August 31.......

August was a busy month but I am not ready to let go of it. The weather is weird with lots of cloud formations and it is a day of overcast skies.

My sunflowers haven’t blooms yet but maybe in September they can get the job done.

We did do a lot of things in August and that was good.  I guess I would have liked one more week of the month.

The birdseed has sprouted giving me some free birdseed.  It reminds me of wheat but I just can’t identify it. I usually pull it before it matures but this year I wanted to see it to the end.

I really don’t see any leaves changing at this point but I bet they will start in a couple of weeks.  I can tell the days are shortening.  September can be a good month and I will take it all in stride.

We were out and about this morning but are glad to be home again.  There were a lot of people at the bookstore and at Panera Bread.  I guess the weekend borough a lot of people out today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunshine with a slight breeze........

Sailing into Friday with my yard mowed and it is a cool day.  This is Lake Superior on one of its calm days.

Flowers at the canal park area seem to thrive with the lake shore climate. I didn’t have any planters at my place as I pt everything into the ground.

They are very festive as they sit along a side street.

I guess I do have a planter that still holds last years begonia.  I wintered it over in a downstairs window and it is liking the outside weather again. The shiny leaves do add to the colors of the tropical like blooms.

The sliver side view of the monarch looks like a sail boats sail leaning in the wind. I have not seen anymore than this one monarch.  I do have hope that a few more will land here for a few days.  The one monarch does prefer the  zinnia blooms.

I had two goldfinches at my feeder this morning. They didn’t start around for long but when I see them soaring out there I run and get the camera. I found archived shots from last summer when I had a seed sock and a pair had raised four or five birds.  They were all at the feeder for long periods of time.

The variegated ret twig dogwood has done well this summer.  I did nave to water it once it a while as I  could see its leaves droop. We were so dry for a while that I was also watering my burning bush.

I seem to keep blogging in the afternoon.  I guess I mowed the whole yard today so I didn’t get to it until now. I   hope all is with with my blogger friends.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday’s Chatters.......

We bought iPhone 8, plus a week or so ago and we are still learning things.  I try to call my wife on the phone while at the old place and the phone opens up in a totally different format. It isn’t bad for doing that but I haven’t learned all that is going on with the cell.  I will get it, it just that the phone is a miniature computer that seems to be in control.  I do have a handle on it, I just haven used it for very long.

The salesman’s busy transferring data from my wife small Samsun photo. I am sure that he thought I would be back the next day but I did get all the passwords figured out. I didn’t need to return.  My MacBook tells me what all my passwords are so I could go home and get it all set up correctly.

I have been on the internet a lot the last few days checking up on things about family. I posted this years ago that I wanted a better copy and over the summer a very distant cousin sent to my first cousins a very good scanned copy of all my dad’s side of the family.  My great grandmother sits in the middle of her fourteen kids.  My grandfather stands in the back row four from the left.  The size of that family is overwhelming.

Other searches that I have been doing was finding relatives on my mom’s side.  My mom was not very good about sharing family on her side in any detail.  Now today I have a second cousin who was younger than me who died from cancer.  As I follow back on his life and all that he was in this world, I have to go back to get him on the family tree.

I knew Arlen as one of the distant relatives that showed up every Memorial Day at Macksburg, Iowa. My Grandmother Brooks had five brothers and that group that were living would show up with their families.  My mom always called him Uncle Lee but would not explain that he was my Great Uncle Lee.  He had one son and three daughters. Arlen’s mother was  Great Uncle Lee’s daughter.  My mom and Leila were great friends and I now know was because they were first cousins.  When my mom had me in 1950 she named me Larry, and Leila had a boy at the same time and also called him Larry.  Arlen was the youngest of the family of two other boys and one girl.  I now have Facebook connection with LeAnn, Arlen’s sister, and have reacquainted with Leila family, Great Uncle Lee’s grandchildren. All of this one branch of my family all lived south to the Madison County covered bridges.

It is interesting to see each other’s life take place.  Arlen, a second cousin, six year’s younger than me, married right away out of high school.  He had four boys in his first marriage .  When Arlen died he had  12 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. The irony of it all, is that I did not see Arlen ever again after 1970s when he was still a teenager. He lived his life to the fullest with a lot of family and me never knowing until I found his sister on Facebook.

