Happy mother's day! You may or may not remember me posting a picture of this flower this past autumn/winter. It is STILL blooming. Which is amazing because it's bloomed in nine degree weather through today which was above ninety degrees. An amazing, amazing plant. Matthiola is the tops. ETA: there is a part where the deer nibbled it ;)

It's hard to keep a Lab out of the pool! We closed the pool at the end of September after 4 days of rain - the water temperature was in the low 60's. While Maggie was enjoying her last dip my pool guys were getting out the pool cover and cleaning the deep end. In the bottom photo Willis is wondering where the water went.

Hi Schoolhouse_gw - I was surprised at how large Pompeii is. I would have like to have seen Herculaneum too. It was a long day, the day we went and my phone died, I wish I had more pictures. We were blessed with good weather and since we arrived so late it was almost empty. I hope that you go! It’s interesting to see how they lived in their homes, they had a water collection system with pipes and public fountains. The red light area was fascinating as they have small rooms with pictures of different things a person could purchase above each small room. Our guide told us that many foreign travelers couldn’t speak the language so they would just point to the picture.

I can't decide if my pumpkin is as big as it's going to get or not. I've never grown one before and didn't even plant this one! The "handle" is hard but who knows??? I am pretty thrilled I have it!!