Middle of the Week........Already.

The iris continue to bloom in the their vases. I have become weary of trying to get an uncluttered background.  I look at the shot now and see if the abstract shapes made by all the things behind it seem natural. It is seem good,  I just use it.

Big Blue is doing well in the backyard.  I know there are a few birds nest in among the branches. I also know that the bunny and her baby tend to live under there. Birds like to land in it after they have been at the bird feeder. It is such a great tree.

I needed a truck when we moved.  I bought one after the major move.  I will use it for the last of things that need to be moved from the basement. I paid a very low price for it from a friend's daughter.  It has high mileage and I probably won't add much that number.  I don't like crawling into it so will be buying rails for it to help me to step up to get it. It is fun to drive and I will have to be careful as its size is larger than I am use to in driving.  I had a van for years so I know that I can handle it.

It will be great to use when buying flowers and trees.  I won't be doing construction work at the new house but I might be carrying some plywood in it.  The truck bed is a normal size. We need to buy a bed for a friend and move it as well as move furniture that we are going to give to her.

 I have to dump my Taurus now and clear the end of the garage so the truck can be parked inside of it.  The truck is twenty feet long and my garage is twenty feet and nine inches. It will fit. The daughter  and her husband of my friend owns a business downtown Des Moines and they do a lot of work for people who collect show cars. The truck has had the company emblems removed and it has been turned into more of a show vehicle.

I enjoy the sky views we have at our home.  I like the panoramic view that we get every single day. We have a clear sky today and it is going to warm up again. We are not at the very top of the hill but it is pretty close.

We are back to unpacking things again.  It is a slow process as we settle in to the new house. Living so long in the other house things found places to be one piece at a time.  Now we have to take it as groups of things and find the best places for them.  Storage is the easiest solution for a lot of it for now. Our time to do the unpacking is limited but we are learning how to steal time in the day to work on the process.

My tomato plants are doing well and never suffered from the planting.  The birds and bunnies left them alone.  I need to find other things to plant among the tomato plants but am not sure what that should be. I also need to get out the old fashion hoe and loosen the soil around those plants.

I appreciate your visit today.

Roaring Sunset.....

I know it was roaring as I saw pictures of it on faeebook. Mine was only a strip of yellow as I don't live on the top of the hill.

The shot here is  about the same for yellow but the light reflecting up and off of the clouds was so great.

The  yellow flowers are not known by me but someone other knows what they are called. They are more fully bloomed now since I took this photo.

I will be interested in its life span after it blooms.  The foliage is not so bad that it might stay for a longer time than just its bloom time.

I finished my mowing here at our home and really need to do some trimming. As I worked with the trimmer yesterday the fiber string ran out.  I hate putting them in but will have to get it apart before I know how to replace it.

We have a couple of errands to run this afternoon and also the hospital visit.  It is now a hot day and I am good with that.  I was too warm while mowing but I have cooled off now.  I have missed doing garden work but I will wait to do more.  My five tomato plants survived being eaten by any bird or rabbit. The look like I need to hoe them but maybe tomorrow I can do that.

I appreciate your stopping by today.

Monday Holiday.......

I remember the ones we have lost who served our country.  I have seen the effects of war on our own family and I know those who have lost soldier family members during the battle.  As I watched our PBS broadcast last night honoring the present and past members who have served, I was reminded of the importance of our country's need to maintain our values and beliefs. Our soldiers give more than what is asked of them.

As a bus load of Christian Egyptians are slaughtered on a bus a few days ago, because they were Christians, I am reminded that the religious wars continue.  The killing of Christians was done in celebration of the non-Christian holiday. Our country has a problem with political correctness and I am not suppose to mention the Muslim holiday that they were celebrating while killing all of the people who refused to denounce Christ.

The get the best light for photographing the flowers, I balance the vase on the rail.  It all works well except on windy days.  In the background you can see the raised bed in which  I have now planted five tomato plants to start my vegetable garden.  I was concerned that the birds would pull leaves from the plants but this morning all were still in tack. I really don't have the time to do more kinds of vegetables but something else might get planted.

The previous owner had planted six or seven peonies in a row.  I can see that I have a few different older colors that I may have to move to the new place. The mixed colors of white and pink and the straight white peony is not in this collection.  I have lots of rooms in the back yard to plant more.

