Happy Monday, sweet friends! I hope you all enjoyed a beautiful holiday weekend!
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”
Psalm 42:1 (ESV)
After many, many days of rain, the sun has been shining brightly and the temps are in the 90’s! It definitely feels like summertime in the South!
It is Monday Morning Blooms and Mary and I are happy to have our lovely friend, Sarah from Hyacinths For the Soul, joining us. Lidy is unable to be with us today, but she will return next month. You will find the links for Mary and Sarah at the bottom of this post.
For the July edition of Monday Morning Blooms our theme is ‘Summer Living’!
We love living in the country and our summer days are filled with outdoor chores, one of which is gardening! ‘Little Lamb’ panicled hydrangeas are in full bloom. We have two that flank the front entrance to our garden. They are supposedly smaller and more compact, but I am not sure that is holding true!
Memories are often my inspiration for a table setting. While my brother and I are taking our time to clean out our parents’ home, I keep finding things to bring home with me. My beloved Mother used this basket for keeping devotional books and her journals close by. When she passed away eighteen years ago, I left it filled with her reading material and would often pick it up to read when I was there with my Sweet Daddy! Many of her books have now been donated, but the journals and basket came home with me! I thought it would be perfect for holding hydrangeas. I placed nine pint jars in the basket and filled them with Little Lamb hydrangeas and then added a few Chaste tree blooms. It was so easy, absolutely no skills required!
Vanilla-Strawberry panicled hydrangeas (background) haven’t come into full bloom yet, they bloom a couple of weeks later than the Little Lambs. I kept the tablesetting simple to allow the basket of hydrangeas to be the star!
The cottage garden is in view where annuals are planted that provide lots of color!
“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
My late paternal grandmother and my darling granddaughter EK share the love of the color purple. A friend of mine (retired antiques dealer) discovered this beautiful purple cloth at an estate sale in Atlanta a few years ago. She sent me a photo and I immediately said I wanted the set which included napkins. I have only used it a couple of times but I thought it would be perfect to showcase the hydrangeas.
I was raised a city girl, not a large city, but still considered the city. When Butch and I married, he and I moved slightly into the country. After six years of marriage we built our present home way out in the country, or so it seemed for this city girl. It was so much in the country in 1979, that we couldn’t get a phone line for four months. Before you gasp, we did have running water and electricity! Country living won my heart in a very short time. Butch grew up in the country and is so knowledgeable about the woods surrounding the foothills and creek banks. Over the years, he has taught me to love country living…the sightings of deer, bald eagles, turkeys, and all things wild…including wildflowers. For those of you that have followed our long-time series, Simple + Southern Sunday, he has been the writer and photographer for several years and you all have embraced his knowledge, expertise, and his joy of country living. I am always learning from him. He taught our son to love God’s amazing creation and he is teaching our grandchildren!
Adagio Maiden Grass creates an interesting backdrop!
Portmeirion ‘Botanic Garden’ dinner plates and favorite stemware purchased several years ago at Tuesday Morning are simple table details. ‘Eden’ napkins by April Cornell complement the vintage tablecloth!
The late afternoon sunlight casts an unusual glow over the garden!
Summer brings on opportunities to be outdoors. Country living is all about outdoor activities, so the two are perfect for getting together for a picnic. I decided to invite everyone to join me at the picnic table. It is nearby at wood’s edge, but not a part of our garden. The picnic table is exploding with color! A cobalt vase holds flowers cut from home…sunflowers, black-eyed Susan’s, and rosemary. No arranging was required!
When I think of summer, I always think of picnics! My growing up years always included a picnic table in the back yard. Not only did the neighborhood kids often gather at the table for refreshments, but my brother and I found another use for the table. It also served as our ping pong table. We both became unbeatable in the neighborhood. Keeping the ball on that short table was not an easy feat, but our daily practice paid off! Another great memory!
Summer living should involve fresh tomatoes. With fresh tomatoes in season, you must have a tomato sandwich or two. There is a law that states the sandwich must be made with white bread, home-grown or farm raised fresh sliced tomatoes, salted and peppered, and for Butch it has to be Hellman’s mayo. Many might disagree with him and say it has to be Duke’s mayo. I have no opinion on the mayo, believe it or not, I don’t eat tomato sandwiches! Butch says I should be ashamed!
The picnic basket has a sweet memory attached! It was packed for a very special event thirteen years ago. Our son planned a surprise picnic in the country above Little River Canyon to propose to the love of his life. Of course she said yes, and we have been blessed with a daughter-in-love and four grandchildren!
