Wednesday's whatever...........

A two inch rain on Tuesday gave the zinnias new life.  I am so glad I got my lazy body out there and planted this patch when I was at first going to abandoned the area all together.

The butterflies have really enjoyed feeding on all the blooms.

  I don't seem to write much anymore.  I guess I have lost my muchness as it is described in in the newest movie  Alice in Wonderland. I have a lot of things going on right now and I seem to be completely behind schedule.  For a retired person it seems that I lost control of my pace and control of my schedule.  I thought maybe life would get  a little less complicated the older that I become. 

Our weather has been acting like it was fall the past few days but we will be moving into a heat wave soon.  I will be subbing at school on a very hot day but that wing is air conditioned and I will wear a suit jacket to keep warm. I will be a social studies and government teacher with the upper classes of the high school.  I was an art teacher last week on Friday which seemed a little bit like what I did for thirty five years.

I wish all of those in the bad weather zones of the eastern coastline and those in Texas with their drought that things will straighten out soon.  I have lived through a tornado hit six years ago and I know that the hurricane has to be just as a shocker to normal life.  I hope things can be better even though I know it will take months and even years to get back what was lost.


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

Another Addition to my Junk Jars.......

This is one of my more unusual finds and I am not sure what would have been sold in this jar. I am soaking it as it was full of moss and mold. I need to find an old brush that will fit inside of it.  I have a few others that were puzzling as to what they contained and I will post some more on another blog.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my junk.............

Sunday......shapes

Don't play with your food but............you can go play crochet croquet.

Old Friends..........

I am a sucker for old animal sculptures with big eyes and yet haven't bought any new ones for years.

Thanks for checking in on my spot one the net..........

I need to be painting.......

Painting on a rock.

but life is just too cluttered with other things to do.  We have an art show in November and I want to have some new things for the event.  Maybe I can get some work done in October.  I am just overbooked.
I will be posting inconsistently just to keep you guessing.  Actually I will be guessing myself when I can get back from other things going on in or lives.

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

Tuesday's things.......

We went to southern Iowa today to mow a yard.  I feel like I am going back in time as I travel there. Even though the people have changed with the times, there is still a lot of the older history of this state that is still down there.  The farmsteads that are still there have their old barns standing and old machinery can still be seen periodically.  My toy tractor reminds me of the one that was parked in a farm field along the fence.  We would pass it every time that we went to town to buy groceries.  I hope that it has now been restored with it's wide metal wheels.

As we clear metal from my father in law's farm we keep getting into antique things.  They are made of metal and sometimes we just can't identify what they are and other times they are pieces of equipment used for the horses to pull equipment through the fields by my wife's grandfather. Most everything is rusted and of no value but the metal needs to be recycled.

We continue to pass this area along the interstate while in southern Iowa where the hills are rolling and the cows are grazing on them.  We said that the the next time  we go down and we will pull off the highway and take a large stock of pictures.  We didn't have a camera with us today.

The morning glories are late this year but this variety is doing well.  The blue ones have not shown a bloom and they may never do so.  I have them planted on this trellis on the north side of the garden shed and I am sure if they were in more sun or full sun that they would do well.  They come up volunteer each year and this year it stayed very wet on that side of the shed.

As a kid, I remember them growing wild in the corn fields on the farm.  They were quite a surprise as they are so bright in comparison to all the green corn stalks.  They loved to twine around the corn and make it impossible to walk through a corn row.  Today, all the farm chemicals has stopped such a thing from ever happening.  Farming in the sixties was chemical free and the corn fields were filled with weeds by the time it was ready to harvest.

It is a very warm day today and we were earthquake free here in the middle of the United States.  We have had them in the past but it has been quite a while.  Colorado and the east coast seems to be the ones to have the earthquakes and now a hurricane is coming to hit the east coast too.

Everyone take care and thanks for stopping by.........

Color my world..........

The flowers are all starting to fade.  It seems like the summer has gone too fast.  The sedum is getting ready to bloom.  

School started today in our town.  I will be going back to substitute teach again this year.  I have three dates already scheduled.  It will be easier to go back as I worked a half of the school year last year.  It won't seem so different expect they had ten teachers resign and move on so it will be a new staff to work with and new names to learn.

Fall is coming but I still have a lot of things to do.  Thanks for stopping by.............

In memory of my old Nikon...........

This is a close up of chicory that I had brought home for my wife to view.  She was painting a landscape with lots of grasses, wild chicory and Queen Anne's Lace.  I won't be taking any macros with my Nikon Coolpix anymore.

