Monday Already!!!!!!

An unusual frame job that is almost completed.  A friend of mine ordered on the web this window pane with a Sylvania decal adhered to it.  His father repaired television sets when they were full of tubes.  As you can read in the ad that there was a possibility of having 85 picture tubes and/or 85 color tubes.

The frame job is unique as I cleaned up the very dirty sign to find a very nice decal, then placed a mat and another glass over it to keep it protected.  It makes the framed piece heavy.  I also matted it so you could see the paint scraps around the edge of the glass left by the window frame to show how old the who thing is.

I do remember those days when the tv would go black and the neighbor guy who was a farmer, who also repair sets, was called in to help. He had to check each tube and see which one was burned out.  The cost was usually the markup on the tube itself and maybe a five dollar trip charge.  Those tubes really did get very warm and it is probably one of the reasons they burned out so often.

Blaser had been the town fire chief for years and he did inherit his dad's electronics business. He now does house and commercial building wiring plus drives a school bus.  The fire chief job got to be too much for him and he resigned that a few years back. Once a fireman always a fireman though as you can see him at most of the fires.

Blogging can becoming extremely frustrating as one needs to spell every word correctly and have the correct usage.  I seem to keep messing up with (lose, loose, loss) and (its, its') or whatever it is suppose to be.  When I review my posts I sometimes find glaring mistakes that shouldn't be there and I do proof my blogs before I publish them.  Some errors are because of fat, old fingers on the keyboard problems.  Some are reversal problems that show up as errors and sometimes it is that I am just plain sloppy.

So when I look at other people's blogs and see errors, I just smile.  But when I look at the identity of a butterfly on another blog and notice I screwed up again I get irritated.  I had looked it up but apparently didn't see a clear picture of it. The red admiral butterfly above is not a painted lady. I have made my corrections on the past few posts.  No, I do not correct people on their blog. I think there is an understood rule about that even though some don't follow it.  I do like corrections though if I am looking foolish because I said something totally off base.

I did read a post of someone's yesterday and they blew the name of a shrub.  I still go back and check to see if I was wrong, but I was glad to find that I was correct, they were wrong. Getting old is bad news and sometimes the brain just refuses to kick in with accuracy.  I guess when I reach the point of putting out too much misinformation that I will just quit. ( Not quite but quit.)

Thanks for hanging in there with me and thanks for stopping by my post today.  We are going to warm up today!!!!!

Clematis.......and other things.

A composition of bud and leaves that shows the promise of a pretty bloom.  The cold and rain along with the strong winds did not help out the situation.

The bloom that was already open has suffered a lot from the weather. Maybe the warm weather of the future will help to give out a better set of blooms.

The columbine is showing off it's great color against the bark of my ash tree. I notice that the plant really is hardy through strong winds and cool temperatures.

I had remarked yesterday that I would not mow my yard because it was too cold.  I changed my mind and mowed with two layers of long sleeved shirts and the top one had a parka hood in which I used to stay warm.  I had to mow =low as I was trimming down the grass from a taller height.  I had let it go so long that I had trimmed it last week at the mower's tallest setting. I dropped it two notches down this time and just walked slower.  Yes, I was cold but I did warm up from the exercise.

While out there I collected damaged plants and brought them inside.  The yellow tulip was hit by the mower while the white one was taken down by the wind.  I have two colors of weigela that had branches laying on the ground so I brought samples of them inside.  I also had the wind take out a stalk of the cemetery iris as I found it laying on the ground.

I snapped a shot of a fuzzy dog who doesn't like his owners working in the gallery.  He sits and watches and sometimes scratches at my legs to ask to be picked up and to be held.  When his patience runs out and he can't get us to stop working, he will curl up in the rocking chair in the room and take a nap.  I love sharing the bad floor tile in the back that needs to be replaced.  That should be a summer project of putting down a new floor in the gallery.

The green leafed burning bush is putting out little flowers that will become berries.  The berries are loved by the birds but not until late summer when the turn red along with the leaves of the bush.

It is another cold day in Iowa but promised to improve with warmer weather all week.  We will be overcast most of the day and maybe a light rain will come by noon time.  Fortunately the rain is staying south and east of us and we will be touched by the top edge of it.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Saturday's Stuff.....

The wind and rain finished off these blooms for the season. I have a lot of shots that I took of the fernleaf peony.  Memories of red with a great foliage still standing is the best I can do for now.
A friend of mine said she saw white and yellow peonies like this.  I will have to be on the lookout to add to my collection of one variety.

The viburnum bloomed early and it still looks good out there in the cold air.  I had brown spots from the freeze and I am not sure if the small center flowers will ever open.

You can see the brown spots on the flowers.















I am sitting at the dining room window today looking out at the cold day and watching the bird feeder. We put out the scrap seed from the inside birds of which they won't eat and the outside birds love it.  Some seeds in the cockatiel food has too large of seeds in them and they just won't try to eat them.  I think they are selling seed for larger parrots in the mix and it all doesn't get eaten.The parakeet for some reason only eats off the top of the seed and will not dig deeper. Sometimes you just have to dump it and start over so the smaller birds outside are glad he does that.

