Mainers...........

Bar Harbor, Maine

Our son Aaron and  his wife Keegan have been here for a couple of days for a visit.  They are taking a driving tour and will end up in Grand Rapids, Minnesota at a lake for a few days before driving back home.

The above photo was taken two years ago on their wedding day.  It was a rainy morning but turned into a great sunny day.

It was good to see them and they are doing well.  We ate out at our local cafe the first night and also at The Machine Shed in Des Moines on Saturday.

It was a fun two days and Keegan had a good time exploring this Iowa prairie with all the fields of corn and beans.  They took a few things of Aaron's back with them to take to their home in Lamoine, Maine.  A quilt, bike, sweet corn, toys, and his saxophone were a few of the items.

Thanks for stopping by this Sunday and have a good day...........another scorcher of a day for us today.

Top view, side view.......and up close.

While at the neighbors yesterday I was able to capture a top view of Penny.

and a side view of her planter filled with flowers.

As I returned home I found an up close view of my daylilies.

Have a good day and a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by...........

Silence is Golden.......

Have a good day.  Thanks for stopping in.........

Summer is going fast.......

State fair is starting August 11th and I am looking forward to that.  This is a picture of the back of the grandstand at the fair grounds.  It was recently restored and seems to be holding up well.

There is a daylily show at the arboretum this weekend.  For some reason they switched it to a Sunday event instead of a Saturday one.  Well, I don't really need any more plants but it is fun to see what is out there that I don't have.   We should have obligations on Sunday and our kids are driving through during that time too. We will miss that traditional summer event this year. 

The last of the coneflowers are holding up in the heat.  I want to investigate what kind of coneflower that is growing along the roadways as it seems a much darker color than mine.  I guess the darker one is the true prairie plant.

We had an early morning rain and mild thunderstorms but it is going to warm up fast.  Dipping into the seventies is nice but it hasn't lasted over a few hours until the sun starts to shine and we will be back up there again.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.

Wednesday's group photo.........

It is three in the morning, Wednesday, and we are 77 degrees warm or cool, depending on your frame of mind.   The humidity is around 84 percent with no chance of that dropping.

Thousands of bicyclists are crossing Iowa this week from one border of Iowa to the other.  They are north of us at Boone, Iowa and will awake soon to go another seventy miles to the next major town.  People from all over the nation and all over the world come to do the RAGBRAI  event each year.  It is a lot of people out on the highways in the heat for most of the week. 

We will be starting over with the the sale of my parents home, starting Friday.  I will meet with a realtor and we will pretend that we  did not just waste a month with it being off of the market.  The realtor can now be the middle person to deal with the public and maybe by fall we can be rid of it.  We are beyond being discouraged but yet are faithful and trusting that things will work out for the best.

The housing market is what started this mess in this country with Fannie May and Freddie Mac loans with hoakie, bad judgements on our government's part.  I assume those who were behind the faulty thinking will never be held accountable and will continue to be reelected as if they were innocent of all wrong doing. Telling lies to the ones that they represent is status quo and giving loans to people because they are of certain skin colors and not because they can afford the house may stop being the criteria. 

Thanks for stopping by...........

White and light........

Flowers with pale colors can be powerful too.  I like bold colors but the accent colors on a white flower can be just as striking and impressive as they boldly contrast to white.

I was surprised to find that I had white hollyhocks as I didn't think that I had very many survive my neighbor's weed spraying.  The small pinkish rose doesn't last very long as you can see the two fading blooms along with the newer bloom to the right.  The light colored daylily is so striking and reminds me of the regale lilies that I have blooming earlier this month.

I survived being in the heat this morning after a light rain.  I was able to mow the orchard area and start to eradicate some of my stray mulberry trees in the alley way.  I have a lot of work to do out by my garden shed.  I have not been able to maintain or even keep up with the alley area but maybe by fall I will have a lot of it cleared and under control.

Thanks for stopping by............and keep cool out there.

Come visit my garden......

