What's Up Wednesday, July 2024 Edition

 

While I hate to rush the seasons, I am so excited for the start of August tomorrow! We are eleven days away from the wedding and I speak for my whole family when I say that we are ready to enjoy the fruits of all of our labors.

For now, though, let's see what's been up in July! Thanks, as always, to Sheaffer and Shay for hosting.

What I've Been Eating

The weather has been hot, hot, hot! Hot weather usually affects my appetite, and this summer has been no exception. I've mainly been sticking with salads and sandwiches, with a little Chinese take-out and carne asada thrown into the mix.

What I'm Reminiscing About

For most of my life, the highlight of the summer was the annual Stampede held in my hometown. The Mayberry Stampede was a three-day celebration of  rural Western culture, with patriotic parades, rodeos, a carnival, and country western music at the forefront. 

Ten years ago, we celebrated Stampede with my Dad for the very last time. If I had known it was going to be his last one, I still would have celebrated it with him exactly the way I did; I have no regrets about the time that we had together. That year, Dad was experiencing Stampede as a "civilian" for the second time in almost thirty years, having stepped down from the committee that plans the event just two years before. My older sister's class was having its 30th High School reunion on our lawn and Dad had gotten a little tispsy on the keg that they had purchased to drink during the parade. He was having so much fun that day and we had so much fun watching him.

While Stampede was never the same after Dad died, it remains a staple in my summer memories and something that I reminisce about as July comes to an end each year.

What I'm Loving

The cut flower garden that I have been growing this summer has produced a plethora of bouquets for my kitchen. I love fresh flowers, so this has been a happy little bonus. The real test of the garden will be the blooms it produces in time for the wedding, but I am optimistic.

What I've Been Up To

When I planted the cutting garden, I accidentally planted a Dinner Plate Dahlia. Since the blooms that the plant produce are too large to use in any of the arrangements for the wedding, it was kind of a waste of my limited garden space. Or, it would have been had I not decided to enter one of the blooms into the county fair, where it won First Place, Best in Show, and Grand Champion honors, earning me $53. What a happy accident it turned out to be.

What I'm Working On

Since this month has been heavy on the wedding preparations, it should come as no surprise to hear that I have been working on wedding stuff, including the shoes that Shanti and the Man-Cub will be wearing at the reception.

I've also been working on the decor for the rehearsal dinner, as well as documenting Hugh's progress on the farm table that will provide the seating for the rehearsal dinner, as well as for the bridal party at the wedding reception. This table was my dream and Hugh is making it a reality; a beautiful, one-of-a-kind, heavy ass reality.

What I'm Dreading

I'm kind of dreading the process of moving that beautiful, one-of-a-kind, heavy ass table from the high school wood shop, where it is being built, to Oscar and Emily's house, where the rehearsal dinner will be held, and then to Shanti's parent's house, where the wedding is being held. She's twenty feet long, solid wood, and she weighs a ton.

But she's gorgeous.

What I'm Excited About

Queen B arrives on Monday. Kristi and Erin fly in from Wales that same day. The Girls will arrive in Petticoat Junction on the 9th. Our family members will start trickling in around the same time. I am going to have my dearest friends and family all together under one tent for an epic party and I am so excited about it!

It goes without saying that I am excited to see the Cub marry the love of his life.

What I'm Reading

I binge read the entire ACOTR series this month. The books get spicier and spicier the farther you get in the series, in case you didn't know.

I also read Swan Song and thought that it was a respectable ending to the Nantucket books. I know that Elin Hildebrand has a Netflix deal and that will probably set her for life, but I hope she continues to write in some form.

What I'm Watching

Hugh and I met Shanti and the Man-Cub for a showing of Twisters and I was not disappointed. I was a huge fan of the original Twister movie, so I was curious to see if the latest CGI technology would put it to shame. The original holds up, but I can't lie; the special effects in this movie were amazing.

The acting was pretty good, too. As an aside, when this scene came on the screen, Hugh said "Look at those veins. I could hit those from here with a dart".

The EMT in Hugh appreciates Glen Powell' s physique for vastly different reasons than the teenage girl in me does, clearly.

And, moving on.

I also watched Our Lady Jane on Prime and can highly recommend it. It's a very cute retelling of the story of Lady Jane Grey. Poor Jane should have had this ending, rather than losing her head at the guillotine.

