Out and about Yesterday......

While I was out and about working with weeds and things I noticed a definite lean on these flowers.  The regale lily stem did the same sway as the day lily that is now in bloom.  I don't know the cause of it.  They do get the first light from the sun but they also have a bank of ferns behind them.

Another shot of the same are doesn't show it looking so unusual. I moved the day lily and the different hostas to this area in the past two years. The regale lily is also there but didn't quite fit in the photo's composition.

To finish off the tour of this area you can see the hostas in a row in front of the fence I built two years ago. The above daylily plant is at the very corner of the fence.

An earlier shot shows everything just starting to come up from the their dormant stages all winter. The ferns to the right of this planting are out of control and I will take out a few more through the summer. It is a healthy batch but has taken over all of the area.  I had to pull it up from the back side of the fence as it has invaded the neighboring garden area.

Spent flowers can create nice design in the flower gardens, others not so much. The flag iris foliage are definitely making a great pattern but the tops of it are looking bad. I have never trimmed them back and probably will not again this year. Evidence of invading ferns are shown in the photo.

Button had me up early again this morning and it was dark.  It was 5:00 and he went outside right away.  It was good we did because we started having heavy rains once we were back inside.  It stayed dark most of the morning and the rain just continued. We are so glad to have it.  No outside work again today but I have two projects going right now.  My self imposed deadlines may not be met by tomorrow but I will work on it.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I will share the turning of the white hydrangea to green in another post.

Lots of Shots........

Morning skies really can't predict the rest of the day. We are now clouded over with no promise more than just sprinkles. It was cold this morning helping to cool down the inside of our house. It has been warm and the house seems to hold its heat in the summer.

The very last blooms on my William Baffin rose are stark looking compared to all the other spent blooms and rose hips that cover the bush. I have yet to get all of the climbing vines attached to the garden shed, but it can happen this summer as the area is cleared of weeds and access will be easy to do the job.

I have some one armed bandit shots today to share.  Our small dog is almost totally blind now and we both carry him around a lot just because we want to. He has always liked being outside so being out there make him a happy dog.  I had a camera on me and a dog under my right arm and we went to take evening shots. Holding a camera with one hand and pushing the shutter can be done.  The editing later can help with composition problems.

I see wrens in the apple tree and the calls of the wren are frequent from the orchard area.  I have not seen a wren enter or leave the house this summer.  Maybe the young ones are not hatched yet so when that happens the activity really increases. There are morning glory vines starting at the bottom of the trellis. I have to water them almost every day now.

It was said that we are having a very dry spell for this month compared to normal.  Our inch rain last week didn't make up any deficits at thsi point.

Finding new ways to take shots of the same old thing each day can be a challenge. This one armed shot helps to display the three directions that the blooms are facing. This is my fancy ruffled lily.  I have only one of them in my set of lily plants.

I did some serious clearing of plants around my hostas yesterday.  In my excitement to show the hosta that I rescued  form weeds and phlox I see that I have a left foot in the picture. I have so many hostas thar treally need to be thinned out by dividing and replanting them elsewhere.  With two of my large tree removed  need to plant more along the exposed to sunlight border next to the dog's fence.  I see hostas being moved into that area for a good solution.

A sloppy shot of the stargazer lily. I will blame Button the dog on this one.  You can see the stem and leaves are totally different than most Asiatic lilies and is nothing like a daylily variety. The fragrance from a stargazer is strong and good. It can be smelled from many parts of the garden.

Those who normally follow my blogs know that this is the time of the year when I have a lot of photos, more than I can share. I just load a few more on each day on the two blogs  and some good shots just get to stay buried in the files. It is damp and cold outside right now but it will warm up by the end of the day.  I hope Wednesday is a good day for you and thanks for stopping by today.

Second Day of the Week.......

The Monday afternoon sky was partly cloudy.  It was hot out there but not as bad with a little less humidity in the air. It was a day of witnessing so many new lilies blooming for the first time.

This red lily opened in the morning with two blooms. One on each stalk. It is a beautiful red and the time of day makes the color change when I photograph it. It is a healthy lily this year as I don't normally get so many buds and blooms on two stalks from the plant.

This lily took the whole day to unfurl.  The petals on it are really thick as I was trying to help it out a little to open for the photo and it was not going to budge. It is a newer lily for me in the last few years.  I didn't remember exactly what color that it was as the buds all looked white like a regale lily.

This is what it developed into after it took the whole day to uncurl each petal.  I will take more new pictures this morning to see how things have changed with it over night.  The color is hard to identify as it first looked like a butterscotch candy color.

This lily is of the stargazer variety.  I had thought there were only certain colors of it but this one is looking like this.  If you could smell the fragrance you would right away know that it is a stargazer.  I am not certain by sinuses like this flower.  I do have the other color of stargazer that I thought was the one and only true stargazer color.  It isn't opened up yet.