I took my camera along to visit the neighbor.  I slide it into my pants pocket and when I retrieved it to take a photo on the way, the monitor screen is blinking wonderful modern designs.  It is  making strange sounds, clinking with the rapidly blinking of the various designs.  The monitor is fried.

I will not be taking pictures of the backyard rose anymore.  I had taken three different shots in different directions.  This is one of my favorites.  No more macros from my maroon coolpix.

I first bought this camera to take along to the wedding of our youngest son in Maine.  That was almost two years ago.  It has been a good camera but never really gave me great landscapes with out a tripod.  In the scheme of things it really was just a great portable camera  that gave me good and bad photos.

If I caused the monitor to go bad I am going to feel badly.  I really think it is an internal wire connection or device.

My neighbor slammed a car door on her Nikon and the monitor didn't survive that for sure.  I never dropped mine but I did carry it around in my pocket a lot.  I suppose that is a bad thing.

The photo at left is Cadillac Mountain in Maine.

Just as flowers eventually fade I guess my photography career has faded.  I will have to borrow the big camera from my wife, but it is too large to stick in my pocket.  Maybe when my lottery ticket wins I will buy a new camera.

Thanks for stopping by........................I will still be around with a stockpile of photos of the past to share.  When the stockpile runs dry I will have to make arrangements for a new imaging machine.

Stuff on Saturday.......

My grandmother had Fire King dishes as her best dishes.  This mug is a Fire King mug that I found in the dirt among the trash of a garage. It actually was an inexpensive glass product that people could afford.  I am certain they sold the products at dime stores or hardware store. I remember when my parents  had a couple of the orange brown colored mugs.  They are small compared to modern mugs.  It is fun to have just a small piece of history.

The surprise lilies are almost at the end of their season.  I think I will dig a few and spread them out as they do multiply and there is a large stand in this one location.

I mowed today and I should  have had the grass catcher on the mower.  It has been such a good grass season that as I mow I keep bringing up all the grass from past mowings.  It looks like I need to bale hay.   I will just have to take longer next time and use the bagger.  It takes so long to do that as you have to keep emptying the bag.  I mulch everything with  the loose grass and it is good to do that.

I have framing to do today as I bought new supplies yesterday to accomplish the task.  Mat boards were on half price at Hobby Lobby and one can not miss that sale when they want eight dollars a sheet for mat board normal price.  We spent some quality time at the bookstore yesterday also.  We needed to get out of the house for a while as tasks can get to be too stressful after a while.  You have to play hooky once in a while. 

Thanks for stopping by........everyone please take care.

Friday's flowers........

This white zinna is so striking among all the other colors of flowers.

My unknown named rose that is so great for one day, then it fades to white.  It has two more buds on it and I really do like it.  It is a survivor in my back yard as I don't think it is getting enough sun.

The dinner plate hibiscus is fun to watch in it's blooming behaviors.  It took all day for this bloom to unfold and spread out.  It will stay out for one more day, then shrivel up and then it will fall to the ground.

My final Friday flower is this petunia that is of the Wave series.  It has not done well in the planter for me.  I lost most of the plants but the one that is growing here is doing well.  I set it out into the rain yesterday to flood it with some rain water.

It was a hard working week this week and I hope to get a little rest this weekend.  I have a lot of things that seem to be pending and I just keep chipping away on the to do list.  I am hoping for some mental rest as well as some physical rest this weekend.  I hope your Friday is a good one and that your weekend will be grand.

Thanks for looking in.........

Old jars and old stuff.......

While helping to clean out an old garage down on the farm, I had to bring home some more dirty old bottles, a Fire King coffee mug, a stopper, and a black glass door knob.  These have all had one soaking in a bucket of water.  The clear bottle and the gray blue bottle are the ones I am really interested in so I really cleaned them up first in the kitchen sink.

The clear bottle had it's contents still in the bottle with no lid.  I don't have a clue what it was but it was gummy or clay-like in texture as I soaked it and shook it out of the bottle.  The black door knob is useless but I liked the black shine of the glass shape.  We have white glass door knobs on our doors upstairs.

I have not succeed in removing the lid from the gray blue bottle.  It is fascinating and it appears to be an older bottle.  I could be wrong.

I will have to find my small bottle brush to clean the insides, as shaking it wildly with soapy water does not seem to faze it.  The lid will have to come off without breaking the bottle lip.

With sudsy water in it you can barely see the bottom of the jar with the star design.

