Hot on the Tin Roof Kind of Day..........

It is hot now in Iowa.  The heat starts early in the morning.  I went out and watered all the tomatoes and the few potted items to give them a quick drink.  I remembered to fertilize them and that really does help. It was hot in the back yard but the orchard area was a lot cooler. Trees in the orchard area and the shade from the house made things seem more comfortable.  I normally don't go out that early but 81 degrees F. by nine o'clock in the morning means that I won't work outside today. 

I mowed by the plant a few days ago and did notice the green starts of blooms.  I had not noticed that the white old fashion hydrangea green buds had turned into white flowers. 

All the clusters of white flowers make up the shape of the flower head.  I can tell that the small individual flowers haven't fully opened as they should appear to be a lot larger.

I looked up the flower on the net to check on the spelling of it.  I discovered that the white hydrangea is native to both Asia and the United States.  My old foundation plant came from the neighbors yard many years ago.  Mine has grown large and doing well.  The newest owners at that house  removed all of it. They bloom no more. I remember when I was young that an Aunt and Uncle had a large amount of it surrounding the whole front of their house and front steps.  That seems to be the traditional planting of it in our area.

When it gets really hot, we put a window air conditioner in the kitchen window.  That means the blue bottles go into exile for the summer.  Nothing has been arranged here.  They were just removed quickly so the process of opening the one window and getting that heavy box into the window could happen.  I took my time doing the job yesterday and it did pay off. It went in without much of a hitch.

It always amazes me how the hot and humid weather makes tomatoes grow so quickly.  These three are from my seed that I planted inside.  I do think I will move them out to the area next to the garden shed and plant them in the ground. My thoughts are to  get them to be as large as possible.  Once all of my planted seeds become big plants I will be walking the streets to share tomatoes. I may treat them like someone I know that does May baskets.  I can hang tomatoes on door knobs in grocery bags and walk away from each door.

A rose that I bought my mom years ago is going to bloom again this year.  I brought it from the house in Osceola probably six years ago and I had put out blooms every summer.  I have a great shot of it in full bloom but you will have to wait another day to see it.  I need to stretch out my photos and shots.

I guess I have an earlier shot of it from the day before.  It looks pretty rugged in this shot but the bloom did turn out in good shape. I am going to put it on a better watering schedule this summer to see if I can make it a larger rose bush.  I  put fertilizer in the water for it today.

 My red lily is really putting on a show now.  It is the first one to bloom but I have a lot more that are ready to bloom.

I keep forgetting to share this photo in the past few days.  I was about to throw out the entire peony bouquet.  I saw that all the little buds that came with the flowering peonies when I cut them wanted to now bloom.  I took the shears and removed all the spent flowers and I now have a new bouquet.  The peonies outside are mostly gone now but this batch acts like it is spring again.

I have begun the task of creating the Senior class composite.  It takes a lot of photo editing and templates to get everything done.  It takes a half day getting my mind wrapped around all the processes needed to print each out each of the 49 seniors and two administrators' shots. There is not a deadline on this but would like to get it off my list of jobs to do. Getting jobs done is a good thing.  I will be inside all day today and it sounds like I will be the same tomorrow.  The heat of summer is not new, it just takes time to get use to it. 

I hope everyone is ok and thank you for checking in on the blog today.