Middle of the Week

 The last of the blooms of the William Baffin rose are such a deap, pure red. They are at the very top of the bush and I almost missed seeing them. 

The natural arrangement of flowers can be perfect as they fight for a place in the field. Two different colors and two different versions of the flower species.  I favor the flowers that look like the one on the right. 

The yellow marigold is also of one of the two species kinds. I guess the variety also is the difference of tall and short. I worked outside in pleasant temps and trimmed back some branches that keep hitting my in the face while I push my mower around. My red bud tree has been hard to mow around and I am slowly trimming up from the bottom the smaller branches. I have a larger one that has almost died so I can get that off of there. the tree looks a little bit like a lollipop but I think that what I have done really hasn't hurt it shape.

As the summer wind downs I can see the hosta making a change in their leaf foliage. Bugs are eating on them and the drought of the season is taking out some of the hostas. 

I know we have a few more weeks of good fall weather but I am not ready for that to happen. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunshine Day

 

 

The morning view evolves to a set of mixed textures of grays. The change took place in less than twenty minutes. 

 The last sunflower is putting out so many blooms. The first ones are all dead now and I will soon need to clear them. I will wait to be sure that the birds have picked them clean. 

 A shot of the new beginning of the one bloom in comparison to the one in decline. The monarch butterflies are interested in these and I didn't know that they put out any nectar.

 The rose bush in parts are also now in decline. There are still good blooms on the bush but this is not such a pretty sight. 

I mowed the back yard today. It was shaggy and was thick in some parts. In other parts I didn't even mow as it was dry and thin. We are needing rain as we have cracks in our ground.  I decided to move a part of my hydrangea to a new spot. I tried to dig it where it was against the foundation of the house and I had a difficult time with the hard, dry, clay-filled soil. I am glad to get the plant moved as it just never took off at its present location. I brought them from our old place and the bush does get to be large. I left some of it back at its original place and I am now rethinking that it will all need to be moved.  

While mowing this morning I saw something that I  thought was a mushroom. No, it was a plastic golf ball from the neighbor's yard. The kids to the back of us must have been golfing. I will give it a toss across the fence. I gave away a lot of tomatoes on Sunday to friends and I picked that same amont the next day to replace them. I need to make some new friends. 

We have had a cool morning but then it warmed up nicely. Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday. Start of a Week

 The trails of two or three jets are in the sky of a cold clear morning. It is the best sky I can get as there is nothing for the sunlight to reflect off of excupt powder clouds in the distance. 

A couple walks by each day and she is waiting to see if this lives or dies. I will have to water it often. I did put it into new top soil to help it grow. 

I didn't have as many bloom cycles from my William Baffin rose this year. I did have lots of rose hips from the last bloom cycle. 

I washed my house in the front this morning. I had to dig out my power sprayer and remember how it works. After I set up the thing I got off the dirt that has collected on the siding for the past two years. It changes the color of the house and is satisfying to get it cleaned. I will do another side later in the week. 

It warmed up to 80 degrees F. this aternoon. We will have the same temps for the next few days. I am not really ready for these cold mornings but I wear a coat anyway until I get too hot. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunshine Day

 I would like to use this bonsai tray for a tree that I have growing but I like the cactus in the tray too much. I ordered some new bonsai trays and it will be awhile before they arrive. I like the material that this tray is made from and it is better for live trees. It is a terracotta clay pot. They make them in plastic but that isn't so great to use.

 

 

 My lone surviving angel fish keeps on growing. I found out that the fish loves to eat newborn guppies. They get swallowed up instantly. I have hundreds of guppies and they are in other tanks, not with him. I do have a couple of guppies in there with him to keep him company. They do birth a few guppies onces in a while but you know what happens to them.

We warmed up to a comfortable tempurature and sunshine. It was cold in the morning but low 79s is wonderful. Monday is coning and warmer weather is coming too Thanks for stopping by today.

Weekend News....

 

 

 I never took the time to count the number of buds that were on my orchid. Now it would be too difficult to count as the flowers are all pushed in together.