In the not so glamorous arena is the planter that is placed at my new porch area.  It has geraniums in it but also has some morning glories growing in it. Two of the glories are already mature plants from another planter and I have plant  more seed in this one. Everything looks pretty weathered right now but it will come around. If the racoon chooses to climb the trellis, who I did see last night in the yard, there will still be room for it to climb.  I do think that one night I scared it and it chose to go up it rather than to run.  He doesn't know that I don't run so fast.

A hosta that I have been nurturing for two years has now become a wonderful specimen.  It has different markings on the leaves than any other hosta that I have.  Our good growing season has most of my hostas shooting up tall stems.  The bright sun makes the plant look more yellow than it really is. In dry weather hostas just doen't grow this well.

This is a swallowtail that posed for me yesterday morning. The shadow of its one wing makes it into a lesser than good photo.  I haven't had swallowtails for two years so I was so glad to see it out there.  It was warming its wings on a bush.  I have better photos to share on my Photo a Day blog on another day. The bright sun really messes with the color.  I don't think I have ever had this particular color of one in the garden before now.  I hope there will be many more.

I am knee deep with projects right now and not one is close to being finished.  I have two frame jobs going on at the same time and I hope that Friday will be a day of celebration.  My goal is to get them both done and out of the house then.  The crochet one that I have shared in the past is almost all mounted on its backing and a frame needs to be made and stained.  The senior class composite has all of its pictures printed out, thanks to my wonderful wife, so I can start working on that too.  I think I will go outside and work in the yard first as we are cold this morning.  I refuse to wear a coat even though it is in the 60s right now. I hear the roar of my neighbor's mower and think that it is hanging over my head to mow but that will be another day.

Thank you for all who have stopped by today,  I hope things are good with you all.

Checking in on Monday.......

A single bloom that is open on this small daylily seems to be crowded by its own leaves  The two tonesof colors on the flower adds to its uniqueness.

I normally work for the single shot of a close view of a perfect bloom.  I need to remember to take shots like this when the plant really is blooming throughout the foliage.  This is the daylily that I snuck in on the edge of a ditch lily bed.  It seems to hold its own and doesn't let the field lily crowd it out of the area.

A grouping of three gives me a nice photo. I bought this daylily at a lily show one time at the nearby arboretum. It was call "take a chance'  bargain as they had it potted but didn't remember the color or name of it. They had a lot of those they potted up during a non blooming time of the year. I do think that I have two of these as I did see it in bloom and bought it by choice.  It is planted in another part of my property in another flower garden.

The hosta is not in full bloom yet even though it is loaded with blooming parts.  There are a lot of flowers not opened yet at the top of those spires.

It is the start of another week.  We have cooler temperatures promised that will be closer to normal summer weather. I have continue work in the garden getting eventually all of the sucker trees and weeds out of the gardens.  I am not looking at the lawn yet as I think it has been too hot for the grass to grow.

The little guy is an addition to my wife's precious moment collection.  She does not have an extensive collection.  I think their may be 5 in total now.  We were given the wedding couple when we were married and a few others were gifts later on.  They are still selling them in stores and this one caught my eye for a gift the other day.

Have a good Monday and everyone take care.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday Shots

The ditch lilies, field lilies, are coming on strong.  I think it is on of my favorites with all the dimensional parts of the flower.  The color is fantastic.

I will call it bee balm but I guess it really is monarda.  I have a large garden of these.  They took over the entire corner of the fenced area.  It looks good there even when it isn't blooming.

It looks like a weathered bird rather than a flower at this stage.  I will take more photos of it in full bloom. You can see how the plants have spread all the way into the corner.

While I was out taking photos at the cornfield I saw this sight. The ground was so dry that large cracks had formed.  It isn't an unnatural thing.  The soil just gets so dry tht some parts of our soil just breaks up into chunks.

We had a true thunderstorm last night and we had an inch of rain or more.  I have a full rain barrel now.  In fact, from experience I know that it takes an inch of rain to fill it. If it rains more than an inch the water barrel overflows.  It didn't overflow.

We have had high level of humidity almost every day this week. When I would walk the dogs at night and take Button out in the middle of the night it just was uncomfortable humidity.  The rain storm didn't make a change in it. We will be up to 91 F. again today and then we will cool off a bit.

I wish you all a great day today.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Another Warm Sunny Day........

A warm sunny day brings out the blooms on the moss rose.  It helps to keep the soil moist and I also open up the umbrella on the patio set to keep them from getting too hot.

What a difference a day makes as this was the photo that I took on Thursday evening.  I was studying the photo above and can see that these two were still blooming along with all the others.  They will get a good drink of water again this morning as it is 80 degrees F. already at 8:00 in the morning.

One of the new daylilies that has started its blooming session. The maroon of the petals are darker than the other one that I share a few days ago that is so similar.

The next bloom to share is the one of the daylily that grows closely to a large planting of ditch lilies. I have two of these plants in different locations. It is one of my favorites but the lighting on this really doesn't let me get a great true shot of it.

A third variety that is open has different petal shapes than most daylilies. There probably is info out there to explain the differences of flowers.

All of the hostas are now blooming.  They each have a different time period for blooming but all have the stems extended with buds out ready to open or they are blooming like this one.

