The Sunday Times....

 I started a discussion with my two older brothers today by sharing, text, my photo of my one lone hollyhock.  My oldest brother lives in Mesa, Arizona and he shared his brick wall filled with many stalks of hollies. His were mostly reds with a couple of pinks. He was at 110° F. at the time. My next to oldest brother in Yorba Linda, California shared his all maroon row of hollies.  If you knew him you would know his surely would be the tallest. He claims the fertilizer makes him the winner.  He is in the 70s F. today. He lives close to Disneyland to give you an idea where he is in California.  We are at 84° F. today and were told we are back into the drought category of minus 5 inches to be in the normal range. 

We could grow cactus in the wild in Iowa if we chose to but it is dangerous to have when you have grandkids around. They can survive our winters.  I instead have a mini cactus garden just for fun. The tray is suppose to be a bonsai container but I can never keep them alive.  I had cactus already in it but bought a new addition of the round barrel types at the grocery store a couple of days ago.  My grandma on my dad's side grew cactus in her bay window back when I was a kid. That wold have been in the the late 1950's. One of my cousin's got stuck with it at one time and the family stories kept moving around about it for years. That grandma was the one that had starts of plants in jars all of the time. I do that to but I don't think that really is inherited

My oldest brother shared his sunflower visual with me so I had to share my two blooms with him.  He must have to water his every single day to keep it going.  He and my other brother grow almost everything in pots rather than plant things in the ground. The CA brother grew 30 of the sunflowers last year supposedly but the wild canaries destroy them, tearing them up while they are first in bloom. He didn't plant any this year.

 

My next project is to rework the design of these stairs.  The former owner built these and every year he must have had to go in and fill in the sand under the bricks.  The bricks are flat ones but I am tired of dealing with them.  A heavy rain washes out the sand and then you can step down and in on them.  I am going to investigate a wooden deck material to place on top of it all. I have to go to the lumber yard and check out my options. 

I spent two hours yesterday at the car dealership to have the oil changed and have my seven year old tires replaced.  They short staffed themselves due to people taking time off so I thought I was never going to get out of there.  Our 2016 Buick Lacrosse is under driven for its age and the tires really were not worn out and yet they were old. Being there, waiting, I spent a long time looking over all the new SUV vehicles.  I would look at them then go sit down.  I returned three more times and the last time I tried getting into them to see how that worked. 

They don't sell cars anymore at that place. I think they make a smaller Buick car but not at that place. What they have are nice but I am not an SUV fan. I have a thing with bad design on the back end of them. All of them but one had all black interiors.  The choice of color for the twelve was black or white paint color.  There might have been a gray one but I don't remember.  The one red one with a cream color leather interior, which did look great, was their largest one that they make which sits seven passengers. It is too big for me anymore. It would drive like my Toyota truck, a lumber wagon. It would be a great ride but it would be too big for me to run in and out of parking lot spaces. 

So the moral of the story is to not buy what you don't like or want, or need.  I am not able to drive long distances anymore so we really don't need a newer car.  We are doing good as is.  I don't think I have studied the offerings that much before but it was a very long wait. It also cost me a lot of money.

Thanks for stopping by today.