 My wife said she saw a mother cardinal with a smaller young red male cardinal at the feeder yesterday. I am glad that  our cardinal pair have succeeded in raising a new family.  It is fun to watch the young birds follow and squawk when they still want their parent to feed them.  Pretty soon they need to figure it out on their own or they will starve and the parents eventually shut down the feeding service.

It is Saturday and I have just a couple of framing things to do today.  My wife is finishing a painting of a hibiscus and I am cutingt a mat for three different diplomas. I plan to take the day a lot easier as there is no glaring job to get done.  It will warm up to 61 degrees F.  today but I don't think I will mow the yard. When you need a heavy coat in order to work in the yard, one doesn't need to work in the yard.

Thanks for stopping by my site today.

Finer Points.......

A closeup of one of the last tulips. I didn't realize that these tulips actually were squeezing themselves out through a pile of wood that is ready to be burned.  I pulled the wood away from them but next year they will have a better chance as the wood will be gone.  I feel like a plant abuser.

The Dutch iris will have a couple of more blooms for me this  year. It seems too short to be where it is planted.  I may move it.

Warm temperatures on Wednesday allowed me to get a photo of this fernleaf with its petals opened.

The viburnum continues to stay in bloom.  Close shots show brown spots where the freezing weather did some damage.  The small middle flowers are yet to open.

The mugo pine is putting out its new sprouts for the season.  I think that they remind me of candles on the end of each branch.  I have to look this variety up each year as I want to call it a mungo pine which it is not but a mugo pine.

Ferns from the past still grow along the foundation.  They are doing well along as the golden privets that I planted under the redbud tree.  The spirea to the left has a lot of dead wood in it and will need to have a prune job to clean it out.  The barberry on the left puts out such a nice foliage but the forsythia behind that is in need of a major hair cut.

I have a lot of photos with the yellow sulfur butterflies feeding.  I will share another now.  The flowers at the end of the tips actually have not opened completly so they will be a different color soon.

Yellow kitty is still enjoying life.  She is so very old and yet the outdoors is her favorite place.  She loves to roll in the dust in the gardens and growls at all the free loader neighbor cats who want to come and eat her food.

I am following a student around today as a one on one aid.  We had a 50 minute walk for pe which was also good for me.





Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Thursday's Things

Yellow sulfur butterfly that is busy feeding on the allium.

A beautiful rose is hidden inside this bud.  The rose is doing so well this year that there are five large buds on the bush.  It is a special rose from my parents home and it really is going to do well up here in our part of the state.

The fernleaf peony is suffering under our 89 F. degree heat today.  They are going to be gone soon.

The bridal wreath spirea is really filling out into full bloom today.  Our warm weather really turned it into a show specimen plant.  These plants are ones that I  transplanted from and older shrub that was on the property 36 years ago.

I have this short dutch iris that has one bloom.  It really has not done well as this is the first time I have seen in bloom in a number of years.  It likes to bloom early and we normally have snow or too cold of temperatures.

I will finish off the blog with a trio of tulips.  They are at their last days now and this photo was taken a week ago.

Special Education duty today, taking notes in various classes for the students. I may get moved to a regular classroom in the afternoon when the golf coach leaves for a tournament.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Wednesday's Wandering........

The columbine took a hit early on with the freeze but it didn't take out the buds, just those flowers that were in bloom.  So I am getting a good show from my two plants.

We were very warm yesterday and these peonies actually opened up so you could see their centers. My earliest plant like this is now spent as the warm weather made the petals wilt and shrink.

Red is hard for the digital camera to translate but this is close to the actual color.  They are going to be gone soon with the warmer weather.

My neighbor guy who is not a gardener keeps telling me I need to prune back my spirea.  He doesn't like the look of my ancient shrubs.  I do see he trimmed his three off to a foot high and you can imagine what they look like this spring.  I can thin them out if they were full of dead wood but they are not, he just doesn't like the branches dangling down when not in bloom. I finally told him that they are on my property and that I will nurture them the way I think best.

I have a larger set of spirea along the alley and they are doing great just like the ones on the property line.  As you can see I have very nice looking shrubs.

One last photo just for show.  The iris actually are not leaning, the old man shooting the shot seemed to be leaning with the camera for some reason.

I am a tech guy today and it seems to be a busy morning.  I am working with ipads again today, download applications onto them for the staff to take to a workshop.  I don't like the keyboard of an ipad and I really don't think I will ever purchase one.  I type quickly and the ipad requires one to type with two fingers switching from an alphabet screen to a numbers screen back and forth while typing.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.  

Tuesday's Sharing.......

Globe allium when planted in the correct spot will multiply easily.  I have it growing out into my yard. I decided to mow around it and move the strays to other parts of my property. I like it when they spread and take care of themselves.

