A Little Of This And A Little Of That

Good Monday morning friends. It's a big week in the US of A and we're excited to celebrate all that is wonderful about life in America. I honestly don't want to hear any complaining right now. I'm 1000% over the fault finding that has become the noise in our heads and our news feeds for far too long now. Look up. Turn off the talking heads and invite the neighbors for a cookout instead. 

Is America perfect? No. But she's full of natural beauty, big hearted people, a culture that's as varied as the miles are long, and freedom in abundance. May God bless our nation on her birthday and always. 

Joining Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) today for their Hello Monday link up. Recapping the weekend and doing a bit of a June flower photo dump too. Here we go-

June was nice. We had summer temps and plenty of sunshine. Friday was lovely and hubs and I sipped coffee on the deck before tackling the dinner prep. We had friends coming over later and hubs was grilling ribs. 

I got busy making a blueberry pie. 

The blueberries were the biggest I've ever seen and so sweet. I struggled a little with the crust and had to make it twice, but all's well that ends well. I make my momma's recipe which has a whipped cream topping instead of a second crust and I prefer that to the double crust. 

Do you use pie weights when you bake a crust? I usually forget I have them but this time I remembered and they helped. 

It was yummy! 

Friends arrived around six and we had a lovely relaxed evening sitting outside, listening to the sound of the waterfall, catching up, and eating a wonderful meal. They didn't leave until almost midnight and it was my favorite kind of Friday night. 

Saturday we had nothin'. What a feeling. We drank coffee in our pjs and chatted on the porch until Daughter1 called asking if they could come over and swim in the pool for a while. 

We peeled ourselves off the porch and changed into swim suits to meet them at the clubhouse a little before noon. We took the little red car because it's fun. The noodles took up the entire 'back seat' so I rode with my bag on my lap but it's literally .02 of a mile so no biggie. 

There was a family having a birthday party when we arrived but they wrapped up soon after we got there and the pool was mostly ours. The weather and the water were perfect and we packed up and made it back to the house just before the skies let loose with crazy rain and thunder.

We ate leftover ribs for a late lunch at almost 3 PM so I told hubs he could have pie for dinner. 

We popped over to our next door neighbor's house to check out their big patio project that's underway and while there I snapped a picture of their hydrangea. I want one in this deep purple color. 

My hydrangeas are blooming too...limelights-

and the pink diamond too-

We spent the rest of the day watching World Cup and I finished a terrific book I'll talk about when I share my recent reads on Thursday. I can't remember the last time I indulged in more than an hour of reading. 

A goldfinch has started hanging out on one of our hummingbird feeders. 

Yes, I'm in my bird watching era. There's a heron who grabs his breakfast on our shoreline pretty much every day and I'm amazed by these creatures. 

Sunday morning we went to church, then came home for a brunchy lunch of scrambled eggs and fried potatoes made with left overs from the frig. We discovered Father of the Bride was on tv so we settled in to watch (it's one of our favorites), and hubs had a nap while I blogged and finished a second book. 

So chill. So necessary. 

Now bring on the stars and the stripes and the fireworks and all the gratitude for living in this land I love.