Shocking! Absolutely Shocking!

While the girls were in Texas for three weeks, we were enduring some of the hottest weather we've had in awhile, as was much of the country around us. Since watering the plants is one of the girl's chores, our landscaping was suffering greatly, as I kept forgetting that in the absence of child-labor, I needed to water the plants. That's why it came as quite a shock when I walked out our door one morning to find this in our yard:

"You've got to be kidding me!" Was my first thought. What were they looking at? My lush potted plants?

Or was it my beautiful hydrangea? (Note - this plant is in a bed that is usually too soggy for the plant to ever bloom. This is the first time I've ever seen it droop. Usually it's drowning. )

Now, granted, not everything in our yard looks so pathetic. I've got a bumper crop of bell peppers this year in red:

Orange:

and yellow!

Too bad I haven't been able to eat any of them - when you turn them over they all have blossom end rot:

Bummer!

We do have some nice flowers - they made good subjects for Jerry's photo rampage when I told him he needed to find a new photo subject:

But they are almost all in the back yard where our neighbors can't see them. I guess our neighbors knew that we were trying our best. . .

Luckily, the kids are home now and things are looking up -

I feel a little redeemed!