‘Everlasting’ floral tablecloth by April Cornell provides a beautiful background for Spode ‘Blue Room Tradition Series’ dinner plates and blue and green swirled glasses from Tuesday Morning.
Every summer picnic needs a watermelon and of course, sweet tea!
“The boy was barefoot with dirty feet. He wore very used overalls. He walked a thorny path beside a few tomato plants wondering how long it would be before they would provide food. Being drenched with sweat was a way of life and cooling off would come by jumping into the nearby creek. I assumed he was poor and underprivileged, but learned he was just a boy who knew how to enjoy summer, living in the country!
~Butch Richardson
A mischievous someone took a bite!
Click on the links below for Mary’s and Sarah’s lovely ideas for summer living!
Mary ~ Home Is Where the Boat Is
Sarah ~ Hyacinths For the Soul
Thank you for your visit and gracious comments. Our thoughts and our prayers are with so many in Texas and across our land who have been impacted by the horrific tragedy that continues to unfold in the Texas hill country!
Linking with: Pieced Pastimes, Between Naps on the Porch, Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Life and Linda
Good morning Pam, Such a treat to see two tables from you Your garden setting looks so cool and tranquil with the beautiful white Little Lamb hydrangeas and green grass in the background. I love the gorgeous basket of your mom’s filled with beautiful hydrangeas and Chaste tree blooms for a pop of purple. Your linens on both tables are lovely, how nice to have a friend to look out for you while shopping estate sales. Your AC napkins complement the vintage cloth perfectly! I agree with Butch about a summer tomato sandwich, but we’re “Team Duke’s”. 😊 Love the story about you and your brother playing ping pong on the picnic table! As always it’s a treat to share blooms with you. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead, stay cool! 💗
Thank you, Mary! I am afraid my ping pong game is not what it used to be 😉Have a wonderful week 💕
Good morning, country girl! I always feel immediate calm when I’m transported to your beautiful blooming haven. I have oak leaf hydrangeas in our garden, but nothing as prolific and lush as yours. They are the one hydrangea that grows here for me. With all our recent rains most of the blooms are now brown. I need to get out and tidy up. In summer, I focus on the containers of geraniums and vinca, and ferns. Hoping they don’t decline with our deluge of rain the past week. Not complaining! We welcome the rain! The green landscape looks happy and lush. The cooler air for the month of July is also a welcome surprise.
I love all your stories and the basket is a show stopper. The basket immediately caught my attention when I first saw your image. I also love the thought of your mom’s journals. What treasures!
Butch never disappoints with his writings. Great story!
Picnics offer a special kind of charm, and I’d love to join yours. I’m not a tomato eating girl, but I can fill up quickly on watermelon. There is some sitting in my refrigerator now. April Cornell linens and Spode Blue Room Traditions create a stunning setting out in the garden. Your table reflects your setting!
Happy Summer, Pam. Thank you for including me today, and thank you for the prayers and concern for us here in Texas. It’s a sad time.
Thank you, Sarah! Gardening is not easy with weather conditions constantly changing. I must say the heat and humidity get to me! I can only stay out for a short period of time. I was so happy to get to fill my Mother’s basket with blooms. She would have loved it. It is always a pleasure to have you join us, Sarah 💕🙏🏻
Happy Monday Pam. How sweet that you are re loving your mom’s reading basket into your life. It looks so pretty on your table with the mason jars filled with your garden flowers. Have a great new week. Hugs. Kris
Thank you, Kris. My Mother would have loved it. Happy week to you!
How I love the quote from Harper Lee, “It was a thousand colors in a parched landscape”. That is summer, as well as picnics and wonderful food. I love how you set two tables for the summer living edition of MMB, Pam.The Little Lamb hydrangeas and chaste blooms are simply pretty on the lovely estate linens (my J loves purple too, and always picks the purple colored gourmet chocolate mints out of the bowl). The memories are always happy thoughts, and I didn’t know you were a ping pong champ! Beautiful table settings, beautiful season. Oh, and I do believe my dwarf Bobo hydrangeas will exceed their upper size limits also. Happy Monday!
Thank you, Rita. I have often found that plants grow larger than their tags and plant sites show. I am afraid my ping pong game was retired years ago. It sure was fun! Have a wonderful week!
Tomato Sandwiches in the summer are so important and part of Country Living! It’s Hellmans for me as well! Funny story… out west in Arizona, Hellmann’s is called Best Foods. It’s the same mayo, just a different name!
