For a shady, nondescript place in the garden there is nothing like a variety of Coleus plants to add colour and whimsy to the spot. This is the area between our house and the neighbours, next to the gate into our yard. These Coleus plants start out less then a foot tall when planted, and by the end of the summer are almost waist high on me. I love them.

DH and I are starting two weeks holidays. Pardon me while I dance around the room for a few minutes.......okay I'm back. The nasty hot weather with temperatures reaching 117 degrees with the humidity factored in finally left us on Wednesday night with one of those summer storms that appears out of nowhere and turns day into night. We can open the windows at night for sleeping, and sitting in the shade of our big tree doesn't cause us to break out in a sweat.

Today our friend Mary came for lunch and to celebrate her birthday. We had lunch on the deck and then sat under the tree and talked and laughed. Discussed books, movies, gardening, Sean Bean, books and history. It was a nice start to the holidays. Now DH is puttering in the garden, and guess where I am.

Tomorrow we go to Peterborough for the day. DH's great Aunt Elsa is turning 100 this week. We're picking up SIL and driving there to attend a party that one of her grandsons is throwing to celebrate the occasion. Imagine living to be 100 years old. She came to Canada when she was around 6 years old, lost her father in the first world war, and her mother I believe died not long after.
She lived on her own until around aged 96.

I've just finished reading Sebastian Junger's "A Death in Belmont" and have started reading Kathy Reich's "Cross Bones" although I wasn't planning to. It was sitting on the kitchen table and just jumped into my hands. What could I do?