Friday's Here......

My first coneflower is now if full bloom.  It took a few days to get all those petals unfurled.  I have less plants of these this year and I really don't know why. I am going to get the sunflowers planted out there this morning.  It is probably too late but I am hoping they will catch up and bloom.

The few hollyhocks that I do have are doing well.  I think the rains earlier gave them a good start.  They are stout and tall with many buds on them.

I planted a new packet of zinnia seed out in this same area.  It is a sad situation when the whole packet yielded out only two plants.  I will have to rethink that problem.  I did find some collected zinnia seed and will probably prepare a new place to start them. I take hundreds of photos of zinnias and I must get something to grow.

My clematis plant is looking sad.  I didn't have blooms last year so I am grateful for these.  I  just think they look sickly. My response is to water the plant but I think it has had too much rain. We have rain but we continue to have hot, humid days.  It really is typical Iowa weather but somehow it seems to too much continue heat.

I discovered that our upstairs air conditioner, window type, is not working correctly.  We have had a hard time getting the upstairs bedroom cooled.  I think now that isn't the excessive heat but the declining cooling machine.  We will fix that today and make a trip to Menards.

My remaining silver maple is looking great with its towering limbs and reflective leaves. It looks like it has a flat top haircut  in this shot.  Of the three trees of the same age, the two they took down were not very good looking anymore.  This last tree is still looking good and has filled in with leaves to be an impressive tree.  I guess I am really enjoying the last piece of history of the property and the fact that it is so old.

We had a very fun evening eating out for our anniversary.  We had a sweet young, tall guy as a waiter.  He couldn't believe people could be married for so long.  He was young and I did tease him once in a while and he would smile.  We ordered the 30th anniversary cheesecake which was layers of chocolate cake and cheesecake with wonderful frosting and whipped cream.  When he brought us our cheesecake to share, he had the bakery write happy 32nd anniversary on the rim of the plate in chocolate sauce. I had not brought my cell phone or you would have seen this great photo.  Oh well, I just don't remember that I need to carry it everywhere.

We will be eating light today to make up for all the food we had last night.  We are not use to eating large amounts of food.  Those days are to our past.  When there is free pie day a Bakers Square we usually split the one piece of pie and bring the other one home. People all around us find room to eat a large meal and also a big piece of pie.  I would pass out eating that much at one time.

I am off to do odd jobs to day and to the store sometime today.  I hope everyone is safe and staying cool inside.  Thanks for stopping by today.