Guest Photographer: Cindy--All the way from Texas!

Here is  part of an email I received on Monday:

 "Hey, Karen, looks like we'll be out your way on Tuesday afternoon.  Do you mind if we stop by?" 

Do I mind??  I was thrilled!!!  I was finally going to meet TufaGirl (aka Cindy) and her husband Shawn who drove all the way from Texas. I've been a fan of Cindy's blog, Texas Tufa for a long time.  It was wonderful to meet them. 

Shawn, Cindy and me.

 I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there's just something so special about the blogging community.  When Cindy and Shawn got out of their truck yesterday, for me it was as if we'd been old friends for decades.  Carl wanted to be here too, so he took a half-day vacation Tuesday afternoon which worked out so well.

When Cindy and Shawn arrived, it had been raining but there was a chance the weather might give us a little break later on, so we went inside for a little lunch while we waited. The weather here has been rain and humidity and heat (and mosquitoes) non-stop, but Cindy and Shawn said this was nice weather compared to Texas which has been breaking heat records in the 100's for weeks on end.  Cindy said she wished she'd brought a sweater along on the trip!  (Just goes to show I'm a whiner, I'm just not liking the weather we'd been having lately.)

 We had high humidity yesterday, but today it's finally supposed to be cooling down and drying out a little. You can see by this photo above how humid it was for their visit.  Cindy had never been to Wisconsin before and for the most part they had been following rain storms wherever they went, so I hope on their way home they get to enjoy nicer weather.

We asked Cindy if she would mind being our guest photographer and she graciously agreed.  So here we go, the gardens from TufaGirl's lens:

Take it away, Cindy!

I hope the black-eyed susans keep on going for awhile yet.

The lilies are almost done

Pouting angel in the garden

Sneaky Carl taking pictures of Cindy in the garden! 

I think the coneflower in the middle is Pixie Meadowbrite...it's a bit smaller and brighter in color than the others I have.

The metal 'sunrise' shape is from a piece of old farm equipment of my Dad's...it was part of the back of a silo filler.  The shape was cut out by Carl's dad with a torch and given to us as a gift.

Ernie is much more photogenic than I am, LOL.

Look who showed up for a visit, too.

That's one odd flower, isn't it?  Talk about two-faced!

Something Else bed, finally doing something besides looking dowdy.

View from the Pachyberm

Our guests graciously overlooked the fact I haven't kept up with the weeds or the deadheading.  They were so nice!!

This is a good photo for the Yard Art Game.  I bet you could score a lot of points with this one, Cindy!  

The time just flew by and all too soon our wonderful guests had to be on their way.  It was a day I will never forget, such a special time with good friends.

Thank you so much for your guest photography, Cindy, and hope you and Shawn enjoyed your visit as much as we did!