Those of you who follow me are familiar with this setting off my west side of the patio.   The path is almost blocked off as the phlox have leaned into it.  I can step through the tunnel and not disturb too many of the plants.  My weedeater of course helped me pick a small bouquet of phlox as I kept getting to close to them as I trimmed the grass from around them.  The agapanthus in the pot looks like it will not bloom again this year.  I may divide it into four plants next spring and see if that will help it.

My side porch area is not too impressive but here it is.  I have a very large juniper evergreen behind all of this and I think it is going to have to come out.  It is too big to prune back and it really is too large to allow flowers to grow.

I did finally get my gate painted blue again after the repair.  Unfortunately I don't think it is good as new but it will do for now.  I do say that it is good and blue. I did get this area cleaned up and some of these days surprise lilies will be popping up out of the ground.

I like this planting as it reminds me of what what we have growing along the roadsides on our highways.  The natural prairie is the inspiration with lots of coneflowers, blackeyed susans, and queen's Anne lace. I guess I need to go dig a little lace and bring it into town.

This area is near my orchard area and it looks toward the road.  I didn't think the hollyhocks were going to do well this year but the red and white ones did pull through.  I don't  have the pink ones anymore.

Our temperatures have lowered but with that the humidity has risen.  It was 75 degrees Sunday morning with 85 percent humidity.  It wasn't fun to be outside as the moisture in the air took one's breath away, just like the heat had for the past six days.   As the heat has moved out east I see it is making the news now.  I hope everyone can stay safe inside and that it will soon pass. 

Our son and his wife from Maine will be driving through later this week and I know they even received some of this heat up there.  They are near Bar Harbor so it should have been warm.

Thanks for stopping in and checking out my sight.  Take care................one and all.

Sunday's only shot..........with reflection.

Have a good day.............

Old Yellow Day........

Yellow Squash

Yellow Asiatic Lilies

Brown Eyed Susan

Yellow Kitty

Thanks for stopping in.................

Zinnias........

My zinnia patch has grown quickly in the heat and humidity.  They really do mature rapidly.  It seems like I just posted a photo of the seed coming up not too long ago.

The bud of a zinnia is almost like a shape of a crown. It really has a neat design created even before it blooms.

 

This is my very first bloom  As you can see the bee is anxious to get down to business.

Same flower shown here with the honey bee working for some nectar.  I know the butterflies like zinnias but I guess I don't remember ever seeing honey bees on them.  It may be the weather and they are trying to find the easiest source for food.

Thanks for stopping by.............we received two rains on Wednesday that brought our temperatures down for the first time in six days.  It was warmed back up though by late evening and the air conditioners were back in use.

Thursday's things.......

I remember purchasing this years ago and it blooms only one stalk each year.  I have white and magenta phlox but this is is flower of a different color.

The yellow is pretty strong but the special thing about them is that they really are very large.

This daylily actually is small compared to most of my other plants that I have.  It is a delicate one that I moved here from the southern property.


Thanks for stopping by...................

Lots of color for a hot day.............

 

These two daylilies are ones that were given to me from friends in Marshalltown, Iowa.  They bloom later than most but with the heat they are going to be done blooming pretty soon.

Asiatics are exploding on the stems and this particular variety does like to multiply.

Thanks for stopping by..................

Hearing the corn grow........

It is an old saying from generations back that  describes one can hear the corn grow.  I suppose on a real quiet day or night that the corn still has sound, but heat and humidity is what the corn loves for growing conditions.  It is like a giant grass plant as it shoots our from it's base. It actually cooled down to 73 degrees Monday night but we are up to 80 degrees at 9:00 in the morning.

I am taking this photo next to our convenience store filling station.  I assume the property line is right at the line of where the corn is growing and the mowed area is what is owned by the Casey's Store.  It is funny but a fence would probably cause the farmer to loose one row or two rows of corn so they just don't bother to put one up.  One really can't tell from the photo as there is no frame of reference but this corn a month ago was probably three inches tall or more and now is almost six foot.  The tassels are showing but also if  you look closely you can see some of the leaves are being affected by the heat.  There is a word for that but I am not pulling it out of my brain right now.

