Summer is my time of the year...

In my opinion there is nothing better than summer! I live in North Central West Virginia and we have way to long winters here for me. I am the kind of person who could live where it is warm all the time... But not my husband and kids, so I am stuck. I freeze in the winter, I want my 80 degree weather. I want to be outside in my bare feet playing in the flower beds and garden. Watching my hummingbirds fly around the feeders.

Years ago when I was first married we would visit  my husbands  family, they were really great gardeners, something my family never did. Mom planted a few annuals each year but never a big flowerbed or a vegetable garden. So when we went to Maryland to visit his dads side of the family I couldn't wait. Tom's aunt Jean could grow anything and she did. We would walk around her yard and she would tell me what everything was and I was amazed she could remember them all. Flowers everywhere, she had a Hoya plant on her back porch that bloomed every summer with the most beautiful blooms I had ever seen.To this day I am still trying to get mine to bloom and it never does. I wish I knew her secret? She would break me off a big hand full of Bridalveil vine and I would bring it home and just plant it in a pot unrooted just as she said and watered it... I was amazed that it worked and grew like crazy...

    Tom's grandmother(his moms mother) could grow things like that too. Just stick her little fingers down in the dirt, pop some plant she had picked a piece off of and in no time there would be a big beautiful plant in that pot.. Of course she passed that trait onto her daughters too. They were always growing something.

So each summer as I plant my seeds and pick pieces off plants and pop them into some dirt I think of all the great times I had learning from the best gardeners I have ever known...

Lucy,Lil and Jean...

Thanks girls for all the great lessons taught,that they probably didn't even realize they were doing ( I was listening) and the great memories....

This is one memory from my family, I remember the first time my aunt gave my mom a little Mamosa Tree from her yard to plant in ours. They were beautiful and smelled so sweet. This tree is next door at my friend Jeanies house, it is about 14 years old and a baby out of my parents yard. This year it is beautiful and so full of blooms smelling sweet just as I rememberd when I was just a kid.

They have the most delicate blooms...

Here are two of my favorite geraniums, ones I have had for probably 5 years now. I keep them in the basement each winter and I propagate pieces from them each summer to make sure I don't loose them.The top one is Appleblossom Rosebud and the bottom one is a Tulip Geranium. I never see these in any gargen centers. I wonder why they don't sell these beauties anymore?

This is Forth of July weekend.... We left on Friday afternoon for our annaul camping trip. The weather was suppose to be beautiful for days and for the most part it was... We packed up all the camping things and away we went. Tom and I... three dogs and a tent! Can you imagine!!! LOL

This is what we call "River Sitting"...

We sit for hours talking, laughing, swimming and just enjoying our time together...

See that big "Bobber" you got to love it, it's a cooler...

Now this is some kind of storm cloud for sure and boy did it bring the rain on our last evening there. The wind came with it and everyone was there holding things down all the way through it. Soaked to the bone everything survived and we laughed all the way through it... Than we rebuilt the fire and the rain stayed away so we could have our dinner...

We ate so much food on that trip, but that is what it is all about "Good Times"...

Than on Tuesday it was time to pack up and go home. We had three really tired dogs. With the back seat layed down in the Blazer,blankets layed out the dogs were ready for the trip home...

Mia was really smiling and ready to go home...

Than she was down for the count, sound asleep...

THE END...

Lynn