Yay – it’s Friday! That means garden time!
I was surprised at how many of you have sleep issues as well. I had a pretty good night’s sleep last night, other than waking up from a bad dream. Hate that. I did a morning walk around the block and took some pictures of my garden. Want to see me pre coffee and with puffy morning face? I took this to show how tall my lilies are (I am 5 feet 2).
Actually, the sleep mask keeps my hair in place, so that is an unexpected side benefit to that. Normally I look like Medusa when I get up 
I made up the banana breakfast bread pudding this morning. Topped with some peanut flour mixed up (nonsweetened) and strawberry jam.
Tasty! It almost looks like caramel. I wish it were caramel – that would be awesome!
Trying to get as much work done as early as possible. It was a little irritating today. There are some doctors that don’t dictate very well and they affect productivity. Well, some MTs decide they can skip over those files and cherry pick the easy doctors out of the line up of files and leave all the tough ones behind. That is against company policy, but the management never does anything about it! It’s really not fair. So I waded through crap files today.
I was glad to break for lunch. I cooked up a pork burger and had a pear. Simple, grain free, and delicious!
Along with the Tour de France, it is time for the Tour de Jardin!
Echinacea Razzmatazz (which I keep calling Doppelganger, for some reason). This plant is actually very old. I took it with me when we moved from Illinois. It is about 6 or 7 years old now.
Closeup:
White Swan coneflower:
And I have a single bloom on my echinacea milkshake! It is like the white swan, but the center is ruffed like the razzmatazz.
The garden is a little quiet right now. Still behind compared to last year. This is an annual called Browalia. True blue flowers are not very common.
The liatris is finally starting to bloom. This is also called gay feather. They come in purple and white. I just have the purple.
Next week that one out to be filled out nicely.
This is one of my few garden ornaments. My mom gave him to me. It is a Jim Shore (??)
He’s watching over my annual asters, which aren’t doing much of anything right now.
The remains of the clematis snow queen blooms, aka my truffula trees.
Since it is Friday – I made lattes today and jazzed them up with a little creme de menthe:
That perked the afternoon right up!
John went to the bike shop today and found out he has a broken spoke, which is why his wheel had a bulge in it. Good news because he doesn’t need a new wheel, he just needs the spoke repaired. Bad news is they won’t get it fixed until Sunday. That means a solo ride for me tomorrow and an attempt is going to be made to do 100 miles. I will miss my buddy, although he will meet me periodically during the ride on his scooter. Since I will be solo, I am taking some precautions. I will be looping my ride into 3 segments so that I am never more than 20 miles from home at any given point. I am not riding anywhere new. I will do a 40 mile loop north first, then pit stop at home, then down to Saratoga (cause you all know there will be cupcakes) and back (44 miles), then partway to the lake as far as I need to go to finish it out. I will be in contact with John via text quite a bit to keep him updated. He actually will be going to Saratoga as well and meet me there.
John doesn’t particularly want to do 100 miles anymore, so that is why I am not waiting to do the ride. Not to mention the temps this weekend are supposed to be low 80s, which is really good for July! Gotta grab it when I can.
I wanted some carbs to get ready for the ride tomorrow, so we walked for some pizza for dinner:
Cheap and tasty. Can’t beat that
Tonight is prepping the bike bag, doing a bike tuneup and hopefully a good night’s sleep before tomorrow. If the weather cooperates I should have a good recap come Sunday night!
Hi Lori!!!! Just catching up on blog reading… so glad you are sleeping better. Hang in there with the mask -it’s worked wonders for me! I did switch to a black sleep mask and it blocks out even more light!
I gotta try your banana bread pudding! Have a great weekend!
p.s. I tried to channel you while riding at the beach. My butt was killing me, but I kept thinking of your 60+ mile rides and sucked it up! LOL!
Your butt will get better, just ride more LOL!
Very pretty! I’d LOVE to bike with you! 🙂
My teenagers say to me: “good morning mom – do something with your hair, will you?” haha I guess I’m not so pretty in the am either! (you look great)
Enjoy your weekend!
Dawn
Wishing you a safe ride and a tasty cupake(s)! 🙂
You know i thought that was pretty late for my lilac to be blooming but what the heck! It gets morning sun and no afternoon sun ….its a persian lilac maybe that puts it behind??
Woww! Have a great ride tommorrow!
Chow! deb
Hope you have a great ride – and how fun that John will meet you via the scooter. Sounds like everyone gets to do what they want!
Have a great ride tomorrow!
Oh I will be keeping my fingers crossed for your bike tires tomorrow. I was thinking about you on my way to Sacramento today. And how your 100 mile ride is ALMOST all the way there and back home. Amazing! If I was doing those loops back to the house, though, I’d be afraid I would just stop. I even do that on my walks most of the time.
I really love those double echinaceas. Must look into getting some of them.
All of your food looked simply scrumptious to me today.
Well, it isn’t so bad when you break the ride up into chunks. Kind of like weight loss and driving – doesn’t seem so bad when you think in increments.
I don’t have a problem popping in at home as it will be the early part of the ride. I would be stopping somewhere for lunch at that time anyway, so may as well save a few $$ and eat it at home.
Love the Friday garden tour! Your house is so quaint looking. I really like it.
I love your plans for the big 100 mile ride. You are a wonderful planner. Can’t wait to see the cupcake flavour? Pina colada, mocha, pistachio, peach, chocolate…I will have to wait and find out.
Have a great ride and I will look forward to your update on Sunday.
You have to plan long rides or they can become total disasters. Sometimes they are even *with* planning!
I hope there are pistachio cupcakes…
Jim Shore? Shore is my maiden name. I’m going to have to google and see what I can find about him. Maybe we have an artist in our family. (sadly, I missed out on that gene if that is the case! 🙂 ) Have a great ride tomorrow, and LOVE the flower photos. You have a lovely garden!!
i have got to try that banana bread pudding recipe! looks so great. we are riding today and i will think of you….sure you will too!
That sure isn’t nice from the others to pick the easy files.
The flowers look beautiful. I was thinking of you this afternoon when I was walking and thinking what to photograph for my 365 challenge and decided to do a little what’s blooming too in other people gardens.
Have fun today at your ride, it’s great that John will meet you on different points of your ride.
I always love your blooms Lori! So, what does Pixie think of your garden ornament? 😉
So, I was thinking maybe of trying to make cookies out of your recipe for the banana bread breakfast pudding & add some protein powder in it (I know – so typical me) to thicken it up for cookies. Does coconut flour work for cookies? I want to make it your way too but I was just thinking this might taste good as protein cookies too! 🙂
Hope you have/had a great ride & glad John will be meeting you along the way!
I don’t know how coconut flour does as cookies, as it needs to be pretty moist, but it does make nice biscuits!
Good luck on your 100 miler this weekend! Glad to hear John’s bike troubles have been discovered and hopefully resolved for good! Your garden looks amazing – I’m spending this weekend planting shrubs (why do I ALWAYS pick the hot days to do outside work??). Can’t wait to hear how you did. WI is rooting for you!