Coffee this morning - McDonald's McCafe Ground for Home - overfloweth. The coffee maker spit out the required cup and then just kept on brewing. Right out of my cup and into the overflow tray while I sat there talking to it about how it's not cool to waste coffee like that. 

Homeownership continues. It's novel, after deciding to rent long term and then doing a 180degree change of philosophy over a short period of time. Mr. A revived an ancient, but perfectly serviceable, gas powered lawn mower yesterday. We met Carol, the pool lady and her daughter Michelle. They sent us home with $50 of free chemicals - their gift - and a jet cover to try in addition to the small pile of pails and jugs we will need to keep our pool useable. If the jet cover fits on our pool, we can pop back into the store to settle up. This kind of customer service is not normally found in this neck of the woods. 

I've been attempting to identify the growing things in the yard. 

I think the above will turn out to be Limelight Hydrangea. Or at least some type of Paniculata Hydrangea. The three I have in the front yard are about 6' tall and have been pruned into tree shapes. I trimmed the dead stuff off and will hope for the best. 

I'm a little stumped on the next specimen. The best I could come up with was some type of dogwood.  Here it lives in the corner of a raised bed alongside some honeysuckle vines. It occurs in two other places as well, taller but spindly like a tree sapling would look rather than low and bush-like. The leaves are very pretty in spring, green with red edges and veins. 

My goal today is to identify this little guy. I think he's growing accidentally, but he obviously likes it where he is. Also, I need to see if ferns Ike transplanting. And weed. So much weeding. I have decided that very little was weeded or maintained over the last two years. But that's ok. I'm learning lots and have a bit of reference material to consult in the evenings:

Today's gardening and yard work will occur during the heat of the day. Who would have thought that I'd be talking about hot days after the winter we had?! The bugs are out in the evenings already. I must inlist the teenagers to help today as I'm simply not going to be able to get the yard up to snuff without them.

♥Mrs. A.