one photo and twenty words

i constantly compose photos in my mind as i drive. 
wish i'd actually snapped this one before the mowers came.

joining in with abi at creating paper dreams .

planner love: june #creativemidorichallenge

i am so glad i joined cocoa daisy in january!  i am just loving this planner craze more and more.

my first "tip in" aka interactive peekaboo addition.

on the left are quite a few bits from a recent jbs mercantile magpie box.  vintage love, always.

i only got about half the #creativemidorichallenge done for june, but what i did do as sure fun.

i'd better get started on july before the month gets away from me!

summer vacation wrap up: week five

week five was fabulous(ly lazy).  apparently, the highlight was our trip to kroger to restock after d.c.  continuing on with g's current subway obsession, we bought a selection of gourmet deli meats from the actual deli counter.  this was our first time ever.  don't judge.  on our three mile walk that evening he regaled me with every sandwich/pizza combination he could think of with his new treats.  i sent him in early at the 2.5 mile mark.  don't judge.  the above is a stuffed crust wrap base with sprinkle cheese, blazing buffalo chicken, salami, and lettuce to garnish.  my baby is a foodie.

i am not a foodie.  the highlight of the kroger trip for me was the stockpile of eight varieties of kid cereal in the pantry.  i have finally lost the last of the snowmagedddon pounds thank you very much.

the kitties have been enjoying watching the rain fall.  today might actually be our first rain free day this month.  we're having a green july.  i have managed to cut the grass for the third time with the three wheeled mower.  at this point it's become a personal challenge to see how long edward will go before he has to be put out to pasture (those are my grassy lawn legs on the right in case the photos were not making sense to you).

i finally recovered the couch cusions.  my sister says it is "colorful."  what can i say?  i lead a colorful existence.  maybe one day i will be able to afford a new couch, but really why bother with bad kitties in the house?

yep.  so that's it.  another week flown by with only five photos to prove it.  we did actually celebrate the fourth with friends as well as have a sleepover double header, but i shamefully didn't bother taking photos.  my new iphone is scheduled to arrive within the hour.  i just might cry when they turn it on at the verizon store.

quality literature: the lovely bones

i picked this one up off the top of the stack yesterday morning just to see if i wanted to read it next.  the back cover warned "don't start "the lovely bones" unless you can finish it."  i did not heed the warning and the next thing i knew, i had finished it around 3:00 that same afternoon.  it wasn't the driving plot that kept me going, it was the beauty and complexity of the characters and the needing to know their thoughts and emotions and what would become of them.  excellent.

genre: modern fiction (some crime, but not the driving force)
setting: u.s. in the early 70's
reading level: adult

quality literature: fahrenheit 451

i pretty much devoured all the american classics back in high school, so i'm not sure how i missed this one.  thank goodness for second chances though; one of my freshman english coworkers handed it to me as i was heading out the door on the last day of school.  summer reading for the teacher!  :)

fahrenheit 451 is a difficult read.  it is only three chapters, however, so it's not too bad.  i read each chapter in one sitting to help maintain the flow and to really just not run the risk of getting lost and having to start over.  it's amazing to think that a book written in the early 1950's could be so relevant today, but wow.  it's spot on relevant.  read, people.  please.

genre: dystopian (was that even a word in 1953?)
setting: a large city in the u.s., sometime in the future
reading level: adult, high school

quality literature: confessions of an ugy stepsister

it took me a while to get through "confessions of an ugly stepsister" for whatever reason, but that could have just been me still in my reading slump.  i really enjoyed it quite a bit.  it has much to recommend it.  the author, gregory maguire, is gifted in many ways.  i look forward to reading more of his work, including "wicked."  he definitely has a gift for taking an old familiar story, in this case "cinderella," and adding layers of meaning to the plot and giving more depth to the characters.  this cinderella story is set in holland at the height of the tulip bulb frenzy.  i don't particularly care for stories set in the medieval and renaissance time periods, but again this is an area in which the author is gifted.  he is somehow able to paint the setting into his story without getting the reader (at least me) bogged down in it.  he is really brilliant with this, actually.  so those are my thoughts.  good book.  interesting read.  enjoyed it.

genre: historical fiction
setting: holland in (approximately) 1637
reading level: adult, high school

washington dc: mary livingston ripley garden

so, i have saved the best (to me) for last.  this is my last washington d.c. post and it is WAY photo heavy.  there is no way i could leave out any of these gorgeous flowers.  i'm so glad we decided to stay a few extra hours and i got to experience this place.  this is exactly how i would like my own garden to look.  maybe one day.  :)

and look!!!  a monarch butterfly sighting in the wild!!!  i was SO excited!!!  it has been years since i've seen one.  it's not a great picture, but it's a great memory. 

do you see the sleeping monarch?

joining in with annie and "how does your garden grow?"