Here is a better view of the star.  I will be interested to see if anyone knows what product was sold in it.  As you view the lid you can see there is a small opening in it as if it had a small spout on it,  like the barbers of old who had ones that they shook hair tonic on your hair to make it shine.

Thanks again for stopping by.......I keep getting junkier and junkier in my material but I figure I have over exposed you to flower close up shots.

Dinner Plate Hibiscus........

One of the buds finally opened.  The flower unfolds out of that bud to be the size of a dinner plate.

They are like the giant version of a smaller variety of hibiscus.

There are a lot of subtle colors in what first appears to be a white flower.

We had a nice rain on Tuesday morning.  Larger amounts of rain fell is southern Iowa were it really was needed.

I know a lot of you are not making comments and that really is ok with me.  I just want to thank you all who are checking in on a regular basis.  You are a pretty large group and I appreciate you stopping by...........

Tuesday's trio of things............

He is always in thought but loves the weather. Warming up a little but still it is nice most of the day.

The hibiscus buds keep growing larger but I still don't have a bloom.  They will pop some of these days.

My wife is doing a painting that has Queen Anne's Lace in it so I picked some to bring into the house.  It doesn't look the same when it is starting to retreat into the seeding position.

Yes I changed my blog background for a while.  I don't think that I like it but yet I do.  It may get to be too busy and I may get complaints from some that they can't read it because it is too busy.  I will wait and see.  I really did like a few other templates so I may be making changes on you and keep changing them until I find my niche.

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

Monday's start of the week......

This is my reflective composition with my koi floating just below the surface.  The water is very clear and yet he is blurred by all the glare of the bright sky.

This is an ornamental egg plant that puts out little yellow egg shaped fruit.  I didn't get them started soon enough so it will be a challenge to see if I can get even just one egg.  It is just now starting to bloom.

My roses have not done well this year.  I do get some nice close shots of buds but this rose should have dozens of blooms on it instead of one or two.  I will  fertilize some more for maybe more blooms for next year.

Monday means it is back to work.  We need more days off don't we, but I guess having one day off is good.  Thanks for stopping by..........

A colorful day............

Red,  I have been photographing this geranium ever since I started blogging a few years back.  I have kept it alive through two winters now. It has this bloom hanging out in the way so it can be seen but it really is in the way when you walk by it.

Red and green,  I have moved this plant into the sunshine from underneath an tree that overtook it's territory. It loves it's new spot and I should have more rhubarb to eat.

White, a blurry begonia that is struggling in with the pot full of geraniums.  It wintered over also but maybe I will find it a pot of it's own.

White and furry, Button is my ever present companion while I am out taking photos.  He is a gentle spirit that watches and waits on me even when he can't understand what I am doing. He and his brother have had their vet visit and they are vaccinated for another year.  The vet says Button is 13 years old but in great health.

Blue, a flowering water weed that seems to redeem itself by sharing it's little blue flower as it invades the garden.  It is easy to pull and not as irritating as creeping Charlie.

As you can see this has been a red, white and blue day with a little green on the side.

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

Surprise Lily Chaos.......

When the surprise lilies come up and put multiple blooms off each stem, it gets pretty crowded. You can see the development of the first blooms on my Larry's Photo a Day.

Friday's findings.........

I don't think I have ever seen this small butterfly before. I have three or four of them in my zinnia patch. I am hoping someone will know the name of it. When I first saw them it looked like someone had splashed white paint on them by accident.  A Silver Spotted Skipper ID'ed from a fellow blogger in Virginia, thanks.

My yellow squash will be my only successful gardening experience in raising food.  The tomatoes are not going to give me much of a harvest but I am going to have squash.

I have a lot of blooms on the squash vines but I don't think most of those will become mature squash.  The season is going to not last long enough for them. It looks like I will get a half dozen of them though.

We had a nice visit with my oldest brother Ron and his wife Julie.  She was here for her fiftieth class reunion and also to visit her 94 year old dad.  He is still on the home farm in southern Iowa near Woodburn, Iowa. He had been ill but is doing a lot better.  We sat around the Pizza Hut and swapped stories of life.  Julie's dad joined us and was sharp as a tack sharing jokes and good times. My other brother who flew in like a whirlwind didn't stay long to talk with them either.  He was here and gone back to California in a flash.

I am taking a physical day off today.  I have been doing a lot of work outside and I need to rest up to start work on Monday with more physical work down at Della's dad's farm.  Clearing and sorting the junk of others seems to be our life's story.

The weekend is coming and it looks like rain for us.  We are needing the rain especially in southern Iowa.

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