Cooling it, hanging on, and a birthday......

July days are in full swing.........big holiday over, leaving on a vacation end of this month. Today is DH's birthday - seems there were great firework displays in his honor last night, lol!

Happy Birthday dear Bob, and here's to many more - fireworks guaranteed.

• Reviewing past magazines before sharing with friends.  
• Loving Fifi O'Neill's beautiful book.
• Checking blogs, of course!  
• Sipping Trader Joe's pink raspberry lemonade with the addition of fresh raspberries.

The gazebo has a great overhead fan..............an hour or so in the afternoon, out of the direct sun, despite 95+ degrees, is bearable and pleasant.  A few hours later, as the sun drops lower, with a glass of chilled rosé and a salad, a Summer supper is enjoyable.  Early morning with the first coffee works for me too!

Meanwhile, tucked into my front steps, a tiny purple viola is still surviving in the torrid heat!  Somehow this sweet flower seeded from a plant in the nearby flower bed, amazing!

We're far from the blue ocean, at least two hours driving on the hot, hazy highway. Perhaps a sea of cool green ivy will be the closest we get to water for a while. Will be off to the West and my favorite blue lake later this month.  
Plenty of ivy in my garden - impossible not to keep that plant down.
  

Red hot bricks and mortar.  Each day a bloom fades and shrivels, then another opens.  Definitely a lesson in tenacity for me.  

Discover the small things tucked in the corners of every day.

I'm enjoying reading your guesses regarding my cruise to somewhere!  

If you haven't entered yet be sure to return to this post and give it a try - the more the merrier!