Mums the word

My mailbox finally has flowers again.  It has been very hot and the marigolds that I had planted there gave up a few weeks back.  I have been reluctant to jump at buying any new plants to put in that flowerbed because of the heat.  Recently I had a neighbor ask me if I could hem some work pants for her husband, and if I would, how much would I charge.  There were 4 pair of pants and I told her that I typically don't charge, but I would consider bartering.  She wanted to know what I wanted to barter for... I told her flowers around my mailbox.  When they came to pick up the pants they had two really big Chrysanthemum plants in their arms.  Mums always remind me of the town where I grew up, way back in Connecticut.  They had a Mum Festival every Fall.   I initially tried to separate the big beautiful plants, but it was going to cause too much damage to be worth the attempt.  I'm quite pleased with how they turned out.

There is another story that goes with the mailbox that didn't really involve the flowers, but when our mailbox got whacked a few months back I had to dig up around the base to straighten the post in the ground and repair the part of the post on the top that is PVC. The blue patch is where the big crack was. We had no real clue who did it, or really how it happened until one day another neighbor told me there was a video that the neighbor directly across from us caught on his security camera.  A car came down the road and appeared to head straight into the mailbox.  Shoved everything out of place and actually cracked the PVC.  No, it was dark and not real close, so no plate number was visible... we still don't know who did it, other than it was an oblivious driver who may have fallen asleep.  I had not met these neighbors yet, but these are the neighbors that brought me my new flowers for my mailbox