Memorial Day...

 

Remembering what memorial day is all about can come with sad memories. My dad survived the Battle of the Bulge in WW II and it took its toll on his life the rest of his years. My brother texted me this morning and he too remembered the two that I remembered on this day.  George Horton died on the shores of France and is buried over there.  Norman Bettis, my age, died in an exploding truck, in Vietnam. He is buried with his parents in Osceola, Iowa cemetery. In many ways we lived with the survivors through the years either by facebook or by real life experiences.  I own the oak kitchen table that I am sure George Horton's parents wept over during their loss. Iva and John Horton gave me the table and I never thought about it until later in my life. Iva wanted to be sure that I was going to take good care of it and I have since 1971. 

I fly the flag daily to remember my dad's sacrifice back in the 1940s. It isn't decorative but symbolic of my childhood, living my young years with my father who had just left the war five years before my birth. Dad would talk about the day of Pearl Harbor and all other events. He did want his children to understand. It was just common for us to hear about his bad experiences very often if we would listen. His good experiences of his short trip to visit Nrtre Dame before he entered into the fighting were welcomed. 

                                                           Jesse Thomas Burgus, 1917-2000

Sunday...

 

 

 

 

The days are cold but the plants don't seem to mind. I would like it to be warmer.  I did plant a large area of the garden with zinnias.  I am not certain that the seed will even grow but it is early enough I could replant it again. The flower heads that I saved back didn't seem to have the seeds on them like what I see in commercial seed packages. I am grilling for supper chicken legs. I can put a slight coating of barbecue sauce on it so that I can eat it. It is a quiet Sunday except for watching the neighbor getting his swimming pool ready.  I bet it will be too cold for them to swim tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in today. 

Saturday.....Rocks and Things.

 The William Baffin rose is starting to bloom all over the bush. There are lots of buds so it will be blooming for a long time.

The wind was so strong that I had to hold on to the bloom to get it to hold still. The winds were really moving the flowers back and forth causing a little bit of damage. 

I do have one tomato on the vine already but most of the other plants are setting blooms for future fruit. Some hot weather would help out making things grow faster. 

I moved the rocks from the basement of the old place to the new home. I finally carried them from the garage to the basement.  My dad became interested in rock collection during the later part of his farming years. He had a polisher/grinder and loved to polish rocks. After my dad had passed my mom was becoming a little mind confused.  She would call and say she thought my brother was stealing the collection one rock at a time and selling them and she didn't know what to do.  I told her finally to put them in a container and I would bring them home to keep them safe.  It did take that worry off her mind but then I had this  heavy can of rocks to walk around for years.  I didn't need another person's collection to add to all my stuff but here it is. My dad wanted them to go to the grandsons so I will have to work on that.  I will share more about the individual rocks as I was involved in collecting some of them on a rock hunter's trip out to Wyoming.

 

We did not freeze last night even though we bordered two counties that had frost warnings.  I guess that the cold does slow down the blooms so they will last longer.  I got my yard mowed yesterday and it was way overdue. The machine that he uses crushes down the grass after it is mowed so it doesn't look good until the next day. I could mow it with a whole lot more of care and precision but not until next year. 

We are too cold today to do much of anything outside. It would be nice to go to a plants nursery this morning but I don't want to wear winter coats to do it. I replanted some hardy geraniums yesterday that I had held over inside. I put all in a larger pot.  They will need hot sunlight to get them to bud and bloom. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I have to quit now as I am having problems with sentence structure today. I hope I got them all straightened out. 

Frigid Fitday....

 I didn't have a warm coat on yesterday afternoon so I froze while I collected flowers. Cold winds are bad. I am glad I cut some as I won't be going out to see who they are doing today. The peonies are not doing well with the rain. I makes them sag.

 

The iris that were too short for the big bouquet fit perfectly in a bud vase  Both of these are antique iris.

I keep thinking that my age and health are telling me I should shut down my gardens a little at a time. So what did I do yesterday? I started a hosta garden at the front of they cement slab. I think the wagon wheel is where it is going to stay so I am going to make a green garden below/near the water spigot. I dug out three different ones. They were just growing underneath the leaves of its neighboring plant. I will show an after photo soon.

