Summertime

It's so close I can taste it! I just received a "Special Weather Statement" on my desktop warning us that the temperature is going to get up above 80 degrees....can you believe it?!? I still follow the weather religiously, though it is not quite as exciting up here as it is in the Midwest. A Special Weather Statement in Omaha likely is followed by instructions on how not to get killed by a tornado!!! Here's our forecast for this week, I'm not sure what those strange yellow spheres are supposed to be on Thursday and Friday...we don't see that one often...

Anyway, last Sunday as supposed to be rainy but Rach and I took our chances and decided to plant a flower bed. While we were out shopping she asked me how I knew the annuals from the perennials. I didn't really know, I suppose all that time landscaping helped. I think I knew one from the other before that though and i think it has to do a lot with the beautiful flower beds mom would plant. The ones I saw her plant every year were the annuals, everything else, a perennial. I can't name a lot of the plants but I can take one look at most and tell you if it will make it through the winter. I remember the marigolds most vividly because of the bright colors and also because they made my fingers smell bad, that smell still reminds me of summertime at our house on Burt street. Also, snapdragons because you can make them talk. And also a plant with red leaves that got these vertical stalks of flowers that I always had to help her pull off. These seemed to be in the flower bed every year. 

The promise of warm weather also reminded me of the awesome kiddy pool we had with safari scenes on the sides. I'm pretty sure that you can still walk into most drug stores in the summertime and buy this same pool. We would fill it up with cold hose water and jump in. Even though it was often 90 plus degrees outside, our lips would turn purple from the frigid water. it was so much fun though, kids don't care! We would swim around and around in circles until we made a "whirlpool." Although, I don't know if this is strictly a childhood thing as I typically buy myself a kiddy pool every year still, though I now refer to it as an "adult lounge pool."