Friday’s Finds for Today.....

The sun actually was pure orange but the camera could not capture it. We are having forest fires smoke in our atmosphere from Canada and it has caused us to have a hazy day.

The new garden by the front door is looking good.  The dogwood shrub will look good there as the years go by. I used some of my grass clippings to mulch the hardy geraniums.

The knock out roses are liking our weather.  They are all in full bloom right now.

As I was trimming grass along the flower borders I kept hitting the iris stems.  The bouquet keep growing as I kept  running into things that I was not suppose too.

I don’t have a name for this iris.  I didn’t keep the label from it but am glad that I bought it. I apparently planted it last fall and it grew up putting out three blooms this spring. I get them at the building supply places but they have very few choices.

I worked outside today filling my new raised beds with seven bags of dirt.  I used the weed eater and got my tomato wire supports on most of my tomatoes.  The day has warmed up nicely and I think we can now use the word “hot” and not just warm.  Planted my wife’s gladiolas this morning also. I have a few more things that I should do today but maybe won’t get to them.  Thanks for stopping in today.
To

A New Deal....

I have a vague memory of planting this.  I know it is a new hybrid that I bought last year when they were pushing iris, peonies and lilies. It is wonderful and I am certain that it is its first year to bloom for me. I have no blog evidence from last year.

The flag iris started blooming this morning with two blooms opening. I have them planted in two different locations and the other is not blooming.

The photographer leans here and not the raised bed. I finished it yesterday afternoon.  I have put myself behind on my mowing because of this and also the rains. I will mow this afternoon.  My neighbors have lapped me if I were running a race as they are doing their second mowing this week.

I have bags of dirt in the truck waiting for me also to carry them down the hill.  I picked them up this morning as I returned home from our old place.  I mowed up there to get everything looking spiffy for their weekend celebration. In the middle of the night I woke to the idea of what crazy idea was it anyway that I had to make this raised bed.  I am suppose to slow down, not add more things to do.  I did build it as I was tired of fighting the grass that kept growing into the area.

I did take a nap after lunch so I should be able to get back into the races with the lawn mowing. My front yard was so long that I think I will mow it again this afternoon to bag up the excess grass. I am starting a compost pile down under the pussy willow tree.  My wife reminded me that I have a bag of gladiolus that could be planted in that first space.

I have one sick looking tomato in my patch right now but this one has blooms on it. It surprised me to see it blooming but it did make me happy to see. I had picked up a set of six more plants of Celebrity tomatoes to fill in the center of my tomato patch.  There was one dead plant among that packet and that is why I bought it. I did n’t need six.  I crowded the five in anyway.  One dollar and eighty eight cents for the five.

The “knock out” roses are blooming now in abundance.  They opened up the past couple of days and they are looking good.  I do see something is eating on them already.  I may have to get a spray for that.

It is a busy day and I am trying to play catch up from the weekend.  I don’t mow on Sundays and I don’t mow on Memorial Day so I have to make up for two days worth of work. I have sunny warm weather this afternoon and will have to wear a hat while I am out there. I thank you for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week......

Hardy geraniums

Some people call them pinks.

My initial start had me frustrated as the first square is not square with the world.  Yesterday I returned and straightened it  closer to the world.

I had nothing to measure against to make a comparison with anything else that was not straight. A giant t-square could have been used it it would reach the fence behind this.

By the end of the day, I did get it an eyeballing straight with the world. The bird feeder is not straight with the world so looking down on it makes it look more off. Anyway, today I went out and lined them both up with each other and I have put posts on the corners.  I have it all done now which I will show a photo of it tomorrow. I worked all morning to finish it and now I need to buy dirt.

This afternoon I mowed grass that was way too long.  It looks like a mess but I didn’t have the energy to bag it.  I may have to mow it again in a couple of days just to pick up the dead grass. By the way, it did sprinkle on me while I was mowing this afternoon.  I had waited most to the day see the grass was dry enough and then it started to sprinkle on it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday’s Here.......

The rains are continual.  We do get a break long enough to mow the grass and then it rains again. I didn’t mow on Memorial Day but I should have. My neighbor to the northwest mowed at about four in the afternoon.

A work in progress is the creating of a raised bed in this one side of the garden.  I am so tired of the grass growing into the area so I will be blocking it. The photo shows me laying it out just to get and idea of what it will look like. I was short one board so I went back to the Menards this morning to get the board. It is so frustrating to go there on some days. I did finally find some one by fours that I needed being secured in a shed away from all the other treated lumber.  It was on a second floor balcony.  They people I had to go back and ask about it said there would be someone there to help me. Not really though as the signs brag that it is a completely self service area.  The one guy that I saw was fleeing the area with a loader to go somewhere else.

