Garden update!

Summer is winding down and I am ready to see it go.  While I hate cold weather (winter's snow and ice are not my thing!), I lovelovelove fall!!  I love everything about fall.  The cooler air after a long hot summer, the lower humidity (yes, thank you, Jesus!!!), pumpkins, the fair, seeing the leaves change colors, putting on a warm pair of yoga pants and a long-sleeved tee shirt, turning back the clocks and getting a little more sleep, yep, pretty much everything.  It's my favorite season.  I do love a lot about summer, too.  The beach is obviously number one in my heart and I've enjoyed my little garden, too, going out every day to see if there was a tomato or a cucumber ready and picking pepper after pepper after pepper but to me, fall just feels like the prize at the finish line.  I'll continue to use my clothesline as long as I can (I remember my mama telling me she used to hang our diapers out in the winter and they'd freeze stiff with ice as they dried.  I ain't going that far with it.  Ha!) and I'll continue to do some kind of gardening as long as I can. 

Here's where we are with our wild onions, spinach and lettuce on the porch.  I love that Tabbie Hoffman was right there.  :)

 

 Our Spanish yellow onions are just so cute to me!

The pumpkin patch is coming along nicely, too!  They got sprinkled with a little diatomaceous earth early, you know, just in case some pumpkin bug wanna start something.

  

The mammoth sunflowers are coming up, too!  I can't wait to see how big and tall they get!!  (We had a bad thunderstorm with heavy, heavy rain yesterday.  That's why they're kinda just laying there.  They are just beat down.  Ha!)

The flowers and herbs are just thriving on the front porch!  There's sweet mint, parsley and chives, a climbing jenny, a foxtail fern, a dwarf morning glory, a heather and my Christmas cactus that I'm going to bring in next month and stick in a closet to hang out during the fall months to encourage it to bloom.  Cross your fingers!!  It's nevah bloomed at Christmas.  Valentine's Day is when it usually gets around to it. 

But summer's not going away completely, at least not here at the Schneider Homestead.  I hung a few more things on the fence yesterday while Larry worked on his patches wall.  We picked all of these up at the beach.  I just love how they look together.

International City Farmers' Market

 
I went by the farmers' market on my way home from work today.  We've only gone to a couple of places this summer, Mr. Sasnett's place on Highway 41, Smiley's up in Macon and we've picked up produce and bread and things at yard sales a few times.  I hadn't been to the big market here in Warner Robins all year and I was really excited!  But since it's 182 degrees in the shade this week, it was just too hot for me to enjoy my time there.  I grabbed a loaf of sourdough bread, a dozen fresh brown eggs and some peppers for Larry's omelets, bell, banana and jalapeno, and got the heck on up out of there.

I'm looking forward to going back when I can stay longer!  Maybe October.  :)

Mentha, I think I love you

I was off this afternoon and I went to Bath and Body Works to start on my spree that Mama and Ami gave me for my birthday.  They are having their semi-annual sale right now and lots of stuff is 50% and 75% off!  I got a lot of stuff!!  And I only used one of my gift cards.  I am SET for summer!  I can save the other card for fall!!

My friend and fellow South Beacher, Kim, has been talking about the Mentha body wash at BBW and she made me want to try it.  I got me some today.  I love anything minty and this stuff is AWESOME!!  It has almost 2% pure peppermint oil in it and it smells incredible but the best part is how it cools your skin and leaves you all tingly.  It is the PERFECT summer body wash!

It would also be perfect to take to the beach.  Can you just imagine spending the day at the beach and being all hot and sandy and tired and ill and cranky (oh, is that just me?) and going back to your room to a soap that not only cleans your skin, cools you off, sings to you and buys you dinner but also sends shivers right down your spine??  I'll definitely be taking this stuff with me on my next beach trip!

But until then, showers after walking from my car to my house in this 100+ degree heat will have to do.  I'll get by somehow.  :)

Thanks, Kim, for the tip!!