Friday......

The nion that wintered over startde growing right away in the spring. It formed this head and I finally just just pulled it to use the onion in the house.

The volunteer tomato ends up to being one of those large heirloom tomatoes. I had not bought any of those this year but it came up at a good place. My whole spring planting seemed  strained as I did n't go shopping just any where. The zinnias still look pretty strange but the plants are looking more like what a normal zinnia looks like.  My regular tomato patch has the tallest plants that I ever have had.  It is because they are so crowded.

I did make our weekly trip to the grocery store.  It is not an easy job and yet I get along ok, I have gotten so that I grab two of whatever I am getting os it will make it easier with us. I had a long list so we spent a lot of money.  I really was out of bird seed for my cocatiels for a couple of days.  So I rushed seed down to them and they acted indifferently.  They were ready to continue their morning nap.

We are having a nice day.  It looks rainy but we don't have anything like that. I will wait one more day to mow my yard.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday.....

If you fill your feeder, they will come. I noticed the absence of hummers and checked things out.  It was bone dry. I was so surprised to see they could have emptied it so quickly. The scene you see in early evening that rain clouds were moving around.

I looked out and in less than an hour they were back.  I even had a hummingbird war going on out there.

I moved my pot of agapanthis to the front of the house. It needed to fill in a little from being inside all winter.It filled in and looked more healthy after sitting out on my back patio.  It isn't any big deal other yshn its a nice green spot on the front porch step. I have two of them but I didn't bring the second one. The "knock out roses" are starting to bloom again.

I keep taking random shots of my begonias and the photos still do not do the plant justice. I think it ts the fault of the transparency of the petals that the camera can not pick up.

I was surprised to see a late bloom on this plant. I am not sure why it is late but I guess it could be a late starting new sprout. Hydrangea is the name now that I recall.

I worked for about an hour at the old place today.  I needed to trim out more unwanted starts of mulberry trees and other kinds.  I drove my truck right up the sidewalk into the yard next to the area. I was pretty exhausted as I was working in the sun and loading the branches was never ending. I found that I had the truck full of branches and I needed reserve energy to unload the truck at the towns branch wagons.  I always have a couple people who want to stop and catch up on things. The guy who also lives in Florida is going to leave Iowa as soon as his sister better from a broken leg. He is always here for the Iowa State Fair. The other person talks travel to their summer Utah home.  She has two daughters that I had in school 20 years ago and the actually live in suburbs near me.

Small towns do stay small and I visited twice this week. Thanks for stopping by today.

Middle of the week....

Wandering through the batches of photos. What can  I say?  I don't like we are moving in tiolate summer already and the ground is dry and the weeds just keep coming.  Thanks for your visit.

The Moon.........

I worry about which photos to share today and then I think, "Hey I am giving them the moon!" I have been going out late at night and its been cloudy.  Last night is was right up there and the sky was clear.

Meanwhile back on earth the flowers continue to bloom.

I worked at the old place today cutting back stray unwanted trees.  I ended up filling up a truck load to go dump at the cities branches wagon. I have one more trip and I should get done with the unwanted growth. It isn't so bad when you live there as you trim away at things off and on when you notice them.  I did have a taller tree growing in the large spirea bushes.

They don't always seem to do it but they lead their head back to help drink the liquid. I know I have three hummingbirds but there could be more. I hope to see a ruby throated one.

We are having a ward days but the breeze is helpful.  I hope everyone it well.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday Morning......

A fogged over lens gives me some accidental shots that look good. I just keep wiping off the lens with my shirt tale. Eventually the camera warms up to the outside temp.

Cutting back the vine that covers the trellis is quite a job.  It will look bad for a couple of weeks but the vine ran out of trellis and grows ontop of itself. It also wants to grow into the  vents of the room heater/cooler. I am going to give it one more season.  It shoots loon vines along the patio floor.

I set up my tripod yesterday and snapped about 20 shots.  I wanted to get enough shots to identify them.  I had a hummingbird war yesterday so I have at least two different birds.

The funny think is that they all look alike.  I guess I will have to study them more closely.

Our friend is back to her apartment now.  She was in the hospital and then fourteen days of therapy to get her back partially walking. We took her back for a chemo session today.  She will be able to stay at her apartment with a health worker checking in on her.We drop her off and go home.  About two and a half hours later we get called and we go back to pick her up.

I could not figure why my oxalis was not growing, then I realized the rabbits were keeping them trimmed down.  Not I have it sitting on top of a milk can and I have leaves now.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday's Shares....

Blanket Flower

Dinner plate hibiscus

Green tomatoes

Day Lily

Zinnia budding


We are having a rain day.  The moisture is needed and it is a mild  rain. I wish you all to be well today. Thanks for checking in today.

Sweaty Saturday....

This is still blooming but not in such large numbers anymore. It really likes tis weather and still  has lots of buds on it.

