Let us take a moment to appreciate my magnificent gardening skills.

Summer is almost over, and I have to say I am not looking forward to winter.  I haven't been skiing in 4 years because, er, I'm always pregnant (or living in South Carolina), so I've kind of forgotten what it's like to do anything but scrape the snow off the car and waddle through snow very slowly in the winter.  So maybe it won't be so bad.  But what I'm most going to miss is the gardening I've been able to do this year.  We had planned to do landscape our front and back yards last summer, but, well, again, I got pregnant.  And since I generally spend the first 12-14 weeks of pregnancy lying on the couch trying to make everyone around me as miserable as I am, summer just flew right by and no landscaping happened. 

This year Luke and I did the front yard while I was on maternity leave (I have NO idea how we managed to get that done.  It's pretty impressive I think.), and then my mom and dad did the backyard when they came to visit in June.  We have really enjoyed both this summer.  I planted all my favorite things in front...roses [3 kinds!], columbines, rose of sharon, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, gerber daisies, you name it.  In June I bought a packet of sunflower seeds and planted them in my front flower beds, not expecting much.  Well of course the $3 seed packet produced the most thriving plants in my garden...some of them are over 8 feet tall, and right now I'm estimating I have about 50 blooms that have opened already, and about 25 that are almost there.  They are in all different colors and I just LOVE them!  The great thing is that if you cut the blooms and put them in water, they last for about 2 weeks.  Anyways, I know this post is a real thrillride for all of you.  But I want to remember my sunflowers someday when I am relaxing on a beach chair in Jamaica with Luke, so I took some pictures and I'm posting them...so there.

These are my favorite of all the sunflowers we have this year.

Sunflowers attract A LOT of bees.  Our wonderful neighbor, Mary, thinks this is great for all of our plants (Mary gardens, too).  I am just thinking of bee stings myself!

Yup, you guessed it.  Another sunflower.

My beautiful Columbine flowers. 

Aaaand a random rainbow shot.  Do you know I've seen more rainbows this summer than in my entire life combined?  It's kind of wierd!  We have them almost every day here this summer.  On the way back from the mountains last weekend Luke and I saw like 10!  I know I know, amazing stuff.  My blog really keeps you coming back for more, doesn't it?