Monday.....

 

Four different blooms were out this morning.  I could see them from a distance and had to grab my camera. They grow among the tomato plants and sunflowers.  It works pretty well though sometimes I have to thin out some vines to be able to see a tomato plant.

 

 Even though the whole soil surface was tilled deep I still got many volunteer plants coming up again. 

This is one of the Iphone shots I took to send to my brothers in California and Arizona.  Mine was the greenest of all of the them as they sent me back photos from their back patios.  My Arizona bro was having 110° F. temps when he sent me his desert back yard.  My California bro has desert like soil in his back yard because he has dogs and doesn't water it.  Both of my brothers have ponds with large koi in them, making me jealous. 

My zinnias are starting to bloom.  I have a very healthy looking field of them and you will see lots of shots of them all summer.  I spent some time outside this morning but the heat did bring me inside.  I have started to lift my inherited stepping stones and raise them in height.  I can get them pried up pretty easily and then fill in an inch or more of soil before replacing them.  I worked in the heat of 80° F. and finished doing five of the ten stones.  I can maybe get the last five done tomorrow.  We did have an inch of rain in a two day period but I will be watering everything tomorrow.  I don't think I will have to mow for a long time now as we dried out. 

We listened to fireworks and saw distant fireworks last night.  We live a couple of blocks away from a part of our neighbors who whole street is an old one and they refused to be a part of Ankeny. Since they are just a part of the county only they can shoot fireworks freely without restriction.  We will see lots more tonight off our balcony and that is fine.  It only happens once a year.  On the Fourth the whole town of 70,000 will turn into a fireball as  they are only legal that day. 

Thanks for stopping in today.