Late Summer Touches

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope you are doing well. 

This summer's heat has made it difficult to sit back and enjoy the season. Since July acted like August, I was hoping that August would begin to act like September. Nope! That is not happening. I will continue to hold out hope, however. I've spent no time in the garden. Instead, running out to keep plants from burning is about all I can do. It's very frustrating. I've lost three or four boxwoods, a lot of summer annuals, and an azalea. We have summers like this. 2011 was the last time I remember a summer this miserable. We do not have a dry heat. Summer is our cabin fever season. 

It's tempting to succumb to the social media push to start allowing fall decor to creep in. Even though we are baking outside, it is still summer. As a seasonal decorator, there is a pull towards the next season. I love change and changing things up in my home but I also want to live in the current season even if the weather is unpleasant. 

We had a lot of irritating repairs in July. Then we lost Dixie. July was not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination. All this got me thinking about contentment. We all have bad months. Sometimes we have a bad years, which is very painful. In the midst of a bad month or a bad year, there are still opportunities for joy. I'm pretty sure that I forgot to be thankful for anything in July. I just wanted it to be over. In spite of the hard, there was also the good. 

I don't love August. My dad died in August. It's hot. My step mom also died in August.  August for a teacher is hard!!. 

However,

 our son was born in August. We found our East Texas house in August. We moved into our main house in August. Getting a new class of students in August is always precious. I still miss that. 

Good things have happened in my least favorite month. 

I wished this past July away. I don't want to do the same thing to August. 

In spite of the heat, the flowers out in East Texas are doing okay. 

Late summer flowers are tall and wispy. I love that. I'll miss them this winter so I certainly don't want to wish them away. 

I've embraced them as my late summer decor. 

In the image below, three little dried roses from my step mother's memorial service rest in a vase that I found at her house. 

Bill snagged the syrup pitcher from an estate sale. 

I'm jealous of those that can grow dahlias. An antique graphic looks perfect in a Victorian frame. 

Flower frogs and china bits from an old trash pile snuggle together in a flow blue vegetable bowl. 

The painting, although torn, came from my step nana. The lamp came down to me from my parents.

I have noticed that some of my plants are loving this heat. The trumpet vine is going crazy. My turks cap is also pretty happy. Making the shift to look at the good instead of the negative has already occurred. 

I've come to end of my musings. 

Sunflowers are beginning to creep in to the arrangements. I'll have more on that soon. 

Have a good weekend. 

Katie