I am glad to see my yard being mowed right now.  It had been two weeks plus one day and it was way too long. I changed my contract so it can be mowed once a week. I used to mow it about every 8 or 9 days but they won't give me that kind of service. The mowing person uses a mower where he is standing on the back of the mower. He is bundled up with stocking cap and layered warm up pants and winter coat.  I hope we warm back up soon.   

Thanks for checking in today.

Red....

 

The rose in the middle of the row of roses has a multi-petaled flower unlike the two others which are single petaled. 

 

The whole front area has mostly read colors while my backyard seems to be predominately blue.

The dianthus returned from the hard winter. It was called pinks by the older generations. This is a tall variety.

I have two bushes of this single petaled knock out rose. They are plain looking in comparison to the mult-flora variety. 

We are going to be getting rain for most of the day. Maybe we can fill up the lake a little more and help the Des Moines River to fill with some water.  Thanks for checking in.......today.

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

 The plastic Canada geese are hovering over under the bush.  They seem to know that the man that coes to mow the lawn is scary. I have tried to make my edges of the gardens clean from grass by mulching them. I did another bag of much today and it just makes things look great. I think I need to buy some more. 

I don[t know how it happened but here are the cemetery iris planted with the black iris on both sides. I mulched this area to help the guy out.  I don't want anything mistakenly  trimmed off. I made space so his trimmer can stay a distance. I did pull out the grass in there too.

Here is another shot of this old iris variety. I read where a company is selling it and is calling it Wabash. 

The front row of peonies that I inherited are looking the best in the for years I have been here. There are two plants that are not read and they have not opened yet. I think they must have been commercially purchased and squeezed in between the red ones. 

My favorite host is being crowded by the day lily. I may have to rework that his fall giving it more space to grow. The day lily will die back later and I have cut back some its leaves. That is my favorite red flower too.

I am so glad we have such great weather today. I was able to get work done outside. A breeze kept it from being too hot.  I am anxiously waiting for my person to come an mow today or tomorrow. The grass is too tall.  Thanks for checking in today.

Tuesday's Things.....

 

Old fashioned peony from the old place. I was glad I moved it down here. The former owner has all new store bought  varieties in the front yard. 

I also moved this to the peony row in the back yard. This is the first year that the five of them will look great and be at full bloom. This too is an older variety with the outer flat petals surround the inner flower. There is a speck of red in the middle too.

My neighbor at the old place had this color of iris. I succeeded in getting it moved and its one meager stem is better than nothing. I use to call the flag iris. I would collect and growth them in Minnesota at the cabin.   I see some friends call this variety Siberian iris and I have seen Japanese iris. I guess it just doesn't matter.

Someday the light blue one will look like this one. I have two locations of this and I don't think I need to divide and move anymore.  It is difficutl to dig into them. 

It was totally clear last night so I took another shot. You see that it is almost full. A little dent on the lest will probably be gone soon.  I planted a couple of rows of more glads today. I did it more than two weeks latter than the last batch so I can have cut flowers for a longer time. I also planted a whole section of the new raised bed area with three different kinds of zinnias. If they start to grow I will plant more in the other section. I had no success with the planting of marigolds in a treay of dirt. I don't know why they did not grow.  I thank your for stopping by today. Have the best day.

Monday's Mania......

 It did stop raining for quite a while. The clouds looked large and billowy. I did get sprinkled on while I grilled but it didn't last. 

The garden fence is up for now.  I don't think the present resident rabit will eat anything in there but I do have baby lettuce plants coming up. The fence makes everything look mor official and it covers up the bad spacing that I did with my tomato plants. They will get big enough that no one will know.. 

I have two blooms almost open on my front yard peonies. The rains have helped to get them going. 

I have this dark iris planted in a couple of different places and both plants are now blooming. They call it a  black iris but it really does have color.  Different companies that sell it give it different names. If I would dig around in my old blogs I could fine the name of mine. 