Red Admiral Butterfly

I have numerous butterflies this year and they are really feeding on the blooms.  I had to look this butterfly up on the net as there are a couple of them that look similar to this one.

I have hopes to see these white clematis blooming soon.  They are doing well on this gate roof but they do seem to be sensitive and die out easily if the conditions are too dry.  I am assuming the cold temps are keeping them from bursting open.

The fernleaf peony opens up and looks like a large poppy.  I did see these flowers opened in the afternoon.  When I returned later in the evening to take a shot, they had all closed up again.  I should have stopped in the middle of the mowing of the yard and taken a picture but I thought that would be ridiculous.  We cool off fast and so they closed.

The macro shots of the spirea really make the small petaled flowers look a lot bigger.  My bushes are not going to be as full of blooms this year I am assuming because of our freeze.  The branches that are putting out flowers look great.

I am a Middle School English teacher today.  It will be a long day as there isn't a break in the person's schedule all day.  The kids have matured a lot since the beginning of the year so I should not have to be redirecting behaviors so much today.  Quiet reading is my favorite part of the lesson plan.

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Mayhem........

It is crowded in my corner garden.  The redtwig dogwood is getting too big.  As you can see it is over shadowing the red fernleaf peony.  It also is crowding three iris and a large hollyhock plant.

As you can see the iris is doing well.  I don't remember what the color is of the iris but it looks like it is a hybrid variety. I am going to have to prune the dogwood away from behind this grouping.

This is a closer view of the iris buds. The wind and cold has not been great for the peonies. They tend to stay closed most of the time because there isn't enough heat for them to open completely.  Maybe today when it gets up to 66 degrees F.

Among the crowd stands my dependable blue boy holding his weathered leaf. The hollyhock is so large already that this guy is going to have to be moved.  Oh yes, I have tulips in this garden too as you can see.

I will be spending my day in the Science room, studying soap and also the planets. I think it it the chemical reaction between things that they are studying in soap in which bubbles are formed.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Just Checking In........

I had decided not to blog on Sunday but I need to share a least one photo today.  We are cool and cloudy with sprinkles off and on today.  My creeping Charlie has to share it's space with the lily of the valley.

Thanks for stopping in today.

Another Cold Day..........

The cold is taking it's toll on the last of the tulips.  It was just too chilly for me to finish mowing the orchard.  I thought wearing a winter coat and stocking cap was pushing it for the season.  I don't think grass grows much in cold weather.

During this cool off the fernleaf peonies are blooming.  It would be nice if they were in the warmth but maybe they will last longer.  I have four of them in bloom and one that is a new start with out a bud on it.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

Frigid Friday......

My first blooms for my iris.  I believe it is one of  my cemetery iris collection.  This is the first time it has ever bloomed for me even though I have had it a few years.  I used to have a white one that boomed first but I transplanted it into a bad spot and all I get is foliage.  It will be moved soon for next year.

I entered a photo in a contest which the theme was"green."   I didn't use this one but it does show the growth of a lily taking place.

It is about time to make something with rhubarb. It makes my mouth water to think of how sour it tastes.

The ditch lilies are taking over my one back yard garden.  I either have to chop it out or rescue those things that it is crowding.   I think I lost a regal lily because of it.  If not I will dig it as soon as it shows itself.

Thanks for stopping by today.  We are very cold today and it isn't going to warm up much.  I froze my body walking Barney last night as I had not worn my stocking cap. This morning I work three layers with a hood and it was still a little bit cold.

Larrion the Librarian today.  Thanks for stopping by my post.  The weekend is coming!!!!!

New Sprouts..............

My violet leaves have started to sprout new leaves.  I had to go back to see when I had placed the leaves in the starting tank.  It was in February.  I had been putting the task off for so long that I finally just did it one Saturday morning instead of working on frame jobs.

I had posted about this a few weeks ago saying that there were no signs of new starts.  I looked up the exact site and you can see the process when I first begun in February 18, 2012.  Plant Doctor was the title of the post.

I did lose a couple of leaves to rot so in the first of the month I inserted new leaves in their spot.

I have three actual evidences of sprouting leaves and my watering procedures have now changed.  I don't want to disturb the roots so I am placing ice cubes in among the leaves to allow them to keep the moisture up, rather than having the watering can wash soil away from the leaf stems and disturb their growth.

I really don't know if the fertilizer is causing such great leaves but I do know that the small drops of it in the watering can have really made them get very green.  I bought a large pot for one of the violets as it seemed to be outgrowing it's smaller container.  Who knows when I will get it transplanted.  I do have a couple of loses so I am not all successful here.  A couple that I divided are doing well but the smaller plants that I divided from them are really struggling.

It rained this morning for a short while but I think we are done for the day.  A field trip was canceled today and two of us ended up as left overs without a job.  I will be doing tech as that is my second job and the other person will probably read a book all day.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.