Sunshine Day....

 Our mixed weather conditions can be examplified by the sunrise. Rain, clouds, wind and some sun shine too. 

I had only one variety of blooms but it has reseeded itself with different varieties. It took a few years to get the cottage garden filled with them.

My large yellow day lily has started to bloom more than just the one first bloom. Its size is impressive along with its color.  I have seen in another;s garden an orange variety like this. 

 

As I dead headed this rose a lone bud was already starting. Its multiple colors is the characteristic of it as well as it fades to a plae pink to white as the blooms mature. 

We have had a quiet Sunday with a lot of down time.  The week will be busy and we will just take it a day at a time.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday in the Sun.....

 The front yard Knock Out roses are starting to rebloom again.  They are smaller even thoush they take on an appearance of a T-rose. 

When the multiples show up then you have a different kind of flower head. The reblooming is a little slow so things won;t get to be really showy for a few more weeks.

I really like my newest host purchase.  I divided it into three parts, giving one of them away to a collector friend.  I need to keep it watered but have failed to do so. We did get some rains that helped it.

Plans for the future will include moving this day lily. It has become crowded out or maybe hidden with the ever flourishing cottage garden phlox and asiatic lilies.  I guess it needs to be marked for moving after it blooms.

When I was planting the hostas next to the posts I had no idea how great it would turn out as a garden feature as all fills in to their spaces. 

I mowed the front yard this morning. It needed it as it was getting shaggy. I also worked on an invention to get the William Baffin rose up off of the ground. I could trim the bush back but it really is better with trusses helping to keep it off the ground. 

It is not completely fixed but it is a start. I will still probably have to cut out some canes and thin it out a bit. The problem is that if it is budding and blooming I really don't want to cut on it. 

It is a noisy afternoon as our one neighbors has ever so many family members in their pool  It is nice to see it is getting used though as it sat unused a lot last year. It is like living next to the public pool.  We now have three different people with backyard pools. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

End of the Week.....

 

A natural formation that gave some people rain but not us. We live on a hill and can get great views of the storms in the east. 

I pulled a "Larry" by breaking off the first bloom of my large yellow day lily this morning. The garden hose hit it and it was snapped off in a second. 

The Asiatic lily is putting out some great blooms now. I know our spring rains have helped to bring them about with lots of energy.

My latest throw it together project was this tray.  I wanted to try and lure in the cardinals to my side of the fence. My neighbor is getting cardinals so I think I should be able to see them also. Right now the doves are eating there and resting there also. 

They are peaceful visitors but I have see one shove off an irritating invader if the seed looks really good it its spot. 

This is the season when my blogs are filled with blooms but I do have the sedum bowl that is doing well in the sun room. One of them seems to be bothered from leaving the greenhouse as it is loosing petal shaped pieces but the rest is doing well. 

We had hundreds of people shooting off fireworks last night. Its allowed for one night so lots of people buy a batch of fireworks to shoot off. We sat in our sun room last night for an hour and watched everything fly into the sky. It was so noisy but it is only once a year. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

The Fourth....

 

A late blooming William Baffin rose is the closest thing that I have to red and white, no blue.  It's a hot fourth of July that started out with a light shower. I worked in the yard this morning in that heat. No special thing to do other than we had hot dogs for lunch with salads. We may watch the pbs specials with music and fireworks. Our town will light up tonight with many houses shooting off fireworks in all the streets. We can set on our deck, front step or the sun room and see all sorts of kinds of fireworks. It will be loud and smokey. 

The humming bird has raindrops on it as it feeds in the light shower. She stayed and drank for such a long time. 

I must have planted two parts of this as it grows on two sides of my patio area. It has delicate colors with the inner ring not being so dominate. 

 

 

I worked at protecting my new growths of zinnias. I have screens that surround the two planting area, inherited from the former owner who grew vegetables.  The birds are eating at all the new leaves of the young zinnia plants and screening does slow that down to give the plants to get big enough that they won't bother them anymore. I know it is birds because rabbits would devour the whole plant in seconds. 

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day.

Middle of Week.....

The hummers are busy hitting some of my flowers, my feeder and also the neighbor's feeder. Some stay for a long drink and others land for only a few seconds and take off again. 

I deadheaded the pink rose this morning. I will return with some strong clippers to take out all the dead stems. It had a lot of winter kill and yet still is a good sized shrub.  I also deadheaded my neighbor's knock out rose that sits there next to mine. After that I decided to mow the back yard. 

One other project was to move the zinnia plants around so they will fill in the whole flat. I don't have perfect rows this year and I am better it will look better.  My legs get cramped up doing this work so I uit before I fall into the whole bed. Tomorrow is another day and I can do some more transplanting. . 

These lilies open up at a different time that the regal lilies. This is the very first bloom of the many buds still on the stem. It isn't a tiger lily but its specks do remind me of one. 

We have no big plans for tomorrow. we will just be here.  We have a roast ready to eat and will enjoy being bombarded by all the fireworks around us. The weather is so great today as we have no rain but it is hot. Thanks for stopping by today.

Lightening and Rain.......

 

Having hollyhocks is such a great thing. This there second year for blooming and there are more of them than last year. 

It is such a special old fashioned flower. I have so many friends that are proudly displaying photos on their Facebook pages. I am limited to one color at this point but I have yet to find others to spread in there. My brother in California is growing some great maroon colors. 

 My smaller yellow lily is blooming now. I have a larger yellow one that still in its budding stage.

This lily grows in a weedy area that I need to work on. My neighbor is very sick and won't be back to weed his side so I will hit the whole area soon. I hit the water grass problem already but I need to return and deal with lots of other unwanted things growing there. It was too weedy for the columbine to bloom or at least I never saw them bloom. 

I was out this morning moving all the new growths of zinnia around into a better order.  They came up into clumps and I could lift them with a trowel quickly in the wet soil.  Unfortunately it started to be a little rainy and lightening strikes were hitting.  I quit and I will return on another couple of days before I get all those zinnias transplanted.  It was too wet to mow my own yard today in the back and that is good as I needed to heal up from yesterday. My wife is better as she is back in her studio painting. It isn't for long hours but that she has the desire to get back at it is so great.  Thanks for stopping by today.

The Beginning of the Week....

 The cottage garden is filling in with so many different flowers. It takes patience as a gardener when it all looks so green and at first there is not a single flower blooming. 

Most of the hydrangea blooms are starting to turn green except for this one pure white bloom. My cell phone picked up a lot of detail on all those small white flowers in the bunch. 

I cleared out most of the invasive vines that were growing, taking over, the area. The former owner left me with the vine and I don't like how it has creaped all around the house. The monarda doesn't look so good because the vine was taking over its growing space. I worked on this side of the house instead of dead heading more rose bushes. 

While I was out working I had the company of this mother rabbit.  I also had a baby bunny come hopping my way at the same time a chunk sprinted across the way. The neighbor showed the four new baby bunnies and now they are out and about looking for their own food. Notice the zinnias coming up in the two plots. Some morning I will get my trowel and shift things around to fill in the whole space of each side.

I mowed my neighbor's yard this morning.  I was going to stop and finish it later. But when I got close to being done I just plowed on. My wife always does here therapy exercise to the most and I thought I had to finish the job just like she does. It was good to get it done and I won't do it again for a week and a half. I have mowing to do in my own yard but I think we will have a rainy day Tuesday. 

Thanks for stopping by today.