July 4th, flowers, and clouds

Saturday, July 4th is here.  Nothing too exciting happening here today, and I'm trying to be content.  The emphasis is on "trying."  The best I can do for a July 4th picture is our breakfast - French toast topped with a syrup made with blue blueberries and red strawberries and served on a white plate, hahahaha!!  With bacon too, of course.  It tasted better than it looked, and was a nice alternative to eggs.

I really have not done anything away from home since Wednesday except go to the grocery store and to our neighbor man's viewing.  It's been really hot, but I've spent lots of time on our porches anyway.  There is usually a breeze and shade on one or the other.  I have never been so thankful for these porches.  When I feel like I could climb the walls of the air-conditioned indoors, I feel so much more contentment by going out to one of the porches.  

Our flowers are outdoing themselves this week!  Here are pictures I took since Wednesday morning.  

I am puzzled, however, by our hydrangea.  The foliage has been so beautiful, and I was really hoping that this year we would finally get some blooms.  I've been watering it faithfully, because I've read that they like lots of water.  But alas, yesterday I discovered it suddenly looking like this!  I have no idea why.

I'm also wondering what to do to get this hanging plant to bloom.  Snapdragons.  I have never had them before, but when we were looking for hanging plants for the porch it had beautiful dark red flowers all over it.  I water it faithfully too, and the foliage is doing fine, but no flowers.  

We still have the same finches at our bird feeder.  I have never seen any of them go inside the bird house, but maybe I just don't watch it enough.  I caught this picture from the front porch last evening. Looks like a guard bird, hahaha!!

We had such interesting clouds yesterday.  When I posted this one on FB, our nephew Eric Stauffer, who is an avid fisherman, said that the one on the right looks like a jumping trout.  

Later I walked outside and saw a cloud that looked like a bear.  I told him to watch out for that bear, it's probably trying to catch the jumping trout.  He replied, "But look at that tree monster watching you with its two eyes!"  Hahahaha!!  

Dick had his July 4th paid holiday yesterday.  We worked in the flowerbeds in the morning.  We replaced the dying knock-out with another one.  We also planted a yellow tea rose bush in the flower bed near the road.  They are both small, but I hope they survive and flourish.  It was SO HOT!! 

In the afternoon Dick mowed over at Anthony and Lori's, so when he came home he was glad to relax in the cool indoors and watch TV.  I sat on the side porch until almost 10 PM.  It was so lovely.  Sometimes it was quiet and peaceful, other times there were fireworks, some right here in our community.  I couldn't see any of them, but I loved hearing them.  I took this picture after 9:30 PM, and it was amazing how the sky was still light above the mountain. 

Here's my July 4th selfie.  How about my eye lashes??  And my wrinkle-free forehead!  Those days are long gone.  

This evening there will be a 15-minute fireworks display at various places around State College, not the big event from the stadium as usual.  They have given various parking lots as good places to park to be able to view them.   We hope to do that.  How we have missed the big event at Longs Park in Lancaster, which of course is not being held this year.  

That's it for this time!