I keep forgetting to share this plant that I have in the front yard.  I inherited it and it really is a good plant with lots of good color. We have yet to put petunias in the blank spots of they front raised bed. I will be mowing out there very soon.

My neighbor and his dad and brother helped get all the support boards on to the new fence.  They worked all day on that project.

When they get the fence done the white iris will have a great back drop to help show it off. The new fence will give them more privacy as the wire fence did not. I think they will have a great place for their dog and two kids to play.

I am trying to get caught up on some work here at the house.  I keep dodging rain daily.  It thrudered and lightening this morning before we got up.  It rained probably twenty minutes and we are almost dried off from it.  We  are predicted to have severe storms this evening.  We are just going to be wet for along time.

I hope all are well out there today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Memorial Day......

The reflected sun light from the west is shown on the eastern clouds.  Rain is good.  Rain seems to be forever in our picture.

The new deck is ten feet farther southeasterly of the old one.  It gives me great views of the sky just like the old one.

The dark iris is in its second year of blooming for me.  The company that sold this variety called it “superstition” but I have seen it sold with other companies just collating it the black iris. It is so dark that it is hard to photograph.  Same problem with light on it as with the white ones. The kind of camera doesn't pick up the reflected light correctly. More will bloom and I will try to photograph it in an upright position.

It is fun watching someone else work. I met Ben for the first time officially as I made an effort to know him.  He is a young married man with a  young daughter and a younger boy. I described him working the other day and he had his young little guy and four year old daughter helping him while he was digging a hole. The brown lab was out there at the same time.  Ben was so patient with the three of them.  He started on Saturday remaining a woven wire fence and he is replacing it with a wood fence.
In this shot the holes are dug and he has the poles down in the holes ready for them to be set. The yard he is against is the guy north of us but we will enjoy seeing it as my neighbor doesn’t want us to share a fence. As of Sunday night he had ten of the poles set in with concert at the base of the hole. I bet he finishes up today.

Nest year these iris will look good against that new fence. Ben is a carpenter and does’t know flowers. He asked if this was an orchid.  I told them people refer them to be orchid like in appearance but they really were hybrid iris.

I brought two different diggings of this iris down from the old place.  One set didn’t do so well but this other one surprised me yesterday blooming out all of a sudden. It is of the same variety of the small yellow iris a the markings on the falls are the very same pattern.  It had grown along the driveway at the old place.  I took a single rhizome of it from the Murray Cemetery.  The piece was about the size of the length of my thumb and I remember exactly where I found it growing. It took it a few years to get establish but now it has moved to the new place. It is my favorite of the kind of iris. I do think that I lost one of the kinds in my collection as I don’t have the yellow and brown anymore. I bet I could go to any old cemetery in the area or at Murray and find it blooming.

As soon as I finish writing this blog I am going out to put in these marigolds.  The white one is blurry in the shot.  It will be muddy but I will get them in the ground anyway.  We had rain again last night.  We  had rain again this morning.  Farmers are not getting things planted now for a full week. I put in tomatoes a couple of days ago in the mud and they seem to be doing well.  Lots of sun and lots of rain makes the tomatoes happy.

My AsianSunday school class is made up of Cambodian and Vietnamese high school boys.  They were born here but their parents and grandparents were not.  I did a history lesson with them about Memorial Day yesterday.  One boy did know the date of one of the first wars being the Revolutionary War. The World Wars and Korean War were unknown to them and the Vietnam War was not so fresh in their mind.  They know that their grandparents fled their country by swimming down rivers among dead people heading to Thailand. I tell them that story often.  I also told them about my dad surviving the Battle of the Bulge, with 55,000 Americans losing their lives in the particular battle.  I was hoping that the boys would have more of an understanding of the holiday and that it wasn’t just a day off from school or work. If it means just remembering a history it is better than not caring or knowing at all.

As we remember those who have served, those who have died in battle and those who are still alive from war, I hope that there is some understanding of what the holiday is truly all about. I wish you all well out there and thanks for stopping by today.
Me

The Day’s Worth........

The first blooms of the knock out roses were out yesterday.  I forgot how pretty the red flowers really were.  I timed the dead stems off a couple of months ago and the shrubs have been budded all over.

 Our one shared rabbit of their area of the neighborhood was out last evening checking out the things that are growing.

The blue spruce is really sending out a lot of new  sprouts.  I am sure all the rains have helped with this growth.

The one hybrid iris that I have is white.  The blooms all came out at the same time and seem to be opening up pretty much at the same time.  The flowers are so big.

The red twig dogwood is blooming right now.  The birds really like the berries once they have developed.