Your basket from your sweet Momma is such a treasure; now it is filled with blooms from your garden. Simply beautiful!
Your purple vintage cloth is gorgeous! How wonderful that you have a friend looking out for you. 💜
Your picnic table is the perfect setting for summer fun in the country! And to have the picnic basket that Seth used for his Proposal Picnic! Wow! Great memories all around!
Thanks so much for such refreshing inspiration!
Enjoy your country living, my friend! 🥰
Thank you, Nancy. How funny that Hellman’s is called Best Foods in Arizona. I enjoyed filling Mother’s basket with hydrangeas. She would have loved it! Memories are so important and I love sharing them. Wishing you a great week!
Summer. This post speaks summer at its finest, even a tomato sandwich with a bite taken from it. 😀 A beautiful basket loaded with hydrangeas on a AC tablecloth on a picnic table. Back to the tomato sandwich, I also favor Hellman’s Mayo. Had one last night on one slice of bread and a slight of green pepper on top. Yum! And it was one of the tomato’s I picked from my little garden. Thank you Jesus🙏🏻 I loved Butch’s comment about the barefoot boy. I only put shoes on to go to church or to town. I also was a barefoot county person and didn’t get to swim in the pool in town but the creek, Sandy Creek, where all the country folks went to cool off. Canning tomato’s was a job that required going to the garden barefoot and bringing washtubs of them to be readed for the canning jars. Memories!
Alice, I know you were excited to have a tomato sandwich using one of your home grown tomatoes! Hope there will be more in your future. I was hopeful that my post would speak summer. Barefoot and summer go together! So many kids loved swimming in the creek. Canning tomatoes is also a part of summer. Those canned tomatoes are so good during the winter months! You and I enjoy our memories!
I love the contrast between the 2 tables Pam! The garden table is pretty and serene with the lovely soft purple linens and your mother’s basket holding garden hydrangeas and sweet memories. The picnic table with its bright colors and gorgeous sunflowers in the striking blue vase draws you over with the promise of a fun time! The story behind that special picnic made me tear up 💕
Psst…I’m with you about tomato sandwiches, no thank you unless it’s on toasted bread with lettuce and bacon!
Thank you, Jenna. It was actually fun to set two totally different tables. I am so glad I am not the only one who feels that way about a tomato sandwich!
That basket is wonderful and especially with your hydrangeas. I loved the story behind it and I’m so glad that it (and the journals) return to you with very special, specific memories. That clean out is a process, often a walk through memories and past times. I hope you have the ability to take as much time as you need with it.
Thank you, Jeanie. Yes, I am definitely walking through a lot of memories. My Mother would have loved seeing that basket filled with hydrangeas!
Pam, such a lovely post. The two tables are so pretty. Love your mother’s basket with the hydrangeas. The vintage tablecloth is so lovely. Wonderful memories to re-live. Tomato sandwiches are so delicious. Happy summer.
Thank you, Linda! Yes it has been a season of wonderful memories! Happy summer to you!
Love Love Love both tables Pam and I especially love your stories about ping pong and reading and picnics. Ahhhhhh, I do love a picnic and still go on them frequently. I actually have about 8 picnic baskets and look for more vintage when I happen to see a garage sale. I even have two pie baskets which I love to take to church potlucks as people love the memories of these old pie baskets. I could talk for hours at a picnic and I love Butch’s story of the barefoot boy. I don’t know how we did it but my two sisters and I never wore shoes all summer long. I could run across our farm pastures through sand burrs and nettle and loved every minute of it. (except when Mom had to put mercurochrome or iodine on a nail puncture in my foot.). Your tablecloth collection is enviable. And I love tomato sandwiches with lots of salt and no mayo. To each his own or perhaps a better phrase was we did with what we had. Have a wonderful week. Prayers for Texas flood victims.
About the classic tomato sandwich..shame on you for not being a fan..lol. Both tables are so perfect to the Season and the prayers and observations of your beloved Mother have blossomed through the basket
to a beautiful Summer floral expression. Uncle had a hunting lodge deep in the country where we would
visit in Summer and dive/swim in the big creek. A visit a few years back stunned us with the loss of
deep country through development…but the beloved creek lives on. How your blog stirs up such wonderful memories, Pam and Butch. Just love Seth’s romantic picnic basket occasion. Congrats on
the step up from city to country gal…definitely becomes you.
