Thank you, Marlorena! Rosemoor make a delicate looking confection of a bouquet. I am thankful for my American heritage, of course, but also for our English heritage. England gave the world Henry Purcell composer, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, John Bunyan, writers and Ronald Colman, my favorite actor - A Tale of Two Cities, the respite of afternoon tea, and of course, English roses. We love our neighbors across the pond as we celebrate our own country today.

Here are mini flags in the front bed with the coleus. The 4th of July parade I normally do with the Mustang club was canceled, no surprise, so that’s a little sad. I really look forward to it every year. We are done super early by 10:30. DH is grilling now before it gets to the predicted high of 94. I did 8:30 Zumba step aerobics on the deck, and it was pretty hot already. We have an industrial fan we can use on the deck. It also helps keep the mosquitoes away.

Are you sure it's not a virus or other type of disease? I've had malformed rose flowers sometimes when the plant isn't well watered or well nourished.

Thanks for sharing Dawn's wisdom, Amy. Larry, my kitchen is a disaster. Poor Jen stopped by today with her sister-in-law and they both had to witness the mess. I had just emptied my crock of fermented cucumber and moved them to a giant jar and into the refrigerator, so that mess was out. Dozens of tomatoes sitting around. And the jars of diced tomatoes that were canned yesterday were still sitting on the counters as well as a pile of canning rings and who knows what else. Oh, the cat sitting on the kitchen table on an old, cleaning towel. Finbar has some kind of allergy on his face and ears, btw, Jen. That's why he looked like that. It heals up as long as he stays indoors. And, Larry, I always have good intentions to prune and tie up tomatoes. I do pretty well early in the season, but once the produce starts rolling in, there's just no time. As a result, my plants look awful. At this point if they die, it's okay. The determinate ones will need to be pulled soon anyways. If the plants haven't produced well, I try to keep them going. I'm not going to fuss much with them this year. I'm pleased with the 55 pints of diced ones in the pantry. And there's more inside waiting to fully ripen. Yes, sun scald. I don't know how the heavily pruned tomatoes deal with that. Maybe if they are in high tunnels with a shade cloth? I didn't do much in the garden. Just looked at everything and picked the okra and blushing tomatoes. Also a couple of hornworms. I did get to spend a half hour pulling crabgrass from the annual side of the pollinator garden. It already looks better. Even tho I wasn't IN the garden, I did a lot of kitchen things with garden produce. Made pesto for one. It's so good. We went to the farmer's market to get honey and also got a loaf of sourdough bread. It was really good. I made pesto tortellini tonight for dinner, so the bread went well with it. We are about to start Whole 30. Monday is the day. Gotta get the carbs in now. lol I will be forced to cook every night while on Whole 30, so time management with the garden is required. The okra is piling up as well. That will need to be dealt with soon. Maybe I'll fry some tomorrow night. Okra is allowed on Whole 30, but most breadings are not. Thought about buying cucumbers at the farmer's market. They are $3 a lb. I need 10 lbs. I wasn't okay with spending $30 on cukes. So, I called my neighbor who has a lot of pickling cukes and slicers going crazy right now. We're exchanging eggs for cukes on Monday. I want to make some bread and butter pickles. That's my update.