Ropes

remove R

add H

Hopes

Margo....LOVE CHICAGO big time....seen many times but not in the last few years I better get with it!!

ROPES (Margo)

Remove R

Add T

New Word is

PESTO

pesto

remove O

add S

pests

Pests

Remove e

Add o

Stops

Stops

Remove S

Add O

New Word is

STOOP

Stoop

Take off the p

replace with L

stool

Stool

Take off T

Add P

New word is

SLOOP

Wow, that game worked pretty well. I'll total up the points in a few minutes.

Here's who I had on my list for the July Swap.

Jeanne

Ruth

Annie

Margo

Mandy

So partners will be:

Jeanne sends to Margo

Margo sends to Jeanne

Mandy sends to Annie

Annie sends to Ruth

Ruth sends to Mandy

We've had lots of rain and thunderstorms this weekend and of course I welcomed the rain, but I haven't been on the computer much because of it.

Based on the points for the two games, Annie is the winner for Week 1.

I'll try to add at least one more game this month.

As for points, Annie had the highest score for the first part of the game and also the second part.

Points for the second part of the game are:

Annie - 9

Ruth - 7

Margo - 5

Mandy - 2

Breanne - 1

Thanks for taking the time to play the new game.

The date I had set for mailing out was the 14th, but if anyone needs a few more days (and some already asked), it's fine. Margo, please message your new address to me. I want to make sure I have the correct one.

Jeanne, I will send you my new address!

Margo, please email me your new mailing address as well.

Thanks much!

Jeanne, your package was just ordered. I will let you know when it is due to arrive. I hope you like it.

We had a little bit of rain this morning. It was nice but not enough to even water the plants. It's still cloudy thou, so that's helping keep the heat down.

Mandy, I mailed your package today.

Ruth, I just popped your card in the mailbox. Your two "lemony" items will be delivered from Amazon directly to you....I chose the delivery date to be Wed., July 19. By then you should have received the card in the mail....you can open them together. I am quite sure the Amazon items will be delivered in one package.!

I think I am going to make some lemonade....sounds good!!

Happy day!!

Ruth - It looks like your package went to my old house. The new owner and I will coordinate, so hopefully I can pick it up in a few days. I'll post once I get it!

My package to Annie will be going out by Monday!

Mandy

Mandy, I am so sorry. I checked two address list I have for Fotess and your address was the same on both lists, so I assumed it was correct. If the package doesn't make it to you, I will resend.

Please send me your correct address so I will have it for next time.

Ruth mailed to Mandy

Margo mailed to Jeanne

Mandy will mail to Annie on Monday.

Annie mailed to Ruth

Jeanne will mail to Margo on Monday.

Great job, everyone!

Here's what I came up with for a final game. This will begin now and go until the end of the day on Sunday. Yes, still the LEMON theme.

You will list up to 5 facts about lemons, the plants, cooking with lemon, etc.

Once someone else had posted you can post more. However, once a fact has been posted by anyone, you cannot post that same fact again.

I'll give an example using PEACHES for you.

1. Peaches are a fruit that has a fuzzy peel.

2. Gilbert, SC, had an annual Peach Festival.

3. The Peachoid is a 135 foot tall water tower in the town of Gaffney, SC, that resembles a peach.

4. Peaches are a member of the stone fruit family, which means that their flesh surrounds one large middle seed.

5. Scientifically the peach tree is known as Pruna Persica.

Those who post a fact about the lemon that is not a duplicate of one posted before them will get one point for each fact. Let's see what we can learn.

Lemon facts....

1. During the Renaissance period, women in high cadre used lemon to redden their lips naturally.

2. Lemon trees were a sign of status and elite during the Victorian period and were grown in several houses as a sign of prestige.

3. Lemons are considered beneficial in lowering blood cholesterol.

4. Lemon ‘Caviar’ also known as the Finger Lime is the most costliest lemon in the world, for a pound you will have to pay $180.

5. The twos states of California and Arizona produce 95% on the entire lemon crop in the world.

Ruth, I just received an update from Amazon. It looks like your lemony items could be delivered tomorrow (Monday).