While on the north shore next to Duluth, Minnesota, I looked dow to see the monarch feeding.  It was our last day on the shore before we headed back to Iowa. I mentioned earlier that we saw monarchs along I-35 down towards Iowa. I sign said it was a major migration route of that kind of butterfly.

This smaller variety of sunflowers were in bloom in Duluth . They were growing in the nose garden there as an extra I guess.

I remember now that they had other flowers planted ant the south end of the rose garden in Duluth. There were these and hydrangeas in bloom along the edge of the area.

My sunflowers didn’t germinate well this year so I have only two growing and have yet to bloom.  I will share them when I see the buds opening. I have cut back some of my hollyhocks to make them look better and I removed some of the asparagus growth. It seems early to clear flower gardens but I do see people in the area doing that.

I worked up at the old place today getting more things done.  I threw away a large container of wood and drywall things which helps to clear up the clutter.  I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week......

The humming birds are quarreling over the feeder.  I suppose they are starting their migration south.  We will see them for a while.  I saw on the net that the pelicans are now on our lake.  I saw a couple at a distance the other day but I am awaiting for them to settle next to our mile long bridge With the water levels changing so much there may not be any greens growing in that area.

Lake Superior generally has clear water.  I took this on a calm day and the rocks are so easily seen. I didn’t see much water fowl on the lake this time but it must have been the time of the year.

Grand Marais, Minnesota spends a lot of time trying to keep the Canada geese population under control. There are a couple of dozen of them in the bay but I am sure they had captured and released them somewhere else.

Seagulls are forever. I don’t think there is any controlling of the population.  They are not so magical to see for us now as we live next to a lake that has seagulls here in central Iowa.  It seems to be normal to see them in freshly tilled farm land as well as seeking food from trash cans. I see them flying over our house off and on while Canada geese raise young ones each year over in the commercial bank pond next to our grocery store. Everyone brakes their car for a mother goose who is walking their baby geese across the highway.

Looking down under a bridge the water rapids are almost identifiable. A Minnesota river that feeds into the  Lake Superior has a rocky path helping to make large and small waterfalls.

A birch tree shows wonderful colors as the people along the trail keep peeling back the bark as they walk by the two trunks.  Gooseberry Falls is a busy place being visited by so many tourists.

The pigeons in Duluth, Minnesota take advantage of all the food stuff people drop along the streets. It is a smaller and quieter bird than some which seem to get along with the geese and seagulls.

Back home to the backyard, my zinnias seems o be enjoying the weather.  The gladioli are almost gone now with one branch of blooms still in sight. I was on Facebook where a person shared that they just buy a new pack of zinnia seeds and dump them in a certain area.  No more work was required as they just took over that plot of land. I plant mine in rows and I am not sure why.  I guess it is the old fashioned way that we grow vegetables.

Schedule doctor visit for my wife’s friend this afternoon so we will be out and about in the world. Thanks for stopping by today.

Flowers Forever....Until the Frost.

I planted the lavender last spring and it didn’t come back this spring very well.  I am glad it is still alive and maybe when I clip it back that it might do better next spring.

The marigold of old are doing well this year.  I had to baby them along with a lot of extra watering early on in the summer.

The white flowers look good in contrast to but brighter orange ones.

I like this shot with the morning glory being sheltered by some leaves. I like the structures showing in the photo.  The new deck and stairs are really enjoyable to have. All morning glories this year are volunteer and are of the same kind.  I don’t have the light blue ones this year.

As the flowers grow big the cupola really makes more sense as being a decoration.  The whole area is alive with butterflies and humming birds.

I will have to read through my old blogs to see when and where I bought this yellow rose.  It has been very happy were I have planted it.  It keeps blooming after the cutting back of the dead blooms.  It almost acts like a climber but I don’t think that it is.  I will cut it way back this fall as it proves to grow health canes for flowers.

The color of the blooms have improved as the season continues. It was more of a faded brown with its first blooms but this reddish color is really a good one.

I needed to mow at the old place and the grass just keeps staying green.  Last year it had browned and was dead looking.

I hope everyone is doing well today. Thanks for checking in.....today.

The Past and the Future.....

Staying put because its mother said so, the fawn ends up laying in the middle of a cemetery.  We were at a graveside funeral in Osceola, Iowa. It was a couple of years ago.  I emptied off photos from my wife’s old phone and I found this on it. I am amazed as to how nature is consistent in some behaviors. The fawn could have been dumped into a more wooded area and it would then wait there until its mother left it. It may not have been in early evening before the doe returned for its young one.

The new power system in town calls for a lot less poles and everything is going underground.  This pole thou is directly behind the shed making it look like it is a part of the garden shed. The cupola that was on top of the building had rotted off at its base and it is now in my new backyard as a garden ornament.

Another photo I  found on the cell was the birch tree at the old place.  It doesn’t look this good this summer as a worm or bug eat sections from the leaves.  It also hit a couple of apple trees.  The tree isn’t diseased but it is apparently tastey for that insect.

In the fall has such pretty color but this year it will be subtle with eighty percent of its leaves being gone.

At the old place I seemed to have taken photo of the corn ready to be picked last fall. Corn can be a beautiful green all summer but once is has died it stands looking like this.

Once it is picked the dead stalks are all disked up into the ground ready to recycle for spring. The field makes such drastic changes as it goes form green to dead to being machine picked.

The weather this spring helped change some of the decisions that the farmers make in what to plant. We went into a rainy season where they just could not get in the field. Soybeans can be planted later and they will be able to be harvested in time before it snows.  Here is the same field that has been planted in soybeans. There were a lot of fields in the area that switched over to soybeans.  China not wanting to buy them will mean that the farmers will maybe lose money on their corps.  It is good that they can be stored in grain bins for a very long time.

I had pictures of my repair work at the old place. I did the work myself and in time I am getting it all done.  I had to replace siding and repair siding in places.  A tot of it was left with white primer paint for a while but when I got the new coat of paint on it one would know had badly it looked.

The paint on the porch steps that was sold to me did not hold up in the weather.  I may have put it on on damp day but a lot of it just pealed of.  I will start over with a primer sealer paint to get it to stay on the steps.

Our new iPhones are great.  A lot of the things on them are duplicate apps that we have on our laptops.  It isn’t exactly a like but we both are doing well with using them.  Somethings do confuse me with the phone but I will get it sooner or later. I haven’t shot photos with my new cell but I am sure that I will.

We are having a droopy day today.  It is trying to rain but it isn’t. I cut out weeds and grass from some of the areas in the gardens this morning.  I also cut back the vine that wants to grow into our sunroom’s cooling unit.  I need to stay on the trimming back more often as it was somewhat difficult to get it removed.  I have piles of the vine, asparagus greens, and general weeds and grass.  I like to let it die a little bit before I bag it.

It feels like a Monday and I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for stopping by today. Stay safe.

A Rose Garden....

The Duluth, Minnesota rose garden does well next to Lake Superior.  The lake helps to make a perfect climate for them to grow.

It is a great place to see the different varieties.  They are labeled in case you would want to purchase one. While we were there a photographer was taking shots of a wedding party.

Saturdays Report.....

A week ago today I shot these night shots of the full moon.  The clouds were giving me seem difficulty get a good shot of the moon

The dark spots are clouds and not colors of the moon. I didn’t think I was going to get any shots with the clouds being so thick.

I was headed to the backyard to mow when I saw this guy flying around in the front yard.  I went in to get my camera and he was still hanging around. 

I did get a wing wide  open shot that I posted on my photo a day. The swallowtail seems to like the coneflower over the zinnias. 

I planted a lot of sunflowers but these two are my only ones to grow.They don’t looking like a smaller variety rather than the mammoth variety. 

We dropped off some of these tomatoes to my wife’s friend today. We didn’t take so many as they are big ones.  I placed some on my railing for he neighbor guy and his wife.  They were taken dow from the top of the fence so I see he did see them.  I picked a lot of cherries tomatoes for the friend as well as a few big ones.  We are having a nice day today.  I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for checking in today.