Am I Cool or What? Part II

If you're not an early riser you probably shouldn't plant a garden where the summers are this hot. By early rising I mean about 5 am . This shot was taken at around 5:15 this morning. Not that it's easy. Not that it's fun. It's just that if you enjoy being outdoors, gardening, walking, running (a nod here to my son and daughter-in-law the marathon runners), or if you like having your devotions and/or breakfast outdoors, this is the only way to do it.

Don't hate me but I've always loved being up early.........everything is so fresh, so new-looking, and most importantly it's still so cool!

There's not an awful lot going on in my garden this time of year. Zuchinni is going crazy because it loves the heat, but everything else is to put it mildly, "languishing" , much like the proverbial Southern belle. I don't know why I even bother to plant anything in pots because it is so much work to keep them watered and shaded. My "Garden Guy" book is telling me its time to plant pumpkins for a fall harvest. I've always meant to......it's such a nice vision in the middle of July to see a lovely autumn garden overflowing with pumpkins! I have this vision every year, but so far I've never done anything about it........maybe I will this year......then again maybe I won't........it's just so hot!.

I'm alway grateful for my bouganvilla plants though.......they provide some of the few spots of color right now. Oh if everything were this easy.

The Pool Now when you have a pool you pretty much live in it all summer! Here I've pulled a couple of scrapbook pages from my archives.........

As I've said before, I like to keep my scrapbooking pages simple because I like the emphasis to be on the pictures.......add a few captions, a little humor......and you have a "cool" memory.

Night swimming can be a lot of fun too, with the added bonus that you'll sleep like a baby! On this page we had just gotten back from vacation and Christopher had some friends stay over that night. Always a full house in the summer.





 BONUS PHOTO!

Now, Joan, forgive me for putting this one in......I just had to.....look at how cute Stacey was!

The Lawn

I probably water the lawn around here too much. I just love to hear it I think! So refreshing.

Then I water the lawn some more...........

Of course I'm not showing you pictures of the front lawn right now.......the automatic sprinkler we have out front just broke.....and a little while without water around here and........well you don't want to see it! If we don't get it fixed soon I'll just have to resort to dragging the backyard hoses out front. Like I said, you don't want to see it. In the backyard it's different though. I have another dilemma. It's too hot for any of us to mow! Good excuse, huh? Yeah, I thought so.

Think about this though. Some days, when the sun is about to go down, if I'm lucky, it's cool enough to go outside, take a cool drink, and tackle that summer reading list. I love the sound of a summer reading list, don't you? Even if there's never enough time to finishing reading everything it's just fun to have one.





The Mountains Finally, if all else fails in the "keeping cool" department, we just might take off for the mountains............

................find a cool stream

...............and stick our toes in! Ahhh........

Keeping it cool.............

Take some time to go over to see Susan at Southern Daydreamer to read about lots of other outdoor adventures.

And for beautiful water photographs join them here!