Saturday's Stuff.....

 Our flowering trees are showing off all the blooms. The whole building area asked the owners to plant these trees in there yards next to the streets.  Our developed area is 17 years old. The older sections have a full lining of trees down the streets.  Internet history shows that some of my neighbors have cut theirs down. 

The jurecho  took out a chunk of the larger tree a couple of years ago but I am not going to cutt it down. The flowering tree is an ornamental tree and there will be small fruits that the birds like to eat in the fall. 

Another view from the street.  I have a robin that is busy building a nest in the larger tree.  I haven't studied its work but eventually I will find it. 

I have two kinds of vinca. This one has a larger flower.  Its vine can be a problem and I have to keep it trimmed back so the front steps aren't overtaken.  My other vinca has a blue flower. 

 

 I have always admired others who had creeping phlox.  I was so glad to find that inherited these two plantings in my front yard. The rains have revived them and they are blooming nicely. 

I leveled the soil on my raised garden today. I had spaded it up and left it a mess but now it is all smoothed down.  My neighbors planted their lettuce and radishes a couple of days ago. I did get my 10 gallon tank cleaned and the tropical fish graduated up to the larger tank.  Pictures of the angel fish will follow soon.  They like all the new space from their two gallon tank.  Saturday continues for us. Thanks for checking in today.

Breakfast at the Feeder....

 

 

 My computer power is getting low and so am I, low energy today.  A few photos as a token blog for Friday.  Thanks for checking in today.

Clouds Above....

 

The zoomed shot shows that the sun is back behind that formation.  As I now write this the sun has overcome it all and is shining brightly.

 

Progress takes place as the neighbors build a structure next to their swimming pool.  I don't know what its function will be but I would suspect it is a shelter and not a storage shed.  One of the carpenters brought his dog to work yesterday so you could see it helping and watching. 

 

 

Every year I bring in the pussy willow branches and they stay alive for a long time.  Each year I throw away rooted stems and it makes me feel badly.  I don't like to kill free plants.  I will think about where I could plant it as a new bush but I am not certain that I need to add anything more to my backyard. 

 

My new iris that was in a cardboard pot is doing well in the big pot.  If I had waited to put the Oregon based plant in the ground I doubt I would have ever seen a bloom this year.  I have some I planted last year in the ground that I will see bloom this season.

This morning I worked on the front row of Knock Out roses trimming off all the dead wood.  They really got hit badly with our cold weather this year.  I had to trim most of them down to the base.  I did have some stray branches sticking up and alive that I may trim back as the season progresses. Those strays will put out blooms and that is better than having no blooms.  I trimmed back another rose in the back corner garden this morning.  I had a stray left over bag of mulch that I spread out on the area back there to touch up things.  I need to buy a couple more bags for that area to make it look better.  I saw one sprout of asparagus in that area. It is nice to start working in the garden.  It was cold and very windy so I didn't stay out for an hour or so.  My neighbor mowed his lawn yesterday, cranking the mower down low, and it does look good.  I think I will wait for it to be more filled in and I won't have to cut it so short.  I think it is too early to mow grass but Gary is  probably bored.   

Thanks for stopping by today.

Middle Day....

 

 The flowering tree branches are blooming inside the house. I will have to go outside and take pictures of the trees now that I know they are in bloom.

The morning view of sun and clouds was a very textured one. We are warming up today and the clouds are gone now.

I went shopping for my granddaughters birthday presents.  I took pictures of possible buys to send to my wife for our discussion of the buys. While there I bought a birthday card for a first cousin and also a new  aquarium for my goldfish.  The tank is 20 gallon in size, twice the size of the older one.  I had to use a garden hose from outside to fill it up and now am gradually sitting up the rest of it. 

It is made of glass and the bottom of it turns into a mirror with the water in it. The fish were not to disturbed about it but they seemed happier today when I put the freshly washed gravel into it this afternoon.  The sunken ship decor and fake green plant is also in there now. 

 

It was warm enough today for me to trim back one of my rose bushes.  I watched my 83 year old neighbor mow his lawn this afternoon but I am not going to do that for a while.  Every rose I get trimmed back the better I will feel. I have six more roses to to trim back.  Maybe tomorrow I can do a few more.  I was outside in short sleeves this afternoon. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Report....

 

 

 

 We are warming up a bit.  The rest of the week will be normal temperatures.  We hear construction noises from across. the way.  Our neighbors that put in a new pool are now having a good sized pool house for shading the swimmers.  The dog has lost a lot of yard to use for his purposes and the trampoline may not ever be used again with the yard being filled up with things.  I bought a large aquarium for my on set of fish and am in the process of transferring the old tank, 10 gallon, away so the new tank, 20 gallon, can be set up.  It takes a lot of busy work to get a tank set up and getting the water conditioned just right before putting the fish into the new tank.  I went birthday shopping for our grand daughter this morning and came home with the new tank.  How did that happen?  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Many Mentions.....

 The female cardinal returned to the feeder yesterday afternoon.  She usually flits off quickly but this time she took her time to find seed at the feeder and on the deck floor.

 The male wanted to only feed on the wrong side of the feeder. The photographer has to shoot through an plants on the inside.  I am hoping that they are a  pair and that they will nest nearby. 

The red bud is blooming late this year.  It is another very cold day here so it won't open up much today.  I am glad that the three year old tree will be having blooms all over every branch this year.

The creeping phlox was so dry and prickly that it was hard to touch.  A few snowfalls and a couple of small rains revived it to green leaves and blooms to open.

I painted it because the wood was such a bad quality kind of wood.  It needs a second coat to fill up some cracks.  We will have two shelves that we really don't know where to place at this time. 

It is extremely cold today as the wind makes a very cold wind chill.  I put out the garbage and then came in to warm up with some of the last coffee in the pot.  No big plans for today.  I was planning on building an Adirondack lawn chair from some of my scrap wood. I even found a good set of building plans for it from Norm Abrams.  That was yesterday and now I am thinking I would rather by a plastic teal blue one.  I want it for the deck and am thinking that a wooden one would be hard to carry up and down the 13 steps to the deck.  While looking for the plans for the chair an ad showed up displaying one for 25 bucks.  I previously had two green ones at the old place and I really did like them.  I will wait a few days and make up my mind.  I do have a bed headboard to build so I won't run out of projects.

Have a good day.  Thanks for stopping by today......

Sunny Sun Day.....

 I had noticed that these had buds on them a day or so ago.  I looked down from the sunroom this morning and there were blooms showing. The wind was whipping them up but they were surviving.

This is one of my favorite spring flowers over the tulip.  The bell shape and color seems to be so magical.  I did cut a couple of flowers and brought them inside so we could appreciate them up close.  It is too windy and cold to be able to view them outside for very long. 

 My garage door tulips are showing good color now.  It will be a couple of more days for them all to be turned fully red and to be opened. 

My fern leafed peony was well established next to the fence.  Since a new fence was being installed I felt obligated to move it.  It is coming up in its new location now and I am happy with it.  The actual number of blooms that it puts out will tell me how much it was set back by the move. 

The old fashion peonies are coming up now.  It took some warm weather to get them started.  The row of seven have been planted there now for three years so it should be a showy display of plants this year. 

Out front the sedum and bluebells are coming through.  I like how warm weather really causes them to show up and take off quickly. The big rock was there when I moved here.  I did bring some big rocks with me when I moved but this one was a good size one that probably was brought in with a scoop. 

Windy and sunny spring day is better now that rain..  We have enough moisture now to get the yards up and growing.  Thanks for stopping by.

Sat. Stuff.....

 

....and then we did have a heavy rainfall.  The moisture is so needed and sprinkles and rain on the head is tolerable.  

I like to let things spread.  The ones in the gravel will just die down on their own.  The ones in the yard will of course be mowed down eventually.  Right now it is a fun look of seeing them taking over the area.  The rains did bring them to life. 

 The sirens are blowing right now as I finish this blog.  We are in a severe weather zone with 70 mph winds coming our way.. The tulips were blowing hard when I took this just an hour ago. The vinca is blooming right now responding to the rains that we have had. 

The dandies are coming up and blooming already.  I will treat this before it blooms.  Our spring is late by about two weeks so we are now moving into more summer like weather with 76 ° F. temps.  It has been windy for two days as the cold fronts north of us keep mixing things up causing a lot of disturbances. 

Cats are looking back at me down at our our gallery wall. The wooden bird isn't too impressed but it is interesting sometimes to see these kinds of things when I have the camera out and am roaming around. 

It has been a slow moving Saturday for us but we seem to be taking a day off from any hard labor.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the evening.  Thanks.....

A Washout Day.....

 Heavy rains are welcomed.  We have been low on moisture for a very long time.  I had forgotten what it sounded like to have downpours on the roof of the house. 

Old blue is getting a good soaking washing off the dust and dirt from the year.  The birds nest in the tree are being tested with all the rain.

I dug up, spaded,  and potato forked up the raised bed soil. It looked pretty messed up but I didn't plow it last year.  We had chive on our baked potato last night and it tasted great.

The finished worked up soil looked like this.  I had planned to rake it smoother today.  The robins were busy getting bugs and worms up out of the overturned soil.

The rains are leveling out my soil this morning. I am so glad I got it done yesterday even though it was a tad cold out there.  I think this rain is the one that will transform our grass into a lusher looking yard. I welcome the look.  The yard will be needing to be mowed next week. 

On a rainy day the best thing to do is look at other work by gardeners.  They show others who are fanatic garden people who make blank spaces into lush growing gardens.  I like this author as he believes as I do that trees should be left be to grow and take their natural shape.  Don't trim everything up to look like a lolly pop.  Our rain will stop by noon and it will good to see what is sprouting up out of the ground after its winter rest.  My fernleaf poppy is up and I have pictures. Thanks  for stopping by today.

One Day Before Friday.....

 We are having a lot of fog this morning.  It is going to warm up for one day so the temps are helping to create the very humid day. 

I really an treating them like art.  I have them placed in different places to just be wooden sculptures.  It is a bright spot of color on the deck table.  I will have plants around it eventually.

A back lighted figure really doesn't get much enhancement for shape and form.  It looked better as a black and white shot.  The bird is fun to pick up and handle.  A bird in a hand is woth something.

The orchid is opening up one more flower on the stem.  I think it needs to be in more light to make it happy.  

I had to go out and shoot things to find some photos to blog.  I am done with shelves for now. I plant to dig up the soil in my raised bed today.  My wife will be watching me closely as I am an old man now.  It will be a while before we plant anything but I want to get the soil prepared.  I have plans to buy some more bags of soil for my newer raised bed. I plan to plant less tomatoes this years so will decide new uses for part of the older raised bed.  We warm up today and then our temps drop again. Plans are made and we will see what I get done.  Thanks for stopping by today.