Coreopsis, Ever Cheerful

I bought this bouquet of coreopsis at our neighborhood farmers' market this Saturday. This kind is a special treat with their dark maroon centers. In the language of flowers, coreopsis means "always cheerful."
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) wrote that as he traveled across the USA "I have been accompanied on my whole journey from Barnaget to Pikes Peak by a silent little follower", the coreopsis growing wild everywhere.

Orange and green in our garden

These nasturtium plants found a drain pipe in our back yard to climb and they love being up high, I can tell.

Can you see that these nasturtiums, which grow next to the drain pipe plants, are blooming madly in a camellia bush? I think this may be a very rare and valuable new plant, the camurtium, or the nastemellia. Well, anyway, it is colorful.
We often pick the nasturtium flowers to add to salads and sometimes a few nasturtium leaves too. They taste like radishes to me.

Our dishwasher broke Friday (two days ago) and the way we found out is it was leaking, and damaged our kitchen floor a bit. So that day my husband pulled out the old dishwasher and ordered a new one from Sears online. The new one will be delivered in ten days. Our dishwasher worked fine for ten years, and we looked it up and learned that most dishwashers have a life of nine or ten years. So we can't complain too much. Well, maybe a little!

Summer reading

Here's a peek at a few of the books I am reading this summer, just to give you some reading ideas. I love reading lists other bloggers share.
Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen. The third in her Royal Spyness Mystery series, set in England and Scotland in 1932. A bit of humor as Lady Georgiana, 34th in line to the British throne and penniless, finds mysterious accidents and deaths happening in her circle.
Question of Belief by Donna Leon. Number 19 in this mystery series set in today's Venice. The police detective is a happily married family man, a nice difference from many other police series.
And Venice is a big part of these books.
At Home in France by Ann Barry. Her memoir of being an American single woman who buys a home in an out of the way area of France.
My Mom Was Nuts by Penny Marshall. A memoir with fascinating mentions of many well known tv stars and actors and directors, plus family tales. Penny was married to Rob Reiner when his show All In the Family was on tv, and her show Laverne and Shirley was also on tv.
The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou. On the day this noted author died I bought this book which gives you a glimpse into her life. The second half of the book takes place in Cairo and in Liberia. Years ago I read her I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and this book was new to me; Maya wrote seven memoirs. I loved hearing her speak, her voice was melodic and hypnotic, especially as she read poems. I never met her but she and I worked in the Civil Rights movement at the same time, me in a modest way and she in a more leading role.
A lovely addition to my book shelves is the NIV God's Word For Gardeners Bible. I have long wanted an NIV Bible, and this one is the entire Bible PLUS 52 meditations and Scriptures gathered with the focus on gardening.
What are you reading this summer? Any movies or books you recommend?
Part Two, two days later. Help, I got more books yesterday! I bought Anne Lamott's Grace (Eventually) Thoughts on Faith, borrowed Jill McCorkle's Life After Life: A Novel from the library (it sounds humorous), and The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (about Venice) and on impulse a Kindle book "Bury Me with My Pearls: Humor with a Spiritual Twist." Obviously I buy faster than I read! And now I am going out to exercise in a pool. Have a great day, every one.