Thursday.....

 

When I was a kid I had six or eight building blocks that were stained with a die.  They weren't this fancy. I got them as an adult as they are antique and I collect old towys.  Me having a dinosaur was not possible as they weren't even being made.  The grandsons are so fascinated with them and there are so many of the dinosaur replicas out there for sale. 

I planted some old radish seed and this is what I got for it.  I think I didn't plant them early enough in the spring.  I will let them grow for a little while longer and hopefully the rains that are coming will  help them grow. 

It really isn't such a pretty sight but just you wait.  They will do well as time goes by.  Zinnias are tough and do fill up and out quickly.  I can move some more crowded plants into some of those spaces. 

It was sure hot but I still planted some iris.  This one was being crowded out by hydrangea plant.  This place will be a better for it.  I will baby it the next few weeks to keep it from drying out and hopefully not die. 

My neighbor's garden is just one foot away from mine so I took a shot. It is a small day lily with pale colors. 

I am blogging late today and just thought I could get something up before midnight.  I did it.  Thanks for following along.

Middle....

 The oxalis is loving its summer home out on the potting bench.  It gets a little weary inside all winter and sometimes just dies back.  The rains fall on it and the warmth seems to make it happy.

The lily is a mystery to me but I do believe it originated from my Grandmother Brooks.  I had a weepy looking stem that never bloomed at the old place but down here it did take off.  I first thought it was the Easter lily plantings but it isn't.  My grandma had it out at the back of her house and counted every bloom each summer.  I can still see it tied up with jute baling string from the hay field and it was tied to a big ole nail she had put on the wall of the house her self.   I do have Easter lily plantings and the three that I have are all short. 

The cone flowers are doing a good job of reseeding itself.  I have it coming up volunteer in my front rock garden where there is not suppose to be dirt.  It grows next to the yucca that I guess I had to  put dirt in a hole to make it grow.  I had to dig out the 8 inches of rock and pour dirt into it to get the yucca into soil. 

 

I cut back a lot of things this morning.   I like to cut down the asparagus foliage as it was crowding out a day lily.  I cut back on a rose that had finished blooming as it was crowding also a day lily.  I will move that day lily after it blooms at leas a foot away from where it was first planted.  I ended up making a mess with iris, day lily and rose being very small and now they are all large.  Bad planning but things were put in while in a hurry. 

In the front I cut back all the spent blooms of one of my "knock out" roses. The blooms were all spent from the heat.  I used a hedge clipper and really cut that one back.  The other two roses seem to have a few good blooms on them.  I watered everything today as we aren't going to get rain for a while.  I watered in some zinnia plants that I had moved around to make straighter and fuller rows.  My seed did grow but it was spotty.  I replanted some marigolds this morning too as they didn't all come up.  It seems to be too late but they do catch up.  

Middle of the week already,  Thanks for checking in today.

Tuesday's Things.....

 The sun to the west is casting an interesting light on the cone flowers.  I didn't know what colors that they would be but it looks like I have lost my yellow ones and also whit ones. 

The front raised garden is looking better.  The plants there are maturing and filling in to make it look like a proper garden of flowers.  I see the dianthus in the back are doing well too.  It does look good from the road. 

The privent and hosta look good together.  I was cutting out a sucker tree in the privet and cut some of the privet by mistake.  It hasn't ruined it but it is smaller in size because of my blunder.  The yucca in the background has finished blooming already. 

The yellow rose looks great and yet some of the hot days has ruined some of their blooms.  It is a great color and the first yellow rose that I have ever owned.  I guess I always bought red roses before now.

I worked on the zinnia patch today moving the plants around to get better rows.  The last years seed did germinate but in some places it did not.  I covered over the area with a screen as the birds are busy taking dust baths in the loose dirt.  They are taking out plants when they do that.  It was pleasant outside for working in the garden.  I like doing a few things each day, taking out weeds in certain areas until I get most of them gone.  I transplanted some sunflowers last night that I had started in a flower pot.  Four out of five of them survived.  The birds took out one.  I now have upside flower pots sitting next to each one to deter the birds.  We have a robin starting a new nest in and under out deck again.  I think it is a young robin and she is so busy bringing in everything to build her nest. 

It is Tuesday and I wish you to have a good day. 

Monday Morning......

 

 The Easter lilies of the past have been planted in the wild and they are maturing into tall plants.  I have two tall stems and the past years one is still shorter but will bloom. 

The hydrangea looks better everyday.  I water it to be sure it gets all the encouragement that it needs. It likes where it is planted.

My son who was visiting opened the shed door and a rake fell out and hit him in the head.  He said it made him mad so he rearranged the shed making it handier and safer. It is nice to have all the garden tools on the side of the shed.  Hanging the spreader gave it more room also.  That ladder could go up into the garage but that is way up the hill.  I will move it and the red tote wagon could just go away.  Andy our son is handy.

 

This is an older sunrise shot.  This morning we had a perfectly clear sky as the sun came up.  It isn't so hot today and I was able to get my entire yard mowed this morning. I had to shed a flannel shirt half way through the project.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Lego Duty...

 The grandsons love legos.  The younger one says Grandma and Grandpa need to come downstairs and play legos.   I like building with them so it has been fun to spend a lot of time with them.  The little granddaughter is three and she is still bashful.  We saw and talked to her a lot but she really didn't want to play with us. She would shake her head to answer us.  We did see the last day her talking to her brothers and she does have to stay up with them and all their energy.

These are all made with leftover lego sets that our boys had.  All the sets had people in them so the whole pile has lots of figures to use in the city. 

We have one young rabbit in the area.  He is the one that probably ate off my sunflowers.  I barely caught him with the camera. 