More photos of peonies are to come.  My wife's cousin, who has been in the hospital for over two weeks, is better.  The cousin reads my blog and I am grateful for that.  Because of that I have never shared details out of respect for her and also because it isn't necessary.  We take her husband down to the hospital each morning and seeing the smile on her face makes all of the effort very worth while. We are all praying and believing that she will be moved to a regular room, out of ICU, after such a long stay there.

I wish everyone to have a good day today.  We are having a nice day with sunshine and it is wonderful to have it.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Sky and Blooms.........

Maxfield Parrish painted many paintings that had skies just like this.  He didn't do any paintings with suburbia foreground.  He painting had large trees and classical Romanesque porch railings in the foreground.  The paintings all were so dramatic looking just like this sky in my backyard.

The flag iris really bloomed well with all our spring rains.  It took a long time to get them to bloom for the past few years. I was disappointed in their growth so I moved them into bright sun and they really responded to that location.

My neighbor gave me the light colored flag iris and I gave her the dark blue one.  He light colored ones died out so I encouraged her to dig some of it and take it back to her place. I have both varieties blooming well and I plan on bringing some of both to the new home.

A new color of bloom I am sharing today.  It is a brownish color but there are a lot of reddish colors in it too. I think this is a newer one that I bought in the last few years. I have one of my garden areas in the backyard almost full of iris starts now.  The area was used for vegetables the past years but I really don't have the time to do much this year with that. I intend to make the iris move to a different location sometime this fall along a fence to the southwest.

Thank you for stopping by the blog today.  I wish everyone to have a good day.
S

Baked Beans........not.

I found another bean pot.  I think it came from my parents' place.  I actually have one other that is small and probably a newer reproduction.That should be the last of the stoneware revelations.  Sadly beans come in a can now and you can warm them on a stove or in a microwave. Cooking beans in a pot for long periods of time doesn't happen much anymore.  When it is done they do it in a casserole or pyrex dish. The ceramic stoneware is more decorative than the before mentioned. I am sure now I will have blogger friends that will tell me they still bake there beans with bacon strips laying on the top of them.

This is one of the three roses that are in the front of the house. This one is the largest of the three.  The smallest one hasn't been moved out yet because I haven't had the time to do so. I want to put a different kind of shrub or a different color of rose in its space.

I have a multiflora pink one at the old house I would like to move but maybe I will just leave it to stay with the garden there. I may just look for a new one at the nursery center.

As I mowed at the old place I could see that my peony blooms are slow in opening there.  I guess it is a little more shaded there so they are just not in bloom.  We have had a lot of rain there but it has been so cold that the grass hasn't grown much.  I didn't get done and will have to squeeze in time next week.

A couple of trips to the hospital are in the plans to day and a trip to southern Iowa will happen this afternoon.  The prediction of rain this afternoon may not be in the southern part of the state.

I wish everyone to have a good day today. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday is a Done Deal.............

The colors really are not true here in this photo but it still shows how robust the iris are of this variety.  While at the old place I dug a rhizome of the deep purple one to move to the new place.

The old fashioned yellow with brown falls is still one of my favorites. I remember it as a kid thinking it looked unnatural with those two colors together as one bloom. I can still visualize my Aunt Lois with here jars of water and bunches of these iris being carefully placed at the different tombstones at the Moon Cemetery.  That was a long time ago when I was a kid and we would go to the cemetery there after a family reunion at Macksburg, Iowa.   My great-grandparents  are buried there as well as my Grandmother and Grandfather. I assume a lot of my grandmother's brothers are buried there too.

Clear skies in the morning are welcomed after so many cold, rainy days.  We did warm up today and it sounds like it will be warm for at least one more day. We have a busy weekend ahead of us along with our hospital visits.  We now are driving to get the cousin's husband. taking him to the hospital each morning. He doesn't want to stay long as he is frail, but he really misses her and wants to see her even if is such a short time.  They have been married 54 years.

We will fit in a graveside service in the afternoon in southern Iowa.  My brother and his wife will be there and it will be so nice to see them. My sister-in-law's dad passed away in the winter and now we have a graveside service for his cremains.

I wish everyone to have a great long weekend.

House Finch Friendly..........

The sock will have to be filled again soon.  I think the goldfinches have found a different source for food as they don't frequent the area as much.