This is a closer view of the white hybrid iris.  This plant came from the neighbor’s house up at Woodward.  I have some new iris blooming that I need to photograph this afternoon.  It will be warm out there but I will be out there soon.   Thank you for stopping by today.

Saturday’s Stuff.......

His face is obstructed but I got most of his body in the photo. The sparrows seem to be the most to hit this feeder right now.

Spilled seed is welcomed by the birds as they help to clean up the mess.

Marigolds are still in the box waiting for the ground to dry out a bit. I bought them on Friday but it has been a busy time for me.  It won’t take long to get them into the ground so maybe today it might happen. 

I had waited for the stain to dry before I put on a coat of varithane finish.  All looked good but nothing was drying.  I had placed them into the downstairs bathroom, turned up the electric heater, and shut the door. It helped but putting them out into the sunshine did the trick.  It warmed the wood and the varnish did dry. I could finally sand down lightly everything and get another coat of varithane on them.

The second coat did make them shine. The finish is looking good but I am not so sure they work well in the sunroom now.

The top of the one looks really good but the other one is not so nice to see.  I am going to rework the top of it until I get it right. This is made of strips of wood that have been glued together causing it to have this interesting pattern. 

We are having a warm day today.  I have some things I want to do in the backyard but I may reconsider that when it being so hot. We were off to the bookstore early today and now we are home. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday’s Here.....

I bought treated lumber this morning to make a boxed, semi raised flower bed on the opposite side of tis one. I am tired of trying to keep the grass from spreading into that bed.  I plant sunflowers  and lots of zinnias in the area and I don’t think it loos so great compared to my raised vegetable garden area.

After almost three inches of rain last night the bed has standing water on it because it is all clay.  If I can get a frame around the area I can buy dirt in a bag and fill it partially in this summer before I plant zinnias.  This fall I maybe could buy some more dirt and fill it up more.  Going to the huge lumber yard has become frustrating for me.  I need to build a 12 by 4 foot area and my truck won’t take 12.  I decided to buy eight footers and cut them into two six footers. to just make my one side. It will work but it just isn’t as simple.  They moved the order desk on me at the store placing it at the opposite side of the store. The people were friendly but I felt helpless.  I would like to visual look at what I am buying, the real boats, and think through the problem  rather than just throw out numbers.  I asked the kind man if  I could have paper to write on to figure it out.  He was impressed in how I did it and said in most cases expected him to figure it out plus they don’t have dimensions. I did get to see the real lumber after I paid for it.

I bought two more tomato plants today.  One was a good variety that puts out equally sized tomatoes..  The other one was the variety that makes the larger size of cherry tomatoes.  I have them in my soggy ground already.

I am doing table duty today but I am not happy with the finish.  I guess the moisture content is hight so they were still sticky to the touch.  I have them sitting in the basement bathroom right now.  I turned the heat up high and shut the door.  I will warm that wood up so it will be dry.

We had a lot of rain this early morning with lots of thunder and lighting.  I though we must have had a lot of rain but they are saying just under two inches. Flooding is happening in a area south of us.  Things do appear to be soaked.   It is Friday.  I have been in the hurry up and wait mode for most of the day.  I may just rest and wait until I can do things without hitting road blocks. I hope everyone will have a good day today.  Thanks for checking in on me.

Thursday’s Things.......

The spirea bushes at the old house are really beautiful right now.  There were many of them there before I bought the place forty forty three years ago. They are an old fashion shrub.

The iris garden has three new varieties blooming right now.  I tried to take photos and the sun was to bright from my automatic camera. The one on the left just open up this morning with two blooms.  I was mowing in the back yard and was surprised to see three new varieties were blooming.

It is fuzzy, buzzy blurred but the color is good on the  photo. I will try again in low light to get a close up of true blooms.

I moved it to the new place and it is acting the same way as at the old place. The buds on the stems lay on the ground. It is a grayed pink color with the blueish accent on each of the falls. I will stake them the next time I am out there.

This white one is really healthy. Once I get photos of everything that has bloomed I will now know what I can look for in new varieties. They had an iris show in our town last week but I wasn’t able to go to it.  I know some colors that I wished that I had again.

I have my projects all going now and will have finished the tables in a couple of days.  I am waiting for stain to dry before I start to put the final coats  of varnish on them. I had to sweep out the garage this morning from all the dust I had created while sanding the tables down.

Our early morning in the sun room showed a clear sky with the bright sun in the sky.  Wishing a twenty minute period this is what happened. It just moves around a lot today with partial sun and then bright sun.  I did get my mowing done today, waiting now for it all to have to be done again. Thanks for checking in today.