Of Grass and Blooms and Spotted Fawns

Welcome! The last day of June, summer is in full swing,
and there's lots of life going on outside That Old House.

Remember those ripening tomatoes I so proudly showed off last week?

We had 4 or 5 beauties . . . and couldn't wait for our first tomato sandwiches of the summer.
Good bread, Hellman's mayo, and ripe garden tomatoes; heaven on earth!

Turns out the chipmunks beat us to it.

Our gorgeous, ripe, red tomatoes, ruined!
. . . sigh . . . .
We got a few cherry tomatoes; all the other ripe ones have been gnawed on.
We're tying the fruited branches as high off the ground as we can,
hoping to thwart our cute but ravenous little rodents.

Anyone got a spare pea-shooter? I could use some target practice.

*****************************************************************************

So what is happening outside your home on this summer Wednesday?

We've got hydrangeas, petunias, day lilies:

. . . and daisies! Pure white daisies, well tended by happy bees:

******************************************************************************

And also outside --

our shutters!

Real shutters, the kind that could actually close over the windows . . .
that's if there weren't so many layers of old paint on the hinges and pins.

Our shutters define "shabby chic."
Well, honestly, they more truthfully define just the "shabby" part. There ain't no chic in these old fellows.

When -- in that mythical someday -- the house is painted,
we'll also have the shutters repaired and repainted.

Our shutters have worn so many coats of paint for so many years that they will probably shudder apart
from sheer embarrassment when they are stripped, poor dears.

Also outside . . . for the first time in years, Howard has been mowing the lawn himself.
Doing a nice job, too.
That's our side yard, the one you look at from the dining room bay windows:

We don't water our lawn. In the words of my father, "If you water a lawn, you'll just end up cutting it!"
But that's not why we don't water. We practice tough love with the lawn.

Grass is an amazing plant, designed by Nature to withstand drought.
It does something very smart; it plays possum -- stops growing, turns brown, looks dead.
It is not dead.
One good rainstorm sends that chlorophyll surging right back into those blades and presto! the grass is green again.

We are okay with occasional brown grass; it saves us thousands of gallons of water,
and means we don't have to keep moving a sprinkler all over the yard.

Because this little freeloader is no help at all in the garden:

This fawn and a sibling came trotting through our yard Monday morning, tasting shrubs.
Luckily for us, they liked our neighbor's bushes better!

**************************** Linky Parties! ********************************

Visit Faded Charm for White Wednesday.








Check out Wednesday Is Rednesday
at It's A Very Cherry World!








And at A Southern Daydreamer,
it is Outdoor Wednesday.
Go visit!




Have a lovely Wednesday. Our heat wave has broken, and we are in for several days of picture-perfect weather. Hooray! I just may join Dion DiPoochy in a celebratory munch on some raw broccoli! -- Cass