Traditional Labor Day

Friday I said to Bud, "Yay, a 3-day weekend!" To which he replied, "We're retired. It doesn't mean as much as it did when we were working."
How true. My memories of Labor Day almost all involve laboring. I could never understand how so many co-workers could take mini-vacations or do something fun when they had an extra day added to their weekend - to me it meant I had one more day to get some work done around home.
Maybe old habits die hard or maybe I finally got in the mood to do it, but this morning I decided once again I would labor on Labor Day. Time to clean up the flower beds.

The worst offender is this monkey face - I've been fighting it here for eight years. I guess it is more commonly known as dayflower weed or Asiatic dayflower, but Mom called it monkey face so that is what I've always called it, too. The only good thing about it is it is easy to pull. I had two 39 gallon lawn/leaf bags full and still have a bunch under the deck to pull.

I had my head down, working around the south side of the deck when I looked up just in time to avoid running into Rosie. She has moved since I took her picture a few weeks ago. She wouldn't have been happy and neither would I!

The honey bees were really working the autumn joy sedum, so I didn't weed too closely here.

I found this volunteer pink moss rose.

The purple petunia between the lambs ears and yellow day lily is also a volunteer.

As is this magenta petunia amongst the zinnias and the new hyssop I planted this year.

 All of the zinnias are volunteers - coming up from the seeds dropped by the zinnias I planted last year. What I find interesting is that only pink ones grew even though the ones I planted last year also included oranges, whites and yellows.

Mama deer and her fawn were by early this morning. It looks like the youngster is almost as big as his/her mama and has almost completely lost its spots.

There was time over the weekend for some non-labor activities - Saturday I made a trip to the Corning Library and came back with eight books.

Yesterday we went to Sun Valley Lake for an advertised, huge, 3-day garage sale. It was a big one, but I limited my buying to just two items - both for the deck.

This lovely, large, green planter for $4.00 and the deck-rail hanger the little water can is hanging from, for a dollar.

The hanging water can was for photo purposes only. Do you like the bell better? Next season I will decide where the hanger goes as well as what to plant in the pot.

On the way to the garage sale I noticed a long drive up to a building at the top of a hill. There was a closed gate at the road - and then I read the sign above the gate. Wouldn't want to look here for help if I had car trouble - might get shot.

We stopped at the car show in Diagonal where this '49 Dodge Meadowbrook caught my eye. It was in the 'modified' class - so even though it looks very original, I'm assuming the modification is the paint job; pretty sure it wasn't originally this color of pink.

The other one that I liked was this '55 Ford. Here is another shot of the two together:

It was a very small car show which was okay. I was ready to go home and start reading some of those books!

In that first photo of the Dodge, you can see the back side of the Ringgold County Freedom Rock. This is the front side:

Hope your Labor Day weekend was enjoyable!