Robin and Blue Spruce

 

 

 

We had another rainy