 For some reason the new mum that I purchased for the raised front garden has the same color scheme. I am really taking good care of this to be sure it roots down before fall.  Watering it every three days.

My sedum in the backyard also has the same colors. I cleared all of the plants around this so it could get room to grow and bloom well. We are not in a drought so it should have longer lasting color. 

I have a rock garden situation next to the house that the former owner created. I moved this rose from out in front next to the step back into the line with the knock out roses. I had to dig, scrape and shift rocks to finally find soil. I dug this and planted this rose into my hole adding brand new potting soil around it to give it a good place to spread its roots. I had a boulder to move around and three other rocks to rearrange to place around the newly planted rose . That was gut killing but I did get it done. I will get a shot of it to share on another day. I also dug some hostas from out back and placed them in the old hole where the rose had been. That soil was so clay packed that I wondered how the rose grew.  I bought this rose during the time that my wife was in the hospital or nursing home and I planted it late at night in the dark two summers back

. It is a different color than all the rest that are in this area. I don't understand genetics but sometimes there seems to be a stray that shows up with reseeded plants. 

We had a cool day all day. I worked this morning with my hooded sweatshirt and it felt good. I think our grass in the front yard has quit growing. My backyard grass is still green, a little bit shaggy, but I didn't have to mow it this week. My neighbor was talking about lining up someone to do snow removal but that is premature talk. 

While blogging right now the town ice cream truck just went by with its carnival music playing loudly. I didn't run out and stop it as I am sure there isn't any sugar free ice cream. It is an interesting life living in this city and the truck just adds to its curious flavor. Our other neighbors are in Estes Park this week living among the elk that walk freely among the tourist town. They can live with a father who owns a house in that historic town up in the mountains at the base of the Rocky Mountains. We have not been there for years but I have great memories of the place.

Thanks for stopping by today.

A Cold, Windy Day

The sun was setting and I looked out at the garden. There was this one fluttering around feeding with great vigor. I went out and spent some time with it and ended up take random shots all over the garden. It was a good photo shoot. 

There are time when you don't know that I am holding the flower still from a strong wind. This time it seems great to show the whole act for the sake of photographic success. An old man's hand trying hard for to fight the wind.

We are not eating them as fast as they come in the house. Our one friends may get some more as they got their last batch two weeks ago. 

I still have the color of phlox in the garden but they are sure fading fast now. We are having another windy day so the small pink blooms will still be falling on the ground. 

I don['t think I will ever see a pumpkin from this seed and vine. I know lots of people in our area are thinking about harvesting them from their field so this vine did germinated soon enough. I like seeing things growing and I will just let it go until the frost gets it. 

It seems to be too cold to be outside this morning. I did go barefoot to take out my recycle bin but I did get back inside as soon as I could.  I want to move a rose bush soon but I am healing up a muscle in my back so I will have to find inside work today. Thanks for stopping by today.

 

The Thursday Times....

 I got out a metal fence post and drove it into the ground. I then tied the tallest sunflower to a more upright position. It isn't straight up but at least it isn't on the continue decline and headed to laying on the ground. 

I have a whole collection of the tall one with different cloud backgrounds or not clouds at all. 

 The tall marigolds hold their own among the zinnias. They are all the same height but their shapes are more like fluffy daisies. 

The knock out roses are not doing so well this time of the year. I did see the himmingbirds buzzing my neighbor's roses this morning and hers get more sun than mine. They are redder in color and yet they are the same brand. 

I worked in the front yard again this morning. I have dug out the invasive purple sage and it is now mostly gone. I know that there are roots that might come back but the hosta now has room to move over and the cone flowers won't be forced to lay on the ground because the sage was laying on them. I threw away most of it but did plant a couple of starts on the back side, end of the house. If it spreads there I will welcome that. I hope that it will grow better there but the soil I put it in was full of clay. It will be an experinent and I would hope it gets more healthy color in that location. 

It is Thursday and I remembered to blog after my wife reminded me. Thanks for stopping by today.