Imagine our surprise to come home from 19 days in Europe to…ta-dah! 

A watermelon!!!
My first-ever, home-grown watermelon.  I’m so excited about it.  
The deer thought they might like to eat the vines, so I made a makeshift lean-to with some screens and sticks and twine, and it seems the deer weren’t interested in  working for it, so we now have a cute little watermelon ripening on our vine!

Since I had a friend watering for me daily, my clusters of pots all look great now, in spite of this broiling heat.  I did have to group them — they were in the trees and scattered about, but that’s so hard to get watered.  

And, I’m not scattering them about again, either, because it’s easier for ME to water them every single freaking day this way!
I also came home to find a nice collection of Agapanthus blooms.  How exciting that they are behaving like they are supposed to for a change!
And, the best for last.  This is our newly-adopted girl, Dakota Blue.  She joined our family yesterday from the PawMatch shelter.  
She and Tanner seem to get along ok, though truth be told, Tanner was perfectly fine being the only dog.  She’s about 3, a Catahoula/hound mix, and as sweet as can be.  She has some manners and knows some commands.  They really didn’t know much about her, other than she kills chickens.  We don’t have any chickens, so I figure that’s ok.
Frankly, I think most dogs let loose would at least chase if not kill chickens.  I know Tanner would go after anything he could catch!  So, now we won’t be getting any chickens.