What I'm Listening To

I recently discovered Shaboozey and I am loving his music.

I'm also really enjoying the Twisters soundtrack.

What I'm Wearing

As I mentioned earlier, it's been hot, hot, hot here in Petticoat Junction. I've been wearing as many flowy dresses as possible to combat the heat.

What I'm Doing This Weekend

I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but I will be working on last minute wedding things this weekend. I also hope to visit the farmer's market for some local vegetables and I really, really need to clean my house. I live such an exciting life.

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month

Do you even need to ask? The wedding!!

Favorite Purchase This Month

My favorite purchase was something for the wedding but I am keeping it as a surprise, so that will have to be a story for another What's Up Wednesday post, so, tune in next month!

Best in Show

In my last post, I mentioned that I had accidentally planted a Dinner Plate Dahlia. The plant takes up a lot of real estate in my raised bed, so I was a little disappointed; I could have used that space for some other cutting flowers for the wedding.

I'm not one to wallow in misery, however, so I decided to put the flower to some use; I entered it into the horticulture category at the county fair. The entry fee was $1, so the risk was low and I figured that someone should see the flower, since it's not something I can use at the wedding, and, is really rather pretty in its own right.

Apparently, the judges agreed because, when I went to the fair yesterday I discovered that I had won the blue ribbon! And, not just that, but the ribbon for Best in Show!

The fact that the honor came with a $53 payout is the cherry on top; it comes close to covering the expense of the seeds and tubers for the entire raised bed this year. Not once has that happened when I planted vegetables, my friends.

I may have to become a flower farmer and forego vegetables forever.

Just kidding, Hugh; I know you're missing your cucumber salads right about now.

But, yeah. Grand Champion! Not a bad way to remember the Garden Experiment of 2024!

Garden Experiment Update

Usually, by this time each summer; I am writing a post about my vegetable garden and how well (or not) it is growing. As we all know, I didn't plant vegetables this year, so this post will be all about the experimental cut flower garden that I am raising.

Early this spring, I planted three types of zinnias, five types of dahlias, five colors of snapdragons, three colors of cosmos, bachelor buttons, and ruby sunflowers in the raised beds that Hugh built for me several summers ago.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I am pleased to report that most everything germinated and is budding out, if not full-on flowering.

I chose varieties of flowers that would (theoretically) bloom throughout the summer, thus making them available for the wedding on August 10th. In order to ensure that they continue to bloom; I have to do periodic cuttings, which feels a bit nerve-wracking (what if I cut too much and they don't rebloom?).

The first cuttings I did were on a dahlia plant that I purchased from the nursery in Hooterville; I was worried about the tubers I planted not producing plants and had wanted to hedge my bets with a slightly more mature plant. That plant has since been swallowed up by the plants produced by those tubers, so I needn't have worried.

When it seemed to be taking an overly long time for my snapdragons to germinate, I again panicked and purchased a couple of plants from the nursery. And, once again, I needn't have worried, as the seeds did, eventually, produce plants, which are now blooming. The picture below is cuttings from the nursery plants, however.

One mistake that I did make was not reading the label on one of the dahlia tubers closely enough. Had I done a better job of that, I would not have ended up with a dinner plate dahlia that will be useless for the wedding centerpieces. The pictures below show the progress of that dahlia, as well as what the garden looked like about a week ago.

I photographed the beds again this past Sunday, and this is the progress that has been made since the photos above...

...including the plethora of blooms that I needed to cut in order to keep things going.

I love the color combination that is happening and Shanti was excited to see that it would compliment the bouquets that we ordered for her and the bridesmaids.

Yesterday, I snapped a few more pictures while doing my morning watering. The bachelor buttons and cosmos are just starting to bloom, and you can really see just how big that dinner plate dahlia that I mentioned above has turned out to be.

The sunflowers are growing really well, and, should bloom right on time (fingers crossed). I am really hoping their color is the deep ruby promised on the seed package, but we'll have to wait and see.

And, that's it for the garden update.

Hugh is still a bit salty over the fact that I'm not pulling cucumbers out of the beds this summer, but, he concedes that the wedding it a titch more important than a cucumber dill salad.