have to say that I am so pleased with how this fountain, turned bird bath, turned planter has filled in....

 You may remember it looked like this when first planted......

And now!!

 One of our projects this past weekend, was to cut back this Tree........

 The red leafed "Tree" which is actually a shrub that I shaped and grew into a tree.....

You can see that the growth is concentrated in one direction.....

It had been attacked for the past few years by caterpillars and just was not growing right and had plenty of dead branches so I thought if we cut the heck out of it, it will either grow back in the Spring or die and then we will have to cut it down......

It does let more Sun into the yard......

So we will see in the Spring what will happen.....

The sedum has bloomed as it usually does in late August.....

Again, the impatiens did extremely well this year.....

The wave petunias planted in the coal bucket on the table on the other hand, did not.......

Those are asters along the fence which will bloom with a deep purple flower in September....

On the Patio.....

This hanging pot is still looking pretty good....

I thought the begonias would do a bit better in the back yard this year.....

They did very well in the front which does get more shade....

Again, the impatiens were the Star this year in the Back Yard and Patio...

I will be doing one more Garden Update in September showing you the asters when they bloom and taking a final look at my Cottage Garden for this Season.......

Since I was recovering from my knee replacement surgery, I was not able to experiment much with flowers this year but I do intend to have a bit of fun experimenting next year....

While sitting on the front porch one evening , I took these pictures......

The Bumble Bees sure do love my Marigolds out front!!

I can see where the term "Busy Bee" came from!!

We had been having quite a few Thunderstorms roll through our area when we had high humidity and excessive heat last week........

I took these photos while sitting on the front porch, watching one of those storms come over the mountains across the Susquehanna River.......

You can see the rain coming down from the huge Shelf Cloud.....

Now the mountains have disappeared.....

I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lightening which was quite impressive!!

The lights have come on in parking lot of the Shopping Center next to our Townhouse development....

It is starting to rain here......

It is blowing so hard that the rain looks like snow!!!

And it has gotten very dark!!

It lasted about 10 minutes and then the skies clearer once again.......

We are so blessed that we have this amazing view from our front porch to not only watch gorgeous sunsets but interesting storms as well!!

I  want to wish my Mom a Happy 100th Birthday in Heaven today, August 27th!

 Her and my Dad were both born in 1919!

 I have been doing a bit of "Dabbling" so I hope you will stop by again when I share what I did with these Dollar Tree Fall Buys!!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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