Mary, in my wildest dreams I never thought I would love living in the country, but I absolutely love it! Thank you for your sweet comments, they warm my heart! Progress has taken out many beautiful woodlands, but I guess things never stay the same! Have a lovely week!
Table settings are beautiful. The basket made the setting beautiful. Love your garden in the background with lush grass. What type grass do you have? We struggle with green grass in summer. No matter what we plant don’t survive?? Winter rye here is lush.
Thank you, Nancy! The grass is zoysia, it is definitely a warm grass. We plant winter rye in part of our landscape in the fall, knowing as soon as it warms up, it will die.
Simply beautiful and creative tablescapes! The lovely basket held generations of memories and now you will continue adding wonderful stories to it! I have not had a tomato sandwich in years – thanks for the memories!
Thank you, Mary! I am quite sentimental and I love sharing memories! Wishing you a lovely week!
Pam, what a delightful surprise – two beautiful tables, and I love them both. The garden table is so pretty and the AC napkins are perfect with the vintage tablecloth. I love the Botanic Garden pattern (I have some too) and the Little Lamb hydrangeas and chaste look gorgeous in your mother’s basket. The picnic table is wonderfully bright and cheerful with the spode dinner plates and colorful AC tablecloth. The sunflowers are such happy flowers and the picnic basket is filled with wonderful memories. I’m not a tomato sandwich person either – unless, as Jenna says, it’s with bacon and lettuce. And of course Hellman’s mayo! My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the terrible flooding in Texas.
Thank you, Kim! It was fun to do two totally different tables, but probably won’t do that again (lol)! I loved using my Mother’s basket for the hydrangeas. It was so simple and easy! Wishing you a wonderful week!
I’ll definitely have some Summer sweet tea Pam with those delicious looking tomatoes! Are they homegrown?
And I love the Hydrangeas in your Mum’s basket with the purple linen. I’m partial to purple hues too, especially in the seventies when purple was the fashion colour!
A lovely Summery post sweet friend. Blessings, Jennifer
Thank you, Jennifer! The tomatoes are home grown. The basket arrangement was easy, but most sentimental! Blessing, my friend!
dear friend, that basket laden with flowers is a refreshing glimpse of summertime in your neck of the woods! simply charming, elegant, and welcoming. just like you.
happy july to you and yours.
Linda, your comments are so sweet! Happy July to you and yours!
Greetings Dear Pam! Something else we share in common…city girls who ended up in the country. I thought oh no at first, but now I love the peace and quiet.
Butch and I totally agree on the mater sandwiches except for the Mayo! Duke’s girl here. Every Sunday I learn something new from Butch’s blog. Your mother’s basket is a true treasure and looks beautiful filled with hydrangeas. Stay cool and keep the sweet tea coming!
Thank you, sweet friend! Country living suits the both of us. I am so happy that many of our readers love Butch’s writing knowledge. Yes, sweet tea is always appropriate!
Such beauty and inspiration! Wonderful tables and magnificent centerpieces! I do love those blue dishes. Always a pleasure stopping by!
Thank you, my friend!
Each photo more beautiful than the last, such a gorgeous spot in the country, beautiful landscape plants, and your florals so perfect in your Moms basket. The linens are some of my favorites!
Bonnie Chase
Each photo more beautiful than the last, such a gorgeous spot in the country, beautiful landscape plants, and your florals so perfect in your Moms basket. The linens are some of my favorites!
Bonnie Chase
Thank you, Bonnie for your sweet comments. I appreciate your visit. Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!
Dearest Pam, I apologize for being su late to comment on your beautiful summertime post. It has been a crazy week with lots of appointments. My family has been keeping me on my toes-lol. What a treat that you shared two breathtaking settings with us filled with pretty flowers, special treasures, and gorgeous views! These photographs belong in a magazine. I have been having my share of fresh garden tomatoes and tomato sandwiches. It’s one of my favorite summer treats next to fresh orchard peaches. I wish you a most happy and blessed rest of your week, dear friend!
No apologies needed, my friend! Life is busy. Thank you for your sweet comments. Fresh peaches, does it get any better? Happy Friday!
Pam, Your tablescape is beautiful! I love your tablecloth; it’s a favorite and always reminds me of your Mother’s Day post a few years ago when you used it. Your centerpiece is lovely. I always enjoy your posts. Enjoy your weekend and stay cool. Clara❤️
The purple tablecloth is just gorgeous! And your mother’s basket is so pretty. That is such a great idea that you put the nine pint jars inside it to make the flower arrangement. You are so talented and creative!