Front Porch and Yard Flower Late Summer Update

 

 

 

  Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

Today, I will be sharing my Late Summer Front Porch and Yard Update......

But first, I want to Thank Cecelia, over at My Thrift Store Addiction, for choosing my post, A Gentleman's Dresser, as one of her features from last week's Vintage Charm Link Party!!!

 

Thanks so much, Cecelia!!!

Please stop by and link up to this charming Vintage party!!!

 

Personal Notes......

 

I was ambitious this past weekend and decided to do a bit of cooking.....

 

I made my own Beef Stew.......

 

 

 

Click HERE if you are interested in the recipe......

 

And I also made my Lazy Lady Pierogie Casserole........ 

I could swear that I did a Blog post about this but I can not find it so here is my very simple recipe....

Instant Mashed Potatoes ( 3 packs), 8 oz. package of shredded Cheddar cheese, sauteed onions and butter ( 1 large onion diced). Mix potatoes, cheese and butter ( 2-3 sticks) and onions, salt and pepper to taste. Layer lasagna and potato mixture, saving some butter and onions to pour over the potato mixture before adding next layer of lasagna. Add as many layers as you like. Sprinkle top with some cheese and butter and onions and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered!! 

 

I use Idahoan Instant Buttery Potatoes and you can also use some of the other flavored ones....  

 

I made Take Home containers up of both dishes for our son Jim and DIL Danielle ....

 

Jim and Danielle, even though they have been working all through this Pandemic, have taken this time to adapt a healthier life style where they have cut back on portion size of their meals, cut back on Take Out foods and walk  ( even in this heat which they do not mind and hardly, if at all, have their central air conditioning on)) several miles a day....

 

Jim lifts weights and added muscle mass and Danielle has lost over 50 pounds!!!!!

 

I need to start walking in addition to my own exercise routine which consists of 5 miles on the stationary bike 5 times a week, 40 sit ups and 15 minutes of arm exercises with weights.....

 

Joe is going down to the Mall by us and walking inside daily as it is too hot to walk outside....

 

Our above average hot temperatures are continuing into August and I am miserable as it is keeping me "stuck" in my house with the air conditioning blaring, not able to enjoy my porch and patio as much as I would like to......

 

I did get 2 days when we did have a break in the humidity where I spent the afternoons on the front porch reading...... 

 

I did truly enjoy that but those days were fleeting....

I got my second CoVid hair cut on Monday......

I kept the longer length ( I used to have it really short pre-CoVid ) but had it really tapered all over.....

 

Linda, who has cut my hair for almost 30 years, used scissors and  a razor.........

I wanted a "shaggier" Bohemian type of style.....

I am so glad that I went with my natural hair color close to 6 years ago as I did not have to worry about getting it colored!!

 

It also saves me a lot of money but I do get my hair cut every 4 weeks.....

 

 The 12th was our 42nd Anniversary!!

42 years married and 45 years together and we still have not killed each other!!!

We'll see how long that lasts after November 3rd......Election Day......and now that he is no longer working part time in his retirement!!

Have I mentioned that I am an Independent and do not subscribe to any Political Party and Joe is a die hard Republican like I used to be about 20 years ago??????

 

Enough said...I will leave it up to your imaginations!!!

We usually celebrate our anniversary with a quiet dinner at home and do not make a big deal out of it....

We usually get Take Home and have done this for years because I do not like going out to restaurants to eat......

 

I really am quite antisocial......

I think it comes from almost 42 years as a nurse , dealing with people when they are at their worst...When they are ill.....

 

I do not care for eating out in a restaurant because of

too many people, overhearing every Tom, Dick and Harry's conversation, unruly children running around like hellions and their parents ignoring them, older people with walkers as I felt I just could not get away from work....you get the picture.....

Joe went to one of our favorite places, Valley Seafood, and brought home 1 1/2 pounds of scallops for us.....

 

 

  

We were going to get lobster tails but since the price of the fresh water Australian lobster, usually the kind we get, are now up to $52 a pound, we declined.......

