Welcome, August!

Looking back, July was a pretty doggone good month.  I finally [fingers crossed] got Delta Airlines straightened out.  I notified them of Jay's passing two days after he'd passed.  For five months, despite calls from me each month, not only did they debit our checking account for Jay's medical dental insurance, they continued to deposit his salary!  They stopped his retirement immediately but despite all the proper paperwork, they were unable to comprehend that he was no longer a citizen of this planet.  I received the reimbursement of the medical dental and saw that there was hope.  Then, a week later, I got a letter from Delta advising me to pay back his salary.  DUH!!!  I knew that but was just waiting for them to stop.  They have been reimbursed and, hopefully, all's well that ends well!

Weatherwise, July wasn't as hot as years gone by.  We didn't get to 100 degrees until July 30th, I believe.  Nice!  And today, we're having a lovely soft gentle rain.

As some of you know, we have a gigantic red oak tree in our side courtyard.  It lost several limbs in the June 9 storm.  Here are a few photos from the neighborhood:

The last photo is of the limbs I lost from the red oak but others in the neighborhood lost stone or brick walls, roofs, windows, and flooded floors due to the torrential rain.  My new roof was completed just days before the storm and it seems to have held up quite well.

Said red oak doesn't allow grass or other plantings to grow there and each year we've gone to the expense of having that area resodded.  This year, I decided to replace it with artificial turf.  After Sam Hill Tree Service trimmed and reshaped the tree due to limb loss, I had North Texas Luxury Lawns install artificial turf.

Before [after Meredyth's arduous work]:

There were large flagstones in front of the patio and half a dozen or more azaleas in front of the guest bedroom window.  Flagstones were re-placed outside the west gate.


During:

I, maybe not so surreptitiously, snapped a photo of the crew during the installation.


After:

That's the back of the amazing Donny Lee who oversaw the project.

Meredyth Petree and her crew did an amazing job assisting me with the planning and removal of unwanted plantings, flagstone move and new plantings outside the west gate not to mention pruning and reshaping neglected or abused shrubs. She's absolutely priceless!

I'm now pondering whether or not I should extend the artificial turf to the back wall!  But I'll think about that another day.

The patio is going to be used much to my delight!  Jay would have loved it!

My good friend, Cindi Eades, helped me select new patio furniture from Yard Art in Plano on the last day of July and it was delivered the very next day - a two seat glider and a rocker. It's grey and shows up a little drab so after it was delivered, I ordered some bright and lively pillows to give it some pizzazz from where else? - Amazon!!!

I also had the help of Cindi in ordering a new vehicle.  Jay's MKX is wonderful but just too big for me.  I'll not divulge make and model of my new vehicle until closer to delivery date - or even after delivery.

So, maybe the first "do" will be Pinot on the Patio!!