Happy Sunday!!

Margo, letting you know that I received your card and recipes.

Annie, thanks for posting lemon facts for us.

I need to get my lemon swap together so I can mail it tomorrow.

Sorry there have been problems about mailing addresses. After a long time with no one moving, we seem to have had several of us move over the last few years.

I'll try to update the list.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

1. lemons are part of the evergreen family

2. lemons are native to asia

3. Lemons are actually a hybrid between citron and bitter orange

4. lemon juice is high in folate which can be good for male fertility ;)

5. lemons were first discovered as a cure for scurvy in the 1740s before vitamin c was established as the key component.

Our new house

Watching a storm down in the valley from our deck

Annie, the card came Saturday. Will watch for pkg. tomorrow.

Good Lemon info.

Margo, that view is awesome.

Went to Euless Garden Club meeting yesterday. We had a presentation on food preservation. I guess I haven't canned anything in a while. I learned that my old waterbath canner will not work on a glass top stove.

This morning we got some much needed rain, but by noon the sun was out again. Today in North Texas gardeners group, a lady was offering 33 small concrete retaining wall blocks for free. I asked for those as fast as I could type. So, in the morning I will be adding them to one of my flower beds to help hold the soil better.

My first iris of this year is blooming. Is that crazy??

Ruth, great score on the wall blocks. I love the online sites to grab good stuff.

Our view is awesome. Being up higher brings in the cooler temps as well as good breezes. I just hope the winters arent harsh. neighbors here are awesome. There isn’t too many but we’ve met 4 of the 12 we have. They are mostly seasonal home owners.

It's a Lemon kind of evening at my house.

Always awesome things in Annie's packages.

I love the flag and the napkins.

I do love lemon pound cake and have made it many times, but not this recipe.

Lemon dill dressing sounds interesting. I'll definitely try it.

Thank you so much Annie.

I was growing dill, but the Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillars ate it.

I made some lemonade a couple days ago. Most of it is still in fridge. I love

Chick-Fil-A lemonade. It would be gone already. We buy the gallon jugs.

My package went in the mail to Annie today. ETA is by Friday. I hopefully will be able to pick up the package from my old house tomorrow!

Mandy, I am headed out of town Thursday afternoon/evening and will return Monday or Tuesday. If your "lemon" fun arrives while I am gone, I will post after I return.

Ruth, glad the goods arrived....I can not grow dill for the life of me....from seed or plants. The snails loved it and I even used snail bait.

And Ruth, you like Chick-Fil-A??? Is everyone else in to Chic-Fil-A??? My friends all LOVE, LOVE LOVE Chick-Fil-A. I have only been to CF x 2. And they are building a huge CF about 6 miles away....my buddies are all so excited. I am not at that point...I am not a big chicken fan! I did not know that CF serves lemonade. I gather it is the real thing???? LOL!!! It does not taste phony???

Happy Evening!!

I had a busy day today so I'll keep this short and head to bed. I signed up for a computer class at the senior center and it's far beyond anything I know. It goes through Thursday. They even went over how to take your computer apart to clean it and of course how to clean up all the operating systems, too!

Margo, your house is beautiful and wow, what a view! I mailed your package today and didn't look on the slip to see when they say it will arrive.

I can see I need to deal with who has mailed and received, game 2, etc. when I log in again. We've gotten a few days with some rain and the mornings and evenings are cooling off a bit once again so all of that is good. I've been leaving more length to my lawn due to the hot weather so that's on my to-do list once again. After it rains a time or two, it needs more mowing.

When I was walking my dog this evening there was a mother deer with her baby in the yard across from me. So sweet to see them. They were staring at me and my dog so I didn't see them eat anything. Certainly they ate something in someone's yard. I'm getting much more aware when I buy plants that they say they are not especially attractive to rabbits and deer.

Yes Annie, Chick-Fil-A lemonade is made fresh every day (water, sugar, and fresh squeezed lemons). I love it. Both my grandsons used to work there. I think a gallon is around $13.00.

