Saturday Afternoon News.....

 

 

It was cloudy but the clouds were transparent enough for me to get the shot.  It was a Halloween moon.  It was still in the upper 80s F. at that time of night.

I mowed the back half of my yard this morning.  It was 80° F. by the time I had finished. We are hitting a record 93°F. today.  I call the photo my "beauty and the beast" photo. Our side of the fences are flowers and trees and on the other side we have the blue pool.  If it were my pool I would have shrubs planted around it to make it blend in to the yard. 

I watered flowers this morning as I want to keep things alive. The new aster is holding its own but extra water won't hurt with our high temps. 

The vine honeysuckle looked like it was going to die.  It suffered from the drought and I water it when I can.  It has started to grow out again at the top but the whole shrub looks dead. 

The orchid will be open soon.  I don't know if tomorrow will be the day but I will have my camera ready when it happens.  It has come a long way from when it was just a stick-like stem with some bumps along the surface to these almost open.

Our heat is the word on the street as ballgames were played last night in high hear.  Today's colledge football games are also in the heat.  We were up to 80*F. by ten o'clock so I think we are up to 93° F. now this afternoon.  In spite of it the grass is green to the most part. It isn't very thick but it looks good.  I need to start taking out dead zinnias now and bag up all the garden waste.  It is fall and October is a good month for closing things down.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Finds......

 As the cool day heats up we see upper cloud formations like this. We will heat up to 90° F. today and the warm spell is staying for a couple of days. El Nino is doing its thing already.

The begonia is looking its best for the season.  It knows that I keep it inside during the winter so it is getting showy so I won't miss taking in inside to avoid freezing temps.

The yellow rose has one last tall stalk that is putting out blooms  The bug is an extra point of interest for the shot.

Another shot of the scampering young chipmunk.  He is really frightened of me so I do have to shoot a picture through the living room window. 

We went out for breakfast today.  It was good eating and then we went to Walmart.  I needed a second pair of work shoes to alternate with my old ones.  The one pair sneakers gets wet so easily in the heavy dew and I get soaked to the socks.  The new pair will stop the wet sock  problem.  I also picked up a couple pairs of dress slacks.  I have a lot of slacks from my teaching years but most of them are pleated in the front and they balloon out in the front.  I lost noticeable weight from the various illness causes. The new ones aren't fancy but just plain flat front slacks that I can wear for whatever occasion.  I didn't want the skinny legged pants as I am too old to look cool.  I did mow the front half of my yard this morning with my new shoes doing their job. 

Enough for today.  Thanks for checking in today. 

A Good Day....

 

The downy is rarely seen but today he did show up for some suet. They are a smaller woodpecker so I have to look twice to be sure it just isn't a sparrow.  The flashy red gives him away. 

 

 

The last of my reblooming iris looked like this.  It is amazing how they can fold up overnight and they are gone.  It was a good run of second blooms and we got to enjoy them inside as each one opened. 

I worked with the orchids a few weeks ago repoting them into fresh orchid material and I noticed this stick projecting up and out.  I didn't cut it off as I could see the developing buds. We have had this a couple of years and I don't remember what color that it is. We will know within the next two days. The planting medium is actually shredded bark with it being infused with nitrogen.

This isn't very good-looking but it is in progress.  I have 25 new tulips planted here.  The former owner had stepping stones here and they went to nowhere.  I removed them and add new dirt.  It was an easy dig to get those bulbs planted.  I over seeded grass seed this morning in the area and added seed next to the new grass barrier.  I moved a large rock of granite into this arrangement this morning.  I will have red, pink, and red parrot tulips blooming here next spring.  The day lily is also the large red one.

I spent time digging up the black iris and separating it into new bunches.  I also cleared all the water grass before I replanted everything. A spare set of rhizomes did get planted in a new location.  One's garden needs to keep growing.

We are having another pleasant day before our warming trend.  I had to wear a parka all morning while I was outside.

Middle of the Week.....

 

 

After a few years I did learn to identify morning glory starts.  They just won't stop once they get established.  I will plow under these after the sunflowers are down.

 

 

The glads were disappointing this year in the number of blooms. It doesn't mean that I won't try it again.  I have them dug and am letting the green dry out and let the bulbs soak in any more nutrients that it can get. 

I closed down my outdoor water feature.  It is just a large flower pot that works well except that raccoons love gold fish.  I dumped in some guppies in there later and I netted out about two dozen guppies of all sizes.  The water was getting cold and they seemed to survive it anyway. 

I did get these planted yesterday and I watered them in today.  The pink ones are called salmon.  The red ones remind me of what I call parrot tulips.  It will be fun to see them in the spjring.

I am running slow today for various reasons.  I did get some tings done in spite of the cold weather but I am now in to stay for the rest of the day.  I might be grilling burgers on the deck this afternoon when I will warm up to the lower 70s.  It will be nic when it warms up. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Plants and Planting...

 

It hasn't bloomed well all summer.  Now it has taken a spurt of growth and maybe I will get one good set of blooms from it.  Everything looks healthy so it should make it happen.

 

 The aster is struggling but there are more blooms.  It did get a light rain on it last nigh to help it a little. 