I had a raccoon visit my bird feeder and knock it down a few days ago. He did it in the night and the bracket and feeder was on the ground.  I wonder if the raccoon fell that one story deck down to the ground.  I temporarily put Barney's old bowl out to get things going again.

A blurry shot of what types of antics that the birds pulled as they discovered all that free food out in an open bowl.

I looked out at one time and the mourning dove was also sitting in the bowl. I am now using the bird feeder again.  I just take it down each night now and place it out the next morning.

This is the morning show without a cloud in the sky.  The moon is gone now but the planet is still shining brightly in the sky.  The camera just didn't pick up that star-looking planet.

We have another busy day planned or should I say unplanned but filled. I did the dentist thing yesterday and we made a visit to the old house. We will visit my wife's cousin again today.  We go morning and evening to keep track of her condition.  She is still in critical care. Plans to take her husband to visit yesterday fell though but maybe today that will happen.  My oldest brother and wife will be in southern Iowa this next week.  We should get together eventually some time next week.  I wish you all well today. Thank you for your visit to my blog today.

Wednesday.........

As I moved things our of the garden shed, this large and very old hay fork ended up at the new place. It makes for a good garden piece.  I need to clean it up sometime. Since I have taken this photo I noticed my little bunnies like eating the foliage of the plant that is next to the steps. Having rabbits eating things means adapting to how I plant garden plants. I had one rabbit at the old place but they never seemed to bother things.

It just does not stop raining.  I was awake in the middle of the night and I could hear the rain on the roof.

I am curious as to what the true color will be.  Once I see what is growing in the row I will know which ones I can move from the old place.  There are three red peonies in a row there and the other colors are yet to be discovered.

A busy day again today.  I do get to visit the dentist this morning.  Other things are in the works as we go through the day.  We didn't get home until late last night from the hospital and will return after the dentist visit.  

Thank you for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Tattle......

Flynn's was one of the companies in the 50's and 60's who delivered milk to the doorsteps of houses.  We never had that as our we lived on the farm and our milk had to be milked from the town by my dad and brought into the house. As a kid it was fascinating to see that people kept metal looking coolers on their steps and milk men would deliver a fresh bottle of milk each morning. I believe the household could put out an order, taped to the lid, to ask for cream and other mile products.  I never knew how they paid for it but I could see them having the customer putting it in an envelop and leaving it inside the milk cooler.

Another torpedo shaped canning jar is in this photo, taken in my garage. The pottery piece sitting behind it makes it look strange.  The agatized stone next to the milk jar is one that my dad had cut and polished.

The previous owner of our place has a row of peonies in the front yard.  I am assuming that these will be white or pink flowers but I won't know for a few days.  I don't see ants crawling around on them like I have at the old place.  I was told that ants helped to facilitate the blowing of them.

The row of peonies are planted a mower's width away from the property line. The neighbor does get the benefit of the flowers and doesn't have to care for them.  I am assuming that I will have to cut off the spent blooms and keep it neat unlike I do at the old place.  The neighbor below this lives on a lot that is a part of the wedge lot created because the street takes a turn.  He lawn area is pretty much flat.  My lawn is not flat anywhere in the front. We are on the hill top and the yard was graded to run the water away from the house. The entire yard sort of crests at the house.  I can mow down
hill toward the sidewalk and the neighbor's lot. The house on my other side has a perfect flat yard as the top of the hill is reached and they graded it to be flat and even from the house to the street.  I am not complaining as I like the differences in our properties.

Everyone mows their yards with diagonal patterns. I really can't do that because my yard has things to mow around and through.  Most places  have plain shaped yards with no stone planters like I have to mow around.  The previous owner really was a lot like me having the yard cluttered with lots of things.  He and his wife have a locust tree planted in the yard, a nice bush specimen, the peony row and the flower garden with stone surrounding it. To mow at a diagonal would be difficult.

As I was mowing in the back yesterday this little bunny came hopping out from under the rhubarb leaves. I took his picture a few days ago as he was eating off the downstairs patio floor. Birds spread see from the feeder above and the loose stuff lands below for the rabbits and mourning doves.

This photo shows how small that he is.  I am thinking that he was raised out under that blue spruce tree.