Overcrowding is a problem with my planting habits.  The hosta bloom is squeezing itself up and out into the open with the competing plants all around it keeping it from spreading out.  I may have to move this plant.  The sedum planted in the ceramic tile ais doing good but I didn't get any blooms.


No big plans for the day.  We both are a little weary today and the heat really does help stall any plans outside.  I will water tomatoes in the heat and I have a framing project going on right now as seen below.

I wish everyone a great weekend.  It has seemed like a short week but I guess for sure that it is Saturday.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday's Offering........

Looking through the fence I can see the regale lily greeting me. It is really doing well in this new spot in the garden.  It is its second year here on the corner of the fenced in back  yard.

My Grandmother Brooks would be smiling ear to ear to see her bulbs still producing flowers.  I remember having only two or three buds on this last year so it really is improving in the hot sunny area.

This is not an impressive project but I keep working at it.  I nailed down the boards on the deck.  It is impossible to get anything perfect.  Wood can be the same width but it really is irregular with different twists and turns.  I left a section against the house unfastened as the fiber optic people may need to get to the whole set up that goes to the box which is right there to the right of the new deck.

I laughed at myself taking the line up of the boards so seriously as the old boards of the original porch are 25 years old or more and they have shrunk and moved around making all sizes of gaps between the boards  I still have a gap between the two posts to fill in with a creative trellis.  It is to the right of the one I rehung a few days ago. One more thing off the list of to do's.  

 I had an unusual contact in the mail about a month ago.  A woman had been researching Murray, Iowa on the net and she ran into some of my photos and things on my Sepia Saturday site.  She said the girl in the top row, middle photo, was her mom.  She wondered how I would have a copy of that.  Her mom apparently was in one of my Mom's country school classes in the 1940s.  It is a long story to follow later on my blog. She and I ended up having the same first cousins but we are not related.  I will explain it all later.

I keep taking photos of my single bloom of the coneflower. It has darkened in color as it keeps maturing. I do see I have four or more buds that will eventually open to join this one.

I was just out there this morning to visit the area and I can't believe how the hot weather has caused the tomato plants that I have look like they are doubled in size.  Sometimes I think tomatoes are like a weed that have gotten a strong rooted foundation and they just take off. I was thinking that those same tomatoes were probably were going to just die because of all of the heat. It was so sadly dry and things look sick.

I am betting a lot of my blogger followers wished I would buy some different sculpture to display.  I would like to do that but I don't seem to be at the right place to find any.

I was out early this morning as it is cold outside and it felt good to walk around.  I took more photos of cornfields and new daylily blooms that are opened.  I will share tomorrow.

I wish everyone to have a great day today this Friday.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.

Thursday's a Done Deal.......

My weather rock sits out there not having much to report. It did get sprinkled on yesterday but at most time is follows the sun.  The sun is in the afternoon sky by how the shadow is looking on the railing.

It is the same lily from yesterday.  The blooms seem to be opening slowly so the show of color may last a long time.

Yes it is a bluejay in bright light but it isn't a good shot.  I have a couple of the birds out there.  They must have a nest nearby as they are spending a lot of time picking bugs off the bushes and ground.  I have seen them on the feeder to to pick small seeds. It is an interesting shot as I had to zoom in to even get its photo from where I was sitting on the patio. The zoom helped get a good resemblance of the bird but that tree on the right sits way across the street.  It pulls everything in to a flat plane.

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I received some footprints from my grandsons on Father's Day.  It shows the comparison of size of a two month old with a three year three month old.  AJ looks like he has big feet but the print is on an 8 by 10 sheet of paper. AJ is sure growing up on us quickly.  The younger guy Teddy is making such a big change in his appearance as he grows out of that new born face.

The ditch lilies are doing well but are not all out in bloom yet.  I did notice that this variety also closes up its petals at night just like the daylilies.

Blogger would not cooperate with me this morning as I tried to download photos.  I decided to just go on out and work and come back later to blog.  I cut out more stray weeds and small tree starts that were in the flower garden.  I planted three last tomato plants in the ground.  They were still in their little pots growing with the aquarium fish.  They are planted too late but I though I did give them a chance to live and let nature take them out instead of me tossing them.

I like these old lilac bushes with the shapes of their tall twisted limbs.  It is white lilac that I planted there probably 30 plus years ago.  As I walked around through them today I cam to the conclusion that they need to come down.  They are leaning over into the neighbors yard and I think they need to go.  I will get my chain saw going and maybe take a few branches out at a time.  I don't know what I will do with the wood when I get done but I will have to find a truck to take them away.  I do have starts at the base of the two bushes so I can still see them blooming again closer to the ground.

We are a lot cooler today than yesterday.  It will still be warm but ten degrees lest than yesterday. The windsock doesn't seem to be moving as there is next to no wind today. I had originally a neat windsock that was decorated with a koi fish design on it.  It was such a great piece but the material did not weather well.  I bought this to make my loss seem less.  It is made out of good material but it just isn't the same as my koi sock.

Thank you for stopping by today.

I am playing with different choices of templates for my blog.  I am glad blogger fixed the header problem that I was having.