Rain and Quiet and A Question

A good weekend. A quiet weekend, and it was just what I need. I wanted to make myself get out of the house at least for a bit so, after getting Owen off to band practice yesterday, and saying goodbye to Leo, we went over to Prairie Gardens. Oddly I ended up buying nothing which shocked Ernie and told me I still wasn't feeling super. Still it was nice to look at plants and start my head swirling with thoughts of the garden. He bought me a drink afterward. Later in the afternoon I looked out and the sky looked so full of rain that we were surrounded by haze. I texted Leo and sure enough, my sweet weather guy came tumbling downstairs to watch the skies with us. As the rain came in we moved to the porch and it got too cold for me so I left Ernie and Leo to their chatting and curled up inside. Soon, Owen was back from practice. I tossed aside my plans for dinner and we ordered Chinese for delivery. I had sizzling rice soup and Owen hugged me over and over as a thank you, especially when we somehow got an extra order of dumplings. We went to bed early and I read and listened to the rain  fall. Pretty damn nice, eh?

Some pictures:

 And on a final, and unrelated note. Here's my front yard (below). There's an empty spot right in front of the dogwoods that needs something. This area used to be all shade plants, then we lost some of the surrounding trees and it's been too sunny for some but of course not sunny enough for full sun plants. This year, to add further insult, none of my heuchera came back. I had several I really liked, with different color foliage, and also a patch of coral bells that was from my sister Judi's garden in Iowa City. I am so disappointed and unsure about replanting. Anyway...I'd like something with a spot of summer color in that spot. I tried coneflowers and that didn't work. I need tough and reliable given my level of garden care. This has me stumped and I would welcome suggestions. There's plenty of color in the spring so I don't need spring flowering...