I am anxious to see what this bloom will look like. I am thinking it is a full pink blossom and yet it could be one of the old fashion kinds. I really don't remember as they get moved, being dug in a non-blooming season. 

I did a thing to my one foot so I am wearing solid sturdy shoes. I  look at them and remember that these were the shoes I wore all over Israel. They have been in Turkey then into Israel. We drove through Tel Aviv, a wonderful modern city, and ended up near the Mediterraen Sea.  We stayed at a very fortified hotel at Netanya where the rockets could have hit us. All buildings in Israel are built with thick concrete to keep them from falling down. We were at the Tel of Dan where Lebanon rockets were shot south. Golan was near there also where rockets fly. The cities up there are made of solid concrete with bomb shelters. The shores were on a boat floating on the Sea of Galilee as well as walked into the Muslin Quarter to visit Bethlehem. I know they are just shoes but they have visited many places. The Temple Mount and the Olive Gardens are where they have been. It is hard to understand what has happen in Israel and their success has to be destroyed by one or two radical groups. I am glad we took that trip and knowing the memories will last for ever.  I suppose I will never throw away the shoes. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunshine on Sunday.....

 A newer hybrid that hasn't bloomed for me before this season. It was planted next to the fence and it never bloomed.

In contrast to the top photo this is a cemetery iris. It is sold as a dwarf one but its history is far older than the modern iris companies will lead you to believe. This kind of iris was used to create the hybrid iris of today. I collected this iris from a cemetery where it was over grown and being mowed down to keep it under control. 

The onion plants finally rooted down and they are all vertical now.  The gentle rains helped everything to grow and become establish. 

 The knock out roses are showing their first set of blooms. They overcame our dry weather and now have started to bud and bloom.

I forgot about this happening last year but when I set the oxalis outside the bunnies come and enjoy the leaves. This is a repeat of it happening and I would think I would have remembered how tasty that they are. 

The cottage garden has really filled in with blooms. I moved the birdbath into the cottage garden area because I didn't want to move it out of the way for the guy who mows the lawn. It fits here perfectly and the birds like it there too.

A quiet day today for us with the sun shining and the temperatures are pretty warm. We took an afternoon stroll around the gardens and I ended up picking more sparagus for supper.  It is nice to have the true green season back again.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday's Stuff......

 The rains were great to cause the flowers to grow faster and bloom better. The Japanese iris is just starting to bloom seen there in the middle of the row. 

The partial start of blooms of the Japanese iris is impressive. It was worth the wait to see them. The other planting of these is in full bloom. 

 

A cardinal pair were successful in raising new birds. I couldn't figure it all out right away as the baby birds are actually full grown already.  Both male and female birds chirp or click trying to get an adult bird to feed them. From what I have seen that the adults are letting them figure it out on their own as the hit the dogwood bushes and also the red bud tree picking at something that is growing on them.

 

They do look dull grown to me but they just keep clicking for someone to come feed them. The two in the above picture were also in my neighbor's vegetable garden area looking around.

 

I was glad to see that they hatched females too. I know there are at least two males and t his one female is out there this morning. I now understand why I have been seeing cardinals darting around out there in the garden.  I am looking for the nest but I am sure if it is in the blue spruce, I won;t find it. My wife saw a young male at the feeder and she wondered why the bird was having a hard time pick at the seeds. 

The iris is at its peak for blooming. I am taking as many photographs as I can as they tend to be gone overnight. I see that I planted two of different kinds right together.  I guess I didn't know them as there were no blooms on them.  They both came from over next to the fence where they were not doing well because they were in too much shade. I have a couple more over in that area that will not bloom sot they will get moved soon. In the picture you can see the size difference of the cemetery older iris and the classic one. I have blog friend that can't believe that my iris is blooming but I live in zone 4. People north of me are in zone 6 or 7.  Our area is borderline between 4 and 5 when you get a closer view of the map.

No rain today and that is alright for now.  We do need more rain but whole days of rain like we had for two days did get to be bothersome. The sun comes out off and on today.  Thank you for stopping by today.