Having over a week and a half of this hot weather is really not unusual for Iowa but we were blessed the last few years by not having it.  It is this time with the hot temperatures that remind me of how I want to throw in the towel in raising any petunias or other nursery plants as they just won't survive. In 1936 Iowa had 27 straight days of this type of weather and they of course lost all of the crops. 

These photos show plants that are good for this weather as they are actually prairie plants.  The Brown Eyed Susan is tough and so it is the coneflower shown below with it's tough looking attitude. 

Coneflowers blooms each have a personality of their own.  The heat makes their petals fall back sooner than when there is cooler weather.  I like how it keeps coming back each year.  I have planted coneflowers at the back door of my parents home and my mom didn't like it's foliage and I don't think she really ever said that she like the flowers.  But it is a great plant with low up keep.

Our house sale seems to be crumbling under our feet.  I have two sons the same age of this couple and I am amazed at what this couple expect in this world.  They want a very nice house, which it is but it is suppose to be in perfect shape when you buy it.  I don't think either of my sons thought that when they bought theirs and both of them did a lot of remodeling on theirs after the sale.  I have lowered the price farther than I wanted to and I now realize that they just can't afford it.  They don't want to make a sacrifice for this house, but they think that I should for the sake of their family.  I will have one more serious talk with the guy this morning.  I will drop it a couple of thou and then if they don't bite and give me a response by Thursday then I will go see a realtor and let them take over the task of selling the house.

In our country, Americans don't bargain and wear the seller down until they get what they want while keeping a house off of the market. I say no more on the subject.

I am still under the weather but I am seeing great strides of improvement in my health.  I shouldn't be giving you the daily sniffle report, but this 87 percent humidity really did set me back physically.  It is even hard on healthy lungs to be outside.  My yard is a ragged mess but as it turns drier each day it doesn't seem necessary to mow it especially when it is loosing it's green color.

Have a good day and thanks for being around and checking in on me............I hope you all are doing well.

Monday's flower posting.........

 

I have a meeting in Osceola today and I need to mow a yard in 80 degree weather.  It is suppose to cool down to 79 tonight so maybe early morning I can get the job done with lots of stops for drinks of water. 
I don't get sick that often but for some reason these days I tend to get really ill when I do get hit.  It is seven days away from the onslaught of this summer cold and I think maybe I have almost stopped coughing and my oxygen level has returned to almost normal.  I don't sit still but I have been doing that most all of the week.  Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy, I know.   Our weather is going to be a challenge all week and I will mow my own yard when the temps fall below 75 degrees.  Maybe a week from now I can finally cut it.

Thanks for stopping by............

Steam on the lens.......creates my own filter.

 

After wiping the moisture from my lens you can see the zinnias in the planter are enjoying our extreme heat and humidity.  Have a great Sunday and stay inside and stay cool.  Thanks for stopping by........

Saturday's shots...........

I moved this day lily from southern Iowa last year and planted it in my garden and it is doing very well.

My wife's home place is actually her grandparents home place on the farm so I am assuming the peonies planted on the farm were done by her grandmother or at least by her directions to my wife's grandfather.  I went down last Monday before the summer cold hit me and dug up three varieties and brought them home.  I will share them with anyone who wants a part of them but for now they are safe and alive despite moving them in the heat. I ended up planting four different clumps of the peonies, and also rescued a part of a rose bush that my wife's mom had planted.  I will go back and dig the rest of that when I have a sharp spade and it isn't 100 degrees with lots of humidity.  And did I mention the wood ticks are doing well in Iowa this year on animals and humans.

My health report is out and I am going to live.  Not so sure that I wanted to there for a while but I have survived it. I feel more better now than I do worse and I think my body is winning again on it's fight of the ugly beast.

Thanks for stopping by.......

Remove, replace, rehang...........and paint.

 

I have to fix a couple of small areas and then I need to find the paint in the basement.  Sawdust and a summer cold really do not mix and I won't be trying that again.  Have a great Friday.  We are moving into very hot weather for quite a few days. I am having a total nonphysical day today, no projects when you are not well.

Thanks for stopping by........