Has it been a whole month already?

Wow, I really cannot believe that most of July has been and gone! We were extremely busy this past month, entertaining family flying in and out. Eight airport trips makes one really appreciate the future of a proposed commuter rail system. We had my hubby's two nephews in for 2 weeks, and they were great, but we were exhausted when they left. All is back to (mostly) normal and Molly dog and the cat-who-reigns are both back to their favorite haunts.

We have been down to Branson, and into all points of the Big City, taking in everything a young teen might be interested in, including museums (we believe in sneaking in some educable moments in our entertainment), and the new movies out, like Harry Potter, and Ratatouille--cute. We had some hands-on experiences for the boys, like picking vegetables from our garden, climbing up to our treehouse in the woods, catching toads, treefrogs and lightning bugs in a jar, and we played board games every evening we could. They really creamed us with Uno and caught on to Mexican train dominoes quickly. We have great memories to share and lots of pictures to remember the time.

I did have some reading time in between, so I have one book to recommend for readers: The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. It was a thorough compendium of Princess Diana's life and times, and had some very interesting observations. If only, was the constant thought in my mind as I read it. Well, that's what biographies are all about, letting us look at someone else's life, and then set back and say, if only... I am planning to read After Diana next. A good follow-up.

Book pages

I have another book to recommend, for anybody who loves a good mystery, or true crime. Those of you who read Ann Rule, Joe McGinniss or John Grisham, will be interested in this one: Scoundrels to the Hoosegow, by Morley Swingle. He is a MO writer, actually the elected prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County, MO, and this book is a recounting of some of his more notable cases. He narrates some of the most hilarious and true situations, and some really serious and deadly cases he has prosecuted, and writes with a wonderful literacy, quoting famous justices, lawyers, and of course, a fellow Missourian, Mark Twain. This is a good book to read while you are traveling, or just sitting on the couch, waiting for CSI to resume from commercial break. So check it out at your local library!

Happy 4th of July!

Our garden came through for the 4th--popping out a beautiful lily this morning! These came from our spring trip to the Flower, Lawn and Garden Show. What a nice surprise!

Quilt project

I just finished making this quilt, from Uncommon Threads on DIY network, for my daughter. It turned out rather well, I think, and was so easy, with fleece on the back side, and fleece borders. Knotting in the corners of each square. T-shirt fronts and backs as quilt squares, with a few black fleece squares thrown in. To decorate the blank fleece squares, I used some of her old school patches, from activities she was involved with. Now I have to make a second one for son and daughter-in-law because they liked it so much!

Garden after the rain

We've had a lot of rain recently, 8 to 20 inches in our area, depending on how lucky we were, so our flowers are doing really well--purple coneflowers and brown-eyed susans, gifts from librarian friends in my past life, and the last bloom of the double mock orange, an heirloom plant from a great granny. Now we see the sun again, so once more our zucchini will take off.