Mother rabbit loves the bird seed too as well as all that grass the grows tall when I don't mow it.  It finally stopped raining which allowed me to me to mow the front of the yard in the morning.  The yard was a lot drier in the afternoon so I finished mowing the back in the afternoon.

Lots of things to do today. We still make a couple of visits to the hospital each day but the cousin is so much better. She can now talk to family on the phone and I am sure friends will start to visit when she is moved out of ICU.

Everyone have a great day today.  Thanks for reading my post or for just looking at my pictures.

Monday's Moments....

As I bring to the newer home things from the basement they get hung on hooks in the garage.  I have to move them to a designated place but for now they get hung up so I can decide where they will go. The chair was going to be tossed but I will repair that one split out leg in the future. You can buy old looking furniture but you have to go to antiques stores to buy authentically old furniture. This chair is an old one.

The hosta plants among the rocks look natural coming up in the rocks.  Some of the hosts plants are settling in as well as these two are.  I think our cold weather doesn't help them to build up from the shock of the move.

The geranium sees to bounce back each time it faces hardship.  Barney didn't take directions from me one time and stepped off the stoop and landed belly down on to the plant. The really heavy wind and rain messed up its appearance of a few days, but it is back now looking alive and well.

Barney has decided to make 5:00 am his time to go outside.  It has become habit. The early bird thing gives me an opportunity to get some great sky scenes and then I go back to bed. The moon and its friend planet were out in clear sky on the southwest side of the house but on the opposite side of the house I found this view.  The clouds were covering up the planet and only a portion of the quarter moon was showing.

It is a busy day for us again today.  I am going to try squeezing in some mowing before we leave today. It may be too wet so I may just do the front yard this morning.  The sun is shining but the grass is still damp from a heavy dew of the night.

Thank you for stopping by today.

A Calm Day.......

The shelf was found in a barn.  It looks like it had been a cupboard with the latch showing on the right end of it. There are no other clues to tell any history about it.  The rustic finish of weathered wood and neglect gives it a great surface to see.  I brought it to the newer house,  I am not certain how to clean it up and what to put on it just to seal in its present qualities. The clock works piece inside on the first shelf is something I just can't throw away for now. I can display old things on this when I hang the shelf it in my basement office area.

I moved this piece of black granite to the new place.  I should exclaim and say "how stupid is that'?  I know that I got the rock off of the farm in southern Iowa.  Now that I am much older, I should not be lifting and carrying this heavy stone.  The other thing that causes me now to have a curious thought of why is there a large granite rock in southern Iowa.  I am sure someone will say that the glaciers moved it there. I am not a glacier but my old Taurus moved it 24 miles south closer to the Des Moiner River.  That should confuse the rock hounds of the future.

The feeders are popular for the house finches.  It is now fun to see the young birds that have already been hatched and are coming to the feeder.  We had one young one on the ledge of the deck squawking at its parents wanting them to stick seed in its mouth.

I wish everyone to have a good Sunday day. I appreciate your reading my post.

Saturday Shots.....

I am seeing the peony season stating at the old place and I have six or seven peonies at the new place with large buds on them.  The flowers seem to bloom at similar time but places where their gardens are more protected their iris and peonies are all blooming.  The cold wind today will slow the blooming progress for now.

We squeeze in things to do that are a part of the moving in process, at any free time that we can.  Our visiting the hospital twice a day is the priority so everything else that needs to be done is on hold. I hung one of my wooden horses up on the wall, high above the cupboards.  It didn't take much time but I had to get everything in place to make it happen. I am sure the displays will change as we find things that we prefer to put in them.  We have enough things to cover the whole area but I think that would be more junky-looking than having good design.  I did find a brown stoneware container, in front of the spice chest, that seemed to fit in with the group.

I have a lot of mowing to do here at the new house.  I have photos to take of the rose bushes as they are filled with blooms now.  My hosta plants are really looking great in the rock garden.  Other photos needed to be taken are the red twig bush is blooming and the honeysuckle vine is really looking great.  I am outside early in the morning with Barney to keep track of things that are growing but a fine mist, rain and cold really keeps me from taking photos.

Many things to do today and I hope to accomplish some of the tasks.  I have iris rhizomes to plant but it is just too muddy as it keeps raining.  Heavy downpours seem to be the norm right now.

The weekend is here and hope everyone has great plans for the two days.  Thanks for checking in today.