Away from the city to catch my breathe. I've made a number of bouquets that I haven't shared with you and now the flowers have come and gone and karma has left me with dirty flower water and vases. I deserve it.

My cutting garden survived the nuclear-level heat wave -- all much to do with Pete's mom care and watering. I cut these flowers this morning (along with squashing bugs and slugs that were hiding in there -- yuck!).

Is it bad to say that I love these bouquets? We grew these ourselves. And all from a brain fart that I had one day. I was like "hey, wouldn't it be nice to have a cutting garden and blog about it..." and the next thing I know, I have Pete, his family, my family and me laboring for countless days, making soil blocks, seeding the blocks, digging up plots, making frames for the beds, filling the beds with soil, planting the flowers and tubers, mulching and watering. I feel exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

Now to introduce busyB's summer flower collection: sweet peas, fama scabiosa both white and blue, butterfly blue scabiosa, globe amaranth, bennary zinnias, coleus, dusty miller, coral nymph salvia and verbena. I supplemented these bouquets with some delicate white hydrangeas from a 100 year old tree.