end of july

Can't believe tomorrow is August 1st already. Where has the summer gone? It's my favorite season and it's far too short. My butterfly garden is in its glory; tomatoes, onions and peppers (trying purple ones this year) are almost ready; herbs are prolific (and I somehow got one lone petunia flower in the pot of basil and thyme...where it came from, I have no idea. I don't have petunias here this year. Love these little gifts from the Universe!).

Clementine is still doing fantastic despite her age and stage 4 kidney disease (and hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure and dental disease). You'd never know this sweet baby is so ill. She eats all her meals, uses her cat box, is very interactive with us, runs around, can still jump up to high places.

This month has been filled with various farmer's markets, sidewalk sales, and street fairs. I've been lucky to find some "treasures" at fantastic prices: a leather owl made in Italy; a vintage drinking vessel made in Israel; a stack of books and a CD for $3; a freezer Ball jar that I'm currently using as a vase; vintage pottery (those lines and colors!); a mini metal pitcher with a kitty on it...and then a splurge ~ a new mid-century modern style lamp for our basement family room. Found this beauty at Praha in Chicago. 

Phil would've been 35 years old on July 21st. I don't know when the photo of the two of us was taken, why both of our heads of hair look so dark, or who took the photo. But it looks like Phil was about 14-15 in this photo. How I miss my oldest son. 

And then we celebrated Brian's birthday in July, as well. We had a lovely day together, going out to a restaurant of his choice and seeing the movie, Oppenheimer. Brian liked the movie; I didn't care for it. You really need to know your WW2 history to get into this movie. I had a horrible history teacher in high school and it was a subject that didn't interest me. Plus, the movie was three hours long. We were squirming in our seats.

I know it's the height of summer when the local farmstands start selling their corn. There's nothing like Midwest corn! We had it for the first time this summer on the grill and agreed that next time, we are going for two ears each. Even better when it's eaten outside on the patio. 

If you've stuck around with me through this long post, thank you. I'm not sure what to think about blogging anymore. It's so much easier to keep up with Instagram. Are you following me there? I'm at @melaniescomfyhouse. My account is private, so you'll have to send me a follow request. Anyway, this is by no means goodbye. If I decide to formally stop my blog, I'll let you know. For right now, it's more of an explanation of why I don't post much anymore.

💓

summer days

(Lake Michigan)

(Phil on his 15th birthday, 2003)

Howdy! I can't believe how quickly this summer is flying. Here we are near the end of July already. I've been enjoying the long, warm, sun-lit days. Early mornings with iced coffee on the shaded patio are the best way to start the day. Or, if I'm feeling motivated and it's not too hot, a walk to the lake feels pretty darn good, too.

Can you believe we've been in our house for 32 years now? We moved ourselves with the help of a friend. And then Brian went right back to work. That left me alone to unpack and set up the house. Not fun with being four months pregnant and having a two-year old. No surprise I ended up sick and vomiting. Those were the days! Still so grateful after all these years for "Comfy House". It is our nest. 

We may have a small plot of land, but July means being surrounded by hydrangeas and bee balm, coneflower and garden phlox, cosmos and salvia, and fresh herbs. We're growing cherry tomatoes and a couple of varieties of peppers this year, too.

I thank You God for most this amazing day;

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.

(e e cummings)

Clementine has had a couple of UTIs in the past month, both resulting in vet ER trips : lots of worry, lots of money. She seems to be on the mend again, despite now being in stage 4 kidney disease. My sweet girl...she sleeps snuggled next to me every night.

Phil's 34th birthday would be tomorrow, July 21. 34!! How do you envision your child at that age when they didn't live past age 21? His birthday will always be celebrated by me and Brian. He made us parents. He is still our child and always will be. There is rarely a day that goes by that I don't think about him. 

Ending on a sweet note...if you're looking for a super yummy, easy-to-make dessert that doesn't have a lot of sugar, you've gotta try King Arthur's Hot Summer Spoon Cake. Best served warm with vanilla ice cream. 😊

How has your summer been going?

landscaping progress

Hello friends ~

We're still enjoying mostly good weather here in Illinois. This past week has been cool, maybe a little bit too cool. I've had to turn the heat on in the mornings. Thunderstorms are coming in tomorrow and then rain the next couple of days, but Memorial Day weekend looks to be warm and sunny, which will be perfect for a celebratory BBQ.

In the meantime, it's been wonderful to enjoy the patio and outdoors once again. We've been working hard in the yard, weeding and mulching and planting. No complaints - we both still love yard work.

My peony bush is ripe with buds, so I expect after the next few days of rain and then the returning sunshine and warmth, they should be exploding into bloom. One of my favorite flowers!

The only new perennials we added to our yard this year were lupines. We planted them in the butterfly garden in-between the lamb's ear. The columbine is blooming right now, as you can see in the background. That will fade, then the purple coneflower and bee balm will be blooming to the side and in back of the lupines, so I can't wait to see how this all will look!

Even though Brian and I have always done our own yard work and landscaping, we have realized the past few years that we need some extra help. There's some jobs that are beyond our capability. We had a new front sidewalk put in a few years ago and Brian edged it with the traditional black plastic strips. However, they wouldn't stay in place and kept popping out of the ground, especially on the ends. We had also planted fountain grasses on one side of the sidewalk. Three of the smaller variety died this year, so we dug them out. We were left with a sloppy look.

The other side of the sidewalk butts up against the side of the garage. We had two iron trellises here for height interest and planted Passion Flower vines every spring to entwine around the trellises. I removed the trellises before the landscapers came...

The other part we needed help with was planting bushes and making a rock wall in our small front yard. As you can see from the photo, our front yard slopes down towards a drainage ditch. This ditch area used to be filled with day lilies but we had them dug out (by our village Public Works department) a couple of years ago. They put down grass seed and a straw mat, but the grass never grew in nicely.

To start, the landscapers dug out a path along the sidewalk, lined it with landscaping fabric, and installed metal edging on both sides.

Same with the other side against the garage.

Starting the layout of the rock wall and bed for the bushes...

Finished!

As you can see, we need to re-seed the slope in front of the bushes. That will be done next week. And the other thing the landscapers did was to dig out the invasive buckthorn that was growing onto our property from the neighbor's property next door. You can see some of that mess on the left side. We have decided our next step is to have privacy fencing installed along this area, starting where the neighbor's fence ends.

Here's a better view of the neighbor's property as seen from our front porch. You can see why a privacy fence would be a good idea! That invasive buckthorn came all the way up into the now-bare spot on our property. We need to seed that area now, too. And yes, our grass has a lot of weeds. We don't put any chemicals on our lawn, so it is what it is.

For those of you in the US, have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!