Stuff and More Stuff.....

The honeybees are enjoying the nectar from the coneflowers. I saw that one bee had his back legs  covered with the yellow of the flower head.

The lilies out by the road were also the same yellow ones that I have in the back yard.  They waited a few days before they started to bloom.  I have them all tied up as they were laying on the ground last week. 

I really like this hosta because of its color and the large leaves. It is so large this year that I have to walk around it because a lot of it is leaning out on the sidewalk.

I bravely cut a section of it out from the above plant last summer and now this plant has really established itself. Next year it will be larger than ever. I have quite a few hostas that really do need to be divided.  I am sure the town will be thinking it is time to condemn the farm here with too much foliage and not enough grass. I am not going to dig and divide and just throw it away.  I have my eye on a place to put some of them in my neighbors unkempt side garden next to her house.

I have many shots of this one butterfly that I will share again.  He posed like a fashion model for me as I was snapping shots.  Some butterflies, like monarchs, tend to eat with their wings closed.

I had to go out and add more steel posts to help keep the tomatoes standing.  The ground was so wet that the cages couldn't hold the weight.  I just now noticed the water that was still clinging to the sides of the tomato. We are really anxious for some of these guys to ripen. 

Life can be too short.  I know that it has been said for generations. I just received word on the internet that a newer friend of mine has died.  As a substitute teacher for the past years I became good friends with the shop teacher.  Even though I was not there everyday I did get to know Richard.  He was a former teacher who joined the Airforce and ended up being a F-16 repair person.  In his past few years he spent a lot of time in the deserts over seas repairing and maintaining the jets. Obama sent all of Des Moines' aircraft to a graveyard or other bases and closed that all down a few yeas ago.  Rich returned to teaching and that is how I meant him. 

Obituaries do not do justice in explaining a person's life.  I know that funeral homes now have a simple form, as I have filled out too many of the them. which just ask basic questions.  The secretary types up a fill in the blank obit, and very little is really said about the person who died.

A massive stroke took his life at the age of 60 in just a few days. He will be buried at the Veteran's cemetery near Van Meter, Iowa.  I will always remember him as such a kind man who had more stories than anyone would have time to hear.  He flew his yellow biplane over our town many times during the summers in the plane he built himself. He is gone in an instance and I was his friend for too short of time.

We are in excessive heat night and day now. Our air in the house can barely cool the house but the humidity is kept down and that is what we suffer from most.  We made a quick trip down to help my wife's friend yesterday.  She had a new bed delivered and the old one needed to be torn down and tossed in the dump. It was an old bunk bed type of bed with drawers under it and full head and foot boards.  I took a lot of tools and I needed many of them in order to take it all apart.  Her apartment was cool but the trips to the dumpster reminded me of the days when I made hay as a kid out in the open sun. The heat was harder on me than the carrying of all the old bed parts. It makes you wonder how any living thing can stay outside in it all the day long.

I thank you for your bending of a ear to my post today.  I hope all are safe and the weather does not put you into any danger.  Take care..........until tomorrow.