They also have a frosted lemonade and a diet lemonade.

My dill and fennel never survive the caterpillars. But I do love having the butterflies.

I was finally able to coordinate and pick up the package. Thank you so much Ruth!

I love all of it, and never knew there was Jalapeno Lemon Spice peppers - but it sounds amazing! I will try the buttermilk pie someday, and cocktail sauce is always useful.

I'm

Received my package from Jeanne today. I have to say the whole thing looks so pretty together. She sent a pretty card, a lemon holder (handy for sure), lemon ginger tea which is going to be made into ice tea and two great recipes I am anxious to try. Thank you Jeanne for a great package!

Annie, I have tried to see what the big draw to Chick-fil-A is but I just can’t get into it. I am just not a fan.

Our house is 1/2 mike from the Blue Ridge Parkway and we are so rural, we see deer a lot. I have deer look out when hubby is driving at dusk or dark. My dil and I saw a fox run across the road which was awesome. There are bear in the area but they aren’t seen to often. That’s fine by me.

Thanks again Jeanne for the great package and for a great hosting job!

Margo, your wonderful package arrived today and I was so excited when I opened it. I love gnomes!

Margo sent two placemats, the little gnome "person" and the sign about Make Something Sweet.

Her card and recipes had already arrived. I'm going to try to get back online this evening and get caught up with posting. In addition to computer class I began having a problem with my cell phone over the past few days so time to log into "help" for it and try to get squared away.

Got my cell phone issue taken care of although the "help place" didn't have me do anything and suddenly the data was showing once again. For some reason there was like a 3 week gap when nothing was showing. Wish I knew how things like that could happen.

Anyway, all of the swap packages have been mailed and Annie says she will not be there to post for a few days so once she posts, this is completed.

Annie won the first game and both Annie and Breanne tied for the second game so I will send a small prize to each for that as well as the 1st game prize to Annie. Breanne I'll get in touch with you about your new address.

I'm with the people who love Chick-Fil-A. I probably don't go there more than every 5-6 weeks but it's a nice break from hamburgers and I love their waffle potato fries. The last time I went I got a peach milkshake and that was heavenly!

I want to mention that we do not have anyone signed up as hostess until October. I really don't think I can be hostess for August or September but if anyone gets interested even if it's just for keeping up with a chat for either of those months, it would be nice. Maybe for next year we should have fewer than 12 swaps and have some months with just chat, games, and/or pictures. I know the postage is expensive. Let me know your thoughts.

Oh, I used to have a recipe where you blended frozen lemonade with maybe something like Cool Whip and you used it to ice a cake. It might have been the cake was flavored also. Anyway you could even make it with a store bought angel food cake and not need to use your oven. Does anyone have a recipe like that? I couldn't find the one I had and I sure would make it again if I knew how!

I am home now.....just opened a FANTASTIC package from Mandy!!

*A darling card.....LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF LEMONS, IT'S SOMETIMES SOUR, BUT YOU CAN MAKE BEAUTIFUL THINGS WITH IT.

*recipe # 1 LEMON Zucchini Cake....sounds FAB. I don't think I have ever eaten a Lemon Zucchini Cake. Looking forward to making this!

*recipe # 2 Garlic Butter Steak and LEMON Green Beans Skillet....Garlic and Lemon are two of my favorite yum-yums! This sounds really delicious!

*Do It Yourself Nails...hahaha....they have LEMONS on them....to darn cute!!!

*A pin that says EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZE.....love it!!

*A Hobo hat (that is what I call these hats).....with LEMONS....This is perfect and certainly different....right up my alley!!

Mandy, you hit it out of the ballpark. Thank you so much!! I will post a picture shortly!!

Lemon heaven from Mandy

I don't know what the user name is above (the Mandy pic of Lemon Heaven)....it is me Annie! I am still canyonwind. I got a new cell phone and that is probably the culprit.

Happy Eve!!

Great swaps, everyone! The swap is complete and thanks for bringing some fun during this extreme weather month.

Jeanne, thanks for a wonderful month of LEMON!!

