First Heat Wave

It is really really hot these days. We had more than 90F degree for the weekend, and it suppose to last till Tuesday! I don't really mind that much about the heat as long as there is wind, but I really hate the humidity! Our yard is really open, no house in front or right behind us, so normally, it's not that bad if I open all the windows and doors. I am so glad that I installed the two screen doors, the front door and the kitchen door. Now the wind goes through my house freely, and we don't need to use the AC very often. We are trying to go green and save on energy, so I sun dry my laundry in summer, and we stopped using any chemical in our yard. I grow some vegetable in the garden organically, so I don't want the chemicals anywhere near them. And remember, whatever we put in our lawn can not all be absorbed by the grass or flowers, some will end up in our underground water, and might come back to us someday. And those chemical fertilizers can make your grass look very nice, but not as strong. And who are we to decide what grass are good and the others are weed? We got lots of clovers this year, they spread over from our neighbor's yard. I don't care what other people say, both DH and I think they are pretty. They provide different shade of green, and give you those lovely little white flowers. And they took over some bare spots, and I think because they blocked the light, I haven't seen any crabgrass this year. I have been fighting them for the last 3 years, and was losing the battle. I love any other kind of grass/weed, just absolutely hate the crabgrass.

My strawberry plants are doing great, still lots of white flowers, but have lots of berries set already. I picked our first strawberry yesterday, and let me tell you, the tasted of the fully ripen strawberry just picked from the garden is just heavenly. And I can be sure there is not even a drop of chemical in them. To those people want to start a home veggie garden, try grow some strawberry and cherry tomato. I guarantee you won't want to buy them from the stores any more. They are that good! Oh, don't forget the green beans, they grow like wild, don't need much care, and they add more nutrition to the soil.

I made a cute apron from my friend H. Her name means 'red leaves', so red is her favorite color. I got a piece of fabric the other day which is super cute, and decided to use it for aprons and shopping bags. The fabric has lots of squares, each one has some cartoon girls and some hilarious words. The one I chose for H is "Chocolate Cures Everything". Funny, huh? My absolute favorite is the "I Live For Weekend" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Funds" (The girl in the picture is holding tons of shopping bags!) Wait till you see the picture.

Oh, I have to show you a picture of my blooming Phal later tonight. Remember I told you that the first flower opened about a couple of weeks ago, and lost a petal to my 'flowing curtain'? The second flower opened this weekend, and it is SO WEIRD! The top 3 petals are fine, normal looking, but instead two more petals and red lip for the lower half, this one only have one more white petal! What happened there? Is my Phal mutated? Have to wait to see the other flowers. And I guess the 'flowing curtain' not only ripped off a petal from the first flower, it also damaged some small buds, and some of them turned yellow and dropped. Sad! But I learned my lesson! Update: here is a picture of the weird 4-petal flower. Notice the new flower on its left, it has all the petals, and looks gorgeous! OK, my Phal is not mutated entirely, just this one flower.