**My thoughts go out to family and friends of the Colorado shooting victims.**
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This has been a long week. Lots of things done, work completed and people visited with. It almost felt like the weekend already and work was slow for both John and I, so we actually decided to take a ride for lunch. Please watch your retinas – this was my color combo:
Yes – they really are that neon.
We biked to Celia’s Table. This restaurant opened up in the space Wholey Crepe used to be in (which I miss).
We sat outside al fresco because it was about mid 70s and so nice to be outside. Bikes parked right back there 😀
I had half an egg salad sandwich and a bowl of chicken pot pie soup.
I think that basically just the filling for their chicken pot pies 😀
This was a good lunch and reasonably priced.
My garden actually seemed to enjoy the heat. Or most of the garden did. Now that cooler weather and a bit of rain came it – it really perked up.
The globe thistle is fully blooming now.
The bees love this flower. It goes really nicely with cone flowers, too.
Sweet potato vines on the front porch.
I didn’t know that the sweet potato vines actually had flowers. They are only open early in the morning before the sun hits them.
This is annual salvia. I wasn’t too impressed with this, but now it seems to be doing better. These are in pots on the back porch.
We have been getting tons of monarchs lately, too. I did plant with butterflies and hummingbirds in mind, so nice to see that actually works. Here is a butterfly sitting on the railing post.
Lovely ball on that post, eh?
Here is the little paver path that the mail carrier uses through the garden.
We put that in because the mail carrier was cutting across that area before the garden was put there when we first moved in. It seemed like a nice natural path through it, which helps with weeding and such as well to get in there without trampling plants.
View from the porch:
You actually have to sit right by the railing to see this. If you are back on the porch, you can only see the tops of the tall plants. I pull my chair right up close. That empty hook used to hold the hummingbird feeder, but we had some strong winds and it fell off and broke.
Still have some sundrops going. These are lasting quite a while!
And the little teddybear sunflowers.
The heliopsis clematis has left behind its truffula trees.
And more blooms on the scentimental rose. Funny how they are all on the edges and bottom of the bush this time around.
That’s a solar light. We have a couple and need more to light the little walkway.
Tomorrow is going to be in the low 80s and sunny. Absolutely perfect for biking and we are both jonesing for a cupcake! Long ride, here we come!
The garden looks great! Today the globe thistle is my favorite. Oh, and that scentimental rose is gorgeous too.
Have a fun ride tomorrow.
It cracks me up that you show us that your bikes are always in your view! I get it cause I remember the stolen bikes story!!!
Such beautiful blooms Lori – I love your quaint house & porch & all the stuff I don’t see here… 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend!
Glad you have the weather to get your bike rides in, and you know me, I love the neon colors. Hey, you need to be seen on the road, right?!?
Your garden is so bright and cheerful, I just love it. Do your neighbors ever comment on it? Do any of them have gardens too?
Front gardens like mine are not as common, but there are some. I think most people do them in the back, but we have no back yard. I get lots of comments when I am working in the garden from the people that walk by. It’s nice to hear that 😀
The flowers are gorgeous! I love that the weather for you is cool enough to eat outdoors. It would be MISERABLE for us if we did that right now…
The CO situation is horrific. I read every update and it’s definitely heart-wrenching.
It’s still so cool to me that I can actually picture the community where you live and see how well your garden fits in. I sound like a broken record, but it is so cool that you can just get on your bikes and go to those neat places for lunch, breakfast, cupcakes, ice cream etc. Don’t ever take that for granted!!
Small town living does have some nice advantages. 🙂
Your garden really does look so pretty. I can tell it makes you happy 🙂
Enjoy your ride today, looks like the weather is going to be perfect!
Haha – you can tell? imagine that! I told John that there are times when I want to just dance around in the yard, but living on the main road in town and that might cause some controversy 😀
Your garden is my favorite, it is so stunning. Those thistles next to the coneflowers are like a wildflower dream. And that salvia is lovely, too.
LOVE!
I love restaurants that offer a ‘half-and-half’ or combo option, especially for lunch. I’m not much of a soup eater, but I enjoy having a salad and half-sandwich.
Despite the heatwave, folks in my area are making liberal use of their lawn sprinklers or have sprinkler systems, so their gardens are in full bloom. How kind of them to give me such prettiness to enjoy on my walks. (Even if the gardens are hard to see in the early dawn hours when I walk these days. 🙂
First: how cool you got to meet Lynn and had such a great time together.
Your garden really looks great. Because of all the rain we had lately I have to start cleaning up next week when the weather is better but still it won’t be as pretty after that as your’s is.
I have a fun Tour fact for you. I said to R. yesterday, I have to tell Lori about this because it’s funny.
You probable know that American Van Garderen right? Well did you know that’s a Dutch name so I guess his family is originally from Holland but what’s the fun about it: his last name is the name of the village I was born and raised. So everytime I see him it reminds me of home 🙂