A Beautiful Day - Joyous Things

Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining and the blue skies are almost cloudless. I did a bunch of laundry and have it drying out on the 'passive solar dryer' (sounds fancier than 'clothesline' LOL).

I'm really looking forward to crawling into bed tonight and smelling all the 'fresh air' on the linens.

I procrastinated too long this spring planting things from seed. I have a couple of kinds of sunflowers whose seeds never made it into the ground. Fortunately one seed made it into my garden. Maybe an errant one from a feeder or one from the bag of random garden seeds that I spread around.

This one finally started blooming last week. Its green foliage had been bending with the sun. However it bloomed so late that it faces south - away from where I can see it from the house. Regardless, I love coming out and seeing how it's doing. Often there is a bee greedily taking pollen from it.

Over by the fence is a patch of black-eyed Susans and some chocolate joe pye weed. Skip planted those a few years back and the pollinators love them. The solar 'wiggler' in the bird bath doesn't get much sun these days; I need to move the bird bath out from the fence more. The sunflower sculpture was made especially for me by a former colleague, Anne Marie, who has a garden sculpture business called 'Annie's Glass Flowers'. 

The coreopsis has bloomed steadily since July. 

It and the bachelor's buttons/cornflowers add a riot of colour to the garden.

They, too, were part of the package of annual seeds I spread on the garden last June.

Skip's friend, Bob, dropped off a bunch of NY Times Sunday magazines yesterday. I love the challenging puzzles and occasionally read an article.

Poppy gave me this hibiscus a while back and I've managed not to kill it. It offers endless blooms. I'll take it inside this fall and see if it will survive in a sunny window.

Last night I added the bottom row of octagons and granny squares to the Persian Tiles blanket. There seems to be enough yarn left to make more octagons. I'm trying to decide if I'll add 4 more to the bottom or 5 more onto the right side. If I do the latter, I'll have to remove the triangle I've already attached to the right side between the top two rows. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed crocheting this.  I might even do another one. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time sitting on my butt in front of the TV working on this but hey, at my age and in my situation, if it gives me joy, why not?

I can't express enough how enjoyable it is to spend some time each day to focus on the good things in my life. The crappy things are there - I just don't spend a lot of time fussing about them. This gratitude practice does wonders for my mental health. That, and spending time with fun folks, pursuing my absorbing hobbies, and dwelling on all the good things in my life. I am so fortunate in so many ways.