In the Middle of the Week........

I took photos yesterday afternoon in reaction to the forecast.  I know heavy winds and rain shuts down a lot of blooms.  This daisy like flower was shut down because of last years drought as it only put out two buds this year.  Normally there are dozens of blooms.  I have one more bud of this to bloom and that will be it for the season.

I picked a couple of iris to prevent the rain from destroying them and I shot photos of things that may be changed from the storm.  We ended up not receiving the severe wind or tornadoes.  It shifted south and headed through all of southern Iowa.  We were about two counties away from all the action. National news covered damage only in the Omaha area but I do not that southern Iowa had a lot of tree damage as well as a few barns and out buildings were lost.

I snapped photos of some of the peonies as rain will take them out in one heavy storm.  I do have a few buds yet to bloom so I knew I would see more blooms again.  The peonies like everything else missed having water last year and the severe cold must have also messed with them.  The peonies have buds that just shriveled up and others never put out any buds at all.  I am glad I did get a meager showing. I am waiting from my grandma's red peony which has about five buds on it to start blooming.

This is not a beautiful shot but it shows the area where I once had overgrown stems of wild roses.  I removed about three loads of dead stems with my wheel barrow.  I know this is a vigorous plant so it will be back next year. 

A bonus will be that I may get to see these day lilies bloom this year as they don't do that well with the roses on top of them.

The plants that did survive are blooming out with their pastel simple pink flowers. There are a lot of buds on the stems so we will see them bloom for a longer time this year.

When I was on my third or fourth day of being sick I wanted to do something.  I dropped some of my morning glory seeds into a leftover cup of tea and soaked the seeds for a day.  The planters were already filled with dirt from last year so I just poked the seeds into the ground. 

I will move the planters in a couple of days to the two trellis areas and let them climb.  I like that they can get a good start in the hot sun before I move them.  Both trellis areas are in partial shade.  The glories have done well there before but it was so slow for the to mature enough  just to start get into the vine stage.

The old mock orange bush is putting out great blooms this year.  It is such an old shrub that it isn't showy like a younger one would be.  The mock orange was on the property when I bought the place 38 years ago. The fragrance of the blooms is wonderful.  I guess it doesn't bother my allergy as I was out with it two hours yesterday and I didn't have any problems with them. 

We had a lot of rain last night so it will be too wet for me to venture outside for quite a while. I don't have a major thing to do today as I wore myself out yesterday.  The backyard does look great now and it doesn't bother me to go out there now.  I trimmed out so many small trees and pulled a lot of water grass. No big plans to day but I think my wife needs to buy ink for her printer and I think she needs to hang out at the bookstore.  She is giving an adult art lesson this morning but this afternoon we can venture away from the home place.  I hope everyone is safe and sound today and you get the weather that you want.  Thanks for stopping by today.