It is somewhat deformed but it does have great color. The knock outs are closing down for the season. 

I took a second shot of this this morning  and it looks exactly the same.  I guess I will trash one of them. The light rain made it look good.  It is one of just a few blooms on the bush. I will deadhead it but I am certain that it is done for the season. 

 

 I had to make one last trip to the building center yesterday.  It means I could pick up two more packages of tulips.  I dug up some stepping stones that went to nowhere and will plant them there in that area.  The former owner had apparently four extra slabs of stone and just put them by the garage and headed them around the corner.  Then they stopped to grass.  Digging them out was a challenge and getting them into the wheel barrow was tough but they are now gone and placed down the hill.  I dug under their holes getting into gravel that was placed under the stones.  I dug everything up and poured new commercial soil into the holes.  I did get one bag of 15 tulips planted but I had to quit for lunch.  I will return to get the rest of the second sack of bulbs into the ground.  In the spring I will be so glad that I did the project.

I will be resting for the rest of the day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday....

 

It is unusual to see green leaves on this tree.  From underneath one sees green but the tree actually is a Crimson King Maple and the leaves look dark red or almost black from the outside view.  The leaves are starting to fall from the tree and the leaves look crumbled and are black. 

 

 As I mowed the back yard this morning I noticed the angel is always on guard she is in need of a paint job. 

The zinnias responded to a little bit of rain.  The last of the buds are in bloom even though they are small. I need to collect more seed to be sure that I have a good variety of colors for next year's planting.

I should tag the ones that I really like because when they die back one can't see the original color. 

Our weather is good.  Our rains never come to our area. I got all of my yard mowed and it looks good if you don't look at the dormant patches.  I will rest for the rest of the day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

The Last of Summer....

 

 One lone blue morning glory blends with the sky. The back view of white divisions decorates the trumpet shape. Our days are shorter and that is causing the vines to be in decline. 

The Russian sage is full of small flowers that do attract the few bumble bees of the area.  It has had a good year with me watering them often. 

It is the last of days for the phlox.  Some are drying down and I will be clipping them down in the next few weeks. 

The rainfall from a couple of weeks ago has caused the grass to be green again.  It has gone dormant many times this summer and we now have grass tall enough to be mowed again.  I mowed the front yard last evening so that it would look good for the neighbor who is trying to sell his house.  He keeps things mowed up and I try to keep it up so it makes his property look better.  His grass is in perfect shape so my mowing just covers the line between our properties. 

We never got a storm yesterday. Those north of us did recieve rain.  We are cooler now and that is nice temps for being outside.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Rainy Day.....

 I try to plant tulips in the fall every year.  I missed out last year as I was dealing with covid health.  This year I picked up a set of 14 bulbs while buying plumbing parts.  I try to just grab something each year as I never regret adding them to the garden.  Planting now isn't so fun but I have learned it is all worth while. 

This cone flower is going to bloom again.  I guess I was watering the area a lot to keep some newly planted hostas growing in dry weather.  The watering revived it and it has rooted in better and I have a mature cone flower plant. 

I have seen videos of guppies giving live birth.  I noticed this morning this one is hovering next to the log. I didn't have the time to wait and watch it happen but she has already kput out four or five new ones the past week. 

I have been under the weather with something like a sinus infection.  I lost my hearing in one ear and that has improved a little today.  It makes me completely off balanced.  I worked on my knees with a tulip bulb tool to plant the tulips.  You can't fall down so far when you work on your knees.  I am just going to take the rest of the day off.  It is suppose to be raining off and on all day. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Finds....

 

The hibiscus has put out three buds in the fall. They will be gone soon but it was nice to seem some of them again. I also have a coneflower that is budding and you will see evidence soon. It has been a strange summer.

The weed growing alongside of the hibiscus has some great flowers.  It has now been removed and put in the recycle bin. 

 

Growing in the drought means one is lucking to get one single bloom on the hardy geranium.  The plant was in such decline that I had not remembered that it was there. 

We are not use to rainy weather.  It looks sunless but we really aren't getting any measurable rainfall from it. 

I worked part of the  time this morning putting down one bag of mulch and scattering dirt on my clay filled lawn.  When the lawn has predominately sections of clay I buy topsoil and scattered thin layers of it each year in the worse parts of the yard.  It seems to be a slow day and I am not doing much of value.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Flower Power.....

 

 

 A rare sighting of the red morning glory as they are in decline. The plant did give me a great show for about a month so I am glad for that. 

Heavenly blue has been giving me great blooms the past few weeks.  Unfortunately it to is going into decline as the vines are yellow and there are less leaves. 

A promising very late bloom on the hibiscus. I was surprised to see it budding again but the last rain must have encouraged it. 

My new astor looks like this.  It is very different than my other one. I have it planted already and I will water it often to get it rooted.

 

I had an appointment with my hearing aid doctor this morning.  On the way home I bought two bags of mulch and one bag of top soil.  I continue to sprinkle black dirt onto my yard to enrich my clay mixed soil. It does make a difference and I just need to stay on it as most of the yard is clay infused. Unloaded the batch and I have some more things to do outside now.

Thanks for stopping by today.