 

Even though our son, Joey, offered to pay for them no matter what the price was since he eats dinner here daily with us...... 

We were grateful for his generosity but we did not want him to spend that much money on us.....

We did get him a dozen chicken fingers as he does like care for fish of any type.....

He did go and get French fries from Burger King!!!!

Nothing fancy.......

Cole slaw too!!!

 

We had a nice quiet day at home just like we like it.......

It was also the 42nd anniversary of the first day we started living in our townhouse since we bought it 5 months prior to our Wedding.....

Never intended to stay here more than 5 years as my plan was to move back to the area where I grew up but I am so glad that we did stay here because now in our retirement, we are 5 minutes away from everything...shopping, restaurants for Take Out, entertainment with the arena almost in our back yard and medical facilities like the hospital where I worked at and Dr.'s offices right up the road.....

As I always say....Everything Happens for a Reason......

 

I have been using the new Blogger Interface for my last few posts and I find it rather easy to use once I figured out where everything was and how to use it......

I think I actually like it better......

 

We finally had a cloudy, less humid day today so Joe took advantage of it and gave our car a cleaning......

Looking down from our sidewalk.......

 

 

 And then the Sun came out and chased him back into the house in the air conditioning!!!!!

Have I mentioned how much we are looking forward to Fall??????

 

 I have been struggling to keep all my flowers planted in my pots alive in this sweltering heat and humidity....

I have been watering once the Sun goes down......

Luckily, the front of the house only gets the Sun from around 4pm to Sun Set which has enables them to fare out a bit better than the flowers in the back yard that get baked from 7am until 5pm.....

So far, everything out in the front is still looking fairly good.......

 

 

My red, orange and yellow color theme for the front will make it easy to transition to Fall after Labor Day......

 

 

 

The Urn on the left side of the front porch.......

This was actually the one on the right side but I switched them a few weeks ago because the right one gets more Sun......

The Marigolds and begonias are doing well......

 

Looking out from the front porch......

In the corner of the porch......

The marigolds in the small pots are doing well as long as our resident chipmunk stops burying peanuts in them and digging all the dirt out of them!!!

Looking down at the 2 red impatiens planted in this rectangular planter attached to the porch railing.....

I also rotate these square planters around to have all sides get the Sun......

The Urn on the right side of the porch......

Looking down the side walk....

The 4 begonias that I planted in the long rectangular planter boxes on each side of the flower bed under the Living Room window are doing well!!!

The flower bed under the Living Room window.....

Again, the marigolds are doing well.....

But the real success story in the front are these urns!!!!

I planted only 4 impatiens in each urn in the Spring!!!!

 It is hard to believe that they now look like this!!!!!

 I am also glad that I elevated the solar lights in these urns......

If I didn't, they would be covered up by the flowers.....

The 4 begonias in this planter box are also thriving!!!

Looking out at the front yard from the porch.....

A small pot of marigolds under my faux mailbox......

And red impatiens in this vintage watering can....

The 2 begonias that I planted in this pot are really doing well......

As are the marigolds......

You can see Joe still hard at work cleaning our car......

So the flowers in the front have actually survived this awfully hot Summer....

 

We had the hottest July on record in our area this year and are fast on track for it being the hottest Summer on record for our area......

 

For me, this has been the Summer from Hell as I have a very hard time with the heat and especially the high humidity...... 

My flowers in the back have not done as well as the ones in the front because of being baked in the Sun from 7am until about 5pm when the Sun swings around to the front of our row of townhouses.....

Once it cools down a bit and I can actually get out back to trim, weed and clean up the patio a bit, I will share everything that went wrong this Summer out in the back yard.....

In my next post, I will be going back to a series of posts on how I decorated my Sitting Room for the Summer in a Garden Theme and sharing the "Library" area of my upstairs Sitting Room.....

Until then, try to stay cool, safe, healthy and happy!!!

 And I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

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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