room with a view

It's been so unrelentingly hot and dry that my garden, already prone to droop and sprawl by summer's end, has been looking especially sad.  I'm glad I put in some Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia.  I'm not normally a red flower person, preferring purple, pink, white, and green, but I couldn't resist this vibrant color.

My dahlias, too, are thriving.  I've never planted them before, but they are going to be a mainstay from now on.

Claudia is always with me when I'm working in the garden.

Not only does she deliver that weekly dead vole, but also provides wonderful company while I'm weeding.  She's a special girl!

It's been too miserably hot to work outside much, but last night's much-needed rain provided a great excuse to get my fingers in the dirt.  I wasn't alone...this horned passalus beetle was quite busy, too, on his little errands.

This type of beetle is known as the 'bess beetle,' which comes from the French word baiser, or to kiss. They rub their wings against their abdomen to make a kissing-like sound, although I don't think I would classify it as such.  Still, it's interesting to hear a beetle making any kind of sound, and they're fun to watch.  They can pull 50 times their own body weight! 

Lots of bees around too.

I've probably mentioned that our fields weren't maintained by previous owners and are absolutely overrun with weeds.  It's a huge pain, but sometimes you do find something interesting.  I recognized the closed flowers on several bushy plants as moonflowers.  They only open at night and have an amazing fragrance.  Another benefit?  These funky seed pods.

I think they're absolutely gorgeous.  I'm going to bring some into the house for my fall decorating!  So far, I've basically dropped the ball on seasonal decorating, mainly because we've been so busy and most of my supplies are still crammed into a storage unit somewhere.  I've managed some dried hydrangeas in a basket...

...but nothing else.  I'm excited to add these pods!

Some other interior excitement...WE HAVE SET UP OUR DINING ROOM TABLE (although Todd is currently utilizing it for a paperwork station).  We've been without one for over FOUR MONTHS.  We've got flooring down and just need to put up the trim to complete the room.  We love it!  Here is the "before" from previous owner...a dark, tiny room with a low ceiling, one tiny window.

Here it is now, in its trim-less glory:

We completely demolished the old room and rebuilt it with a much higher ceiling, made the room slightly wider, added big glass doors at one end to bring in more light, widened the kitchen doorway for the same reason, and doubled the room length.  The little room at the end is a mud room, and the door you see leads into the garage.  We added those so that we could walk directly from the garage into the house, and Todd could access his office without having to go outside (unlike before).  We still have work to do, but are excited about these changes!

Otherwise, I've been doing a little baking, mainly from our "ugly" apple tree.

They make delicious desserts, though!

I still have my junky sewing machine so I haven't been doing much quilting, but I'm putting together a few small things.

It's nice to work on these small projects, and I always have good company.

Have a great week!