Little surprises.

Just a couple little things that are coming up unexpectedly in my garden...


I remember throwing a couple packets of seeds on the flowerbeds last year, but I can't remember if hollyhocks were among them. Seems unlikely, but here are two big tall flowers coming up in front of my picket fence, right next to the daisies. Are they hollyhocks? Color me dumb, because I don't know. But it was a nice surprise to glance over there the other day and see this unexpected splash of pale yellow. I love pale yellow!

Last year when my grandparents' home was sold, my dad dug up some of Grandma's mint for me, and I brought it home and planted it in the only place I could think of that wasn't too hot or too shady. I thought it had croaked over the winter, because it died back to absolutely nothing, and because I have never had much luck growing mint on my own, but here it is coming right along:

I have never been able to find a mint at any nursery that smells and tastes quite like the mint from Grandma's house, so I am thrilled to see this one taking root. I hope it takes over the whole little bed where I put it, so we can have gallons of mint tea all summer long next year! Not even enough for a cup of mint tea at the moment, but enough to pick a couple sprigs and think of Grandma.

Grandma fell and broke her hip week before last--this is her second broken hip and we don't know if she'll bounce back from this one the way she did from her first one. She's 89 now and not as mobile as she was then. Think a good thought for her if you would.

I have two grandmas, with three broken hips between them...my other grandma, in Missouri, had quite a few health struggles after her broken hip last fall, but was able to leave the nursing home and go back home this past spring, which was so important to her. It's amazing to me how much they can do to bring elderly people back to health, or if not all the way back to health, at least back to some good quality of life. I'm really grateful for that, because both of my grandmas are precious to me!

It's a nice day here--the clouds are moving in and I have my fingers crossed for rain, but the Weather Channel disagrees. It's just nice and warm, not hot, about 80 degrees.

I visited the library for the first time in at least two years this morning, looking for a couple of audiobooks, and I found Julie Andrew's memoir, read by her, which I've been wanting to listen to since it came out. I just love that lady. She wrote my all-time, numero uno, top of the list favorite book when I was a child, Mandy. I think my love of cottages and cottage gardens comes directly from that book!

Off to do some kitchen cleaning and plan supper. What sounds good for supper?