Happy August to all!

Jeanne, thanks for a fun swap month.

I've been thinking about my fall planting, but it's just too hot and dry right now.

I'm having to do a lot of watering just to keep stuff alive.

Y'all have a good August and maybe we'll all get some cool weather in September.

I'm posting here since we don't have an August heading. I'll be sending out the July prizes soon and sorry to be so late doing it. Things have been busy here. Seems like there is always too much on my to do list. I will work on getting the membership list updated as well. Storms seem to be coming through regularly and I'm happy for the rain. So far we are getting through them just fine. However, I had a pipe in the wall burst this week and although the pipe has been repaired now I need to take care of getting repairs to all the drywall that needed to be cut out when they had to get to the pipe. What a mess! Never had this happen before in any house I've been in.

Hope everyone is staying safe, I keep buying plants hoping they can survive in my garden. Some make it, some don't. Sure miss all the plants I had accumulated in SC that were doing so well there.

Jeanne, I’ve had pipes get leaks like that. One time it was a water pipe in the upstairs bathroom that had a hole develope and make a mess of the ceiling. That’s when we no longer cared for upstairs bathrooms.

I brought plants from my old gardens and they are struggling. i just hope they can adjust. All the ones I left in Ohio were so lush and beautiful.

I received my updated members list and my new info is correct. Thank you Margo

we have finally had a little rain and a break in the HIGH temps Hope all is well in your corner of the world. I'm about ready to slide on into fall

Thanks for posting, Beth. I hear some thunder starting up. Hopefully some rain will follow. My plants and even the trees are in stress from the heat and lack of rain. Dried leaves are falling from the trees - arg - raking up leaves in August!

Same here .Local weather said it is a "Two year drought ," this being the second year. Farmers have been selling off cattle because there is no grass in the pastures and what little hay is available is priced sky high. This will keep prices climbing everywhere. I planted about 40 seedling trees this spring and there are only about 3 that look like survivors. I guess the biggest worry is if/when wells start going dry

No one has signed up for September soooooo how about we each pick 5 or 6 members at random and just send a card with a brief note.

A new address list arrived recently and I think several are folks I have not seen any posts from in a very long time. I have been missing from the action I believe since before Covid started.

A pack of note cards is still less than $2.00 and even with stamps this will be a thrifty way to keep connected. I hope everyone will send at least a card or two. No need to commit or say yes or no, unless you want To post. I sorta like the element of surprise/suspense.

I have finished renewing my master gardener certification and am enjoying participating in that. The classes and program have changed a lot since I first did it about 30 years ago. Showing my age for sure but I'm too old to care

Bethb

Nice idea, Beth. No requirement to do this idea, but I will mention it in the September heading. Also, I heard from Amy and she has a new address so the member list will go out once again. Just wanted to give you a heads up about that. It was so nice to hear from her.

Beth, you were more ambitious than I was to go through Master Gardener training once again. I checked to see if NC would honor my SC certification, but they don't so I am just not up for such a long commitment going through the classes again. I joined a local garden club and am enjoying that.

Jeanne, since you are updating the list anyway, please change my email to vzmroczek@outlook.com. That's the same as the one if you use Houzz message to email me.

I still have the other one also but don't seem to always get those.

I think most of our many many triple digit days are about to wind down and we finally had a bit of rain one night.

Jeanne,

Thanks so much....I received my prize.....Lemon Spice Jalapeno Pepper and Lemon Bee Balm. Fantastic selection.....

I have been out of town so I am getting caught up....well, not really. I never get 100% caught up but that keeps me on my toes.

Happy holiday weekend to all. Be safe and have fun!!

Glad your prize arrived, Annie.

Ruth, I made a note of your change in email address.

Very hot here - so ready to see any sign of fall. Wondering how many of my plants will die as the result of this weather. So disappointing.

I will be hosting OCTOBER FOTESS and will post the swap early next week.

Things have been so very slow around here regarding FOTESS and OBF.

October FOTESS will be very simple.....

Happy Thursday!!

Annie