I have a couple of these still blooming but the  Japanese beetles chewed up most of them. I was out with hedge clippers and cut most of the rose back as the dead buds and spent buds needed to go. I was hoping that the beetles were going to gone but it   probably is the beginning of their season.  I may have to spray them ever day.

My two rabbits ate it all off to about two inches. It had all the blooms and foliage to fill them up good. I have kept it up on the deck to keep it away from my critters. I see the one rabbit out there once in a while. It has been slow to bloom but I decided that I needed to get it out into full sun.

So far I think it is always the same bird.  I will keep taking photos and maybe I can see a different on out there.  The red is not the birds color on its throat but it is the reflection on its white throat.

It is very humid out there. I watered my tomato patches as they keep growing taller. I started to cut back on my one large vine on a trellis. It took two times cutting with me taking a break in the middle of the job. I haven't cleaned up the mess but I can let it lay to die back before I haul it away in my truck. I think I will stay inside for the rest of the day. I hope everyone is doing well.  Stay cool, stay safe and stay inside. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Finish......

The morning view is a mild beginning. The humidity is high and the heat is gradually warming. The sky to the most part is clear.

The dinner plate hibiscus survived the winter.  It has many buds and will be filled with more blooms in the next few days.

These are the surviving roses as the Japan beetles destroyed all the other blooms. The hit hard in large numbers.  I could not fine the correct spay for them but the Raid did take care of the quickly.

My field lily, ditch lily, got special treatment yesterday.  I have it in its own pot now with some of my best potting soil. It looks like it is going to finish blooming for me in spite of the rough move. If it blooms you will see the shots of it.




I survived a trip to the grocery store this morning.  I bought everything on the list.  I found some special sweet things that go well with coffee or even without coffee. It had been a week since I last was there. We are still hunkered down for now as large numbers still pop each day from identified numbers. Three hundred a day to five hundred a day is not not unusual.  Our county has the larges numbers.

Thanks for stopping by oday

Thursday's Things.......

I use to have a blog friend that lived on the west coast.  She could look out her  kitchen window and see Mt. Rainer and there were humming birds year round. It has been a while and she must not blog anymore. The person had a sweet white poodle and chickens in her back yard. Her daughter liked making miniature gardens. I had not thought of that blog person for years.

I had a young robin drop out of a tree yesterday. The adults were very upset.  I think the bird fluttered itself back into the tree as I returned later and all was fine. I watched the nest in my back deck and they kept feeding but suddenly they were gone. I never saw the birds other that some which could have been them sat on fences as if they did not know what to do.

The knock out roses are coming back after I had dead headed all the old blooms. I have only four or five blooms right now. We got the good rain a couple of days ago so it should speed blooms up again.

The begonia is coming around and starting to have blooms all over. I like the shiny leaves.

I worked at the old place this morning trimming stray weeds and trees out of my flower beds. I didn't begin to get done. I have a large pile of limbs and small sticks to show my success but I have so much more to do. I will have to go more often next week and see if I can get it all the way trimmed once.

I did dig a part of a field lily to bring to the new place.  I will have to find a place to plant it to keep it from invading the whole property. I may put it in a pot for now so I can think out my strategy.

Thanks for stopping in today.

Susans.........

The front planter is filled with perennials. I planted one geraniium in there and it is not doing very well. I guess it may be too crowded. Some of the plants are being invasive so I may have to pull some out this fall.

I think these flowers are become a crowd.  I think I can dig out a third of them and sent them to the back of the property. Black-eyed Susan is always good to have.

I planted the big marigolds around by tomato island. I am loosing patience waiting for it to bloom.  I normally buy then in bloom when I plant them but these were seeds when I planted them.

The zinnias I also planted with seed and I too am impatient with these plants. I have watered them but that doesn't make much of effects like a real rain does to the plants. Last nights rain cause them grow many inches as that water sinks down in the once drought like soil. When I finally see some buds I will quit whining. The volunteer tomatoes are doing well there on the right.  One of them is a yellow pear tomato.

The one plant that seems to be doing well this summer is the water grass. It is big and thickk and I have to keep working at pulling it this year. The crowded tomatoes are not so thick that the grass doesn't get much light anymore.

I had questionss about my son attending a funeral on Monday.  It was an all masked requirement and a lot of the people just stood outside, distancing them selves.  In a lot of cases they don't have funerals and the have a family service at the grave only. Some people cancel all things and cremains can be buried later. When Andy returned from the funeral he showered and changed clothes. It was late enough that we met at the sun room before going to bed. Andy respectfully wore a mask for us and he left early morning. Iowa is not on a strict lock down but stores were closed and are now reopening. . Group meetings are size restricted. Our packing plants, 14 or more, are our sources of the disease with 500 or more identified at each plant. Our nursing homes are real problms A third of all our deaths come from the elderly in Nursing Homes. It isn't going well anywhere in the nation but the more rural areass are doing better.

 

Thanks for stopping in today.