Traveling Plain

I don't know how long ago it's been since you flew, but when you don't fly often, and I don't, it is easy to quickly see how things have changed.

Security may be even more scary these days. I always feel vulnerable and guilty at the same time when I go through security. It reminds me of being a grade school student and the teacher asking if that was a note in my hand and didn't I want to stand up and read it to the class?

I try to eliminate anything I could be wearing or carrying that might cause the TSA agents to take a closer look at me. I wear no jewelry, wind pants with no belt and place everything I can in one of the bags going through the scanner.  You are not even allowed to have a tissue or piece of paper in your pocket when you enter these new scanners so now I know I have to unload my pockets prior to the search.

You still have to take your shoes off when being scanned, and even with those, which I placed in a plastic bin, the agent had to move them around in the bin to his satisfaction.

I do settle down a ltitle after I am through that ordeal, but when walking onto the plane (small, very small!) and seeing how cramped everything is, my first response is to run back through the tunnel to the waiting room.

I could drive to my destination, couldn't I?

Flowers Suffering from Dry Weather

My friend and I went out this week to get a few replacement plants for her garden. We went to the same nursery we had gone to in May when we had to restrain ouselves from buying every lush plant they had on sale.

Not so this week. The nursery's plants looked like mine: droopy, burned out, and very sad. Even our weeds are suffering from the intense heat and humidity we have been experiencing here in Western Pennsylvania.

My little baby dahlias with the most gorgeous colors have given up the fight and need to be pulled out and tossed. My hanging basket is dropping leaves faster than I can sweep the porch. And every day, whether I water or not, my impatiens look completely shriveled up, like they have been spending time in the desert.

So what creative thing can we do to rescue our gardens? I'm not sure, short of watering more which I am doing.

Would love to hear any creative tips you might have to help us all save the plants and flowers we have tendered this summer. It would be a shame to lose them all.