I captured the rabbit photo while out watching our visitors leaving the driveway.  They left early to go back to the Chicago area. Our house is quiet again.  We miss them and look forward to seeing them again. 

Thanks for checking in today. 

Where the Buffalo Roam.....

 We visited the Jester Park this morning with our visiting family.  They have a small herd of  buffalo at a fenced in area and your have to drive around to see where they are hanging out. They are in a large natural area with different sets of land to rotate them back and forth to keep them from destroying the terrain.   The buffalo are keeping cool right now in the large pond built just for them. We saw a group of ducks nearby them having a good time splashing in the water.

The elk hve the same idea with the standing around in their own pond. With all the hot weather we have been having I am sure it was a regular behavior for a lot of days.  We were able to get closer to them and shoot our photos through the fence.  They also had dual sets of electric wire  stretched around the inside of the entire pasture area to keep them from challenging the tall woven wire fence. 

 

 

A natural prairie had many different kinds of wild flowers. Along the elk fence line was a very well planned and planted group of gardens with many wild plants. 

Spiderwort was growing in many different locations.  I use to have this at my old place but didn't get it moved to my new place.

It was fun to visit the park area with our kids and three grandkids.  It is located in a natural setting of timber and it was so peaceful to be in the area.  The trees are thick and the natural plants grow in the ditches and along the walkways.  

Our company leaves soon.  We have had a lot of fun with their visit.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday Fun....

 The sun continue to rise each day where we live.  Some days I don't always see it due to many different circumstances.  The earth stops tilting to the one way and will now tip back.  In the big picture the eastern sun rises are between my maple and blue spruce tree.  I can now start watching its position back to the right of the blue spruce and beyond. 

 

Our son and his wife are visiting now along with the five grandchildren.  It has been six months since we last saw them.  The grand boys remember us well but the three year old granddaughter is still shy.  They are spending their day at our local Adventureland Park.  We did not go with them. 

 

We had three fourths of an inch of rain this past night and it was needed. We were still wet through mid morning. I didn't have to water anything and the rain does a better job than I do anyway. While everyone was at the theme park my wife and I went to Hobby Lobby for an outing.  We went into the mall near there for a sandwich for the first time in two years. It was good to be back into the mall and on a week day it was not so crowded. 

It is great to have company and we are glad we have the house with lots of rooms to hold them all.  The downstairs walkout basement is great for everyone to stay.  Our second grandson we have such a nice house for him to play.   Thanks for stopping by today. 

Wednesday...

 

Knock Out rose is fading as it is about done with its first bloom season.  I will cut them back soon and it will set new buds again.

 

 

I planted it at the bottom of the stairs. It really likes the location and has doubled in size in just one year. 

I planted glad a few weeks ago and the rabbits starting eating off the tops of them last week. I planted one more row last week and put up the fence to keep the rabbits out.  It is good that the bulbs keep from season to season. 

We are up to 87° and it feels hot.  I watered things this morning and pulled weeds where I could reach. Rain is predicted some time in the next few days. We have company coming tomorrow so we are busy getting things ready. It will be fun. Thanks for checking in today.

Not a Cool Tuesday......

 Brothers in crime keep track of all the bad things that are outside the sliding glass door.  Whatever it is that might be a fright we hear about it.  One day it was the wheel barrow that I had left out in view.  They look alike and act alike and one makes songs sounds to my wife when ever she is around.  The other has a different call that it developed the past three years while we lived at the new place. When I hear the call I know it is the other bird. 

The lily blooms will be showing soon. There are two stalks of this and they are doing well after being moved here from the other place. 

The golden privet was moved from the other place too. It never did well at the location that I had it planted.  When I moved it here where it sits in full light and gets water from the eaves troughs.  It is manybe going to have to be trimmed back.  Its purpose is to hid the gas meter. 

I will be moving this flower soon.  It is crowded out now by a big hosta, a sedum and a spike flower with purple flowers.  I do have some space to move it to and will do it when it cools down a bit. 

I am happy to see the zinnias are finally up.  They are crowded as I didn't know if the see would even germinate.  I can dig and move a third of them into a new row. 

 

We are hot.  The temps are high and the late bloom of this peony shows the effects of it. I work outside in the mornings and I have to take breaks while doing so.  I will water tomorrow morning early the flower seeds that haven't germinated or shown any green yet.  The tomatoes get watered whenever I see my neighbor water his.  I have four regular tomatoes down from thirteen of last year.  I do have two volunteer yellow pear tomatoes planted now and they are really setting in after their move. 

I have been painting on my plastic shed.  It is finished now but this photo is one of it in progress yesterday.  I think it looks like my garden temple as its whiteness matches the newly painted columns under the sun room and deck. It was a former owners shed and it was a dirty and moldy gray.  It really cleaned up good. The former owner left me all of his garden tools and a tiller as he could not take them to his condo in Boston.  The realtor told him I was a gardener so I am sure he left them on purpose. 

It is Tuesday and we have a couple of more hot days to come.  We don't cool down much at night so the air stays on all night. First day of summer and it sure does feel like it.  Fifteen days of daylight and now we start to count back down again, a few minutes at a time per day.  Thanks for checking in today.

Here's Looking at You......

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today....see you tomorrow.

Old Time Rose.....

Isolated and alone he is sitting under a rose bush and dogwood shrub.  The vine weed is at its feet and a few weeds to the left need to be pulled.  Things are overgrown and I need to spend time pruning things back. 

The antique rose that I moved from the old place is loving the life in a new building development.  The house was over one hundred years old and who knows how long that bush was planted there, probably shared from another neighbor to have roses in the spring. 

The blooms are so traditionally old looking and it is a joyful bush to have in the yard.  It bloomed every year that I lived at the old place for over forty years.  I had to move it as I built a room on top of where it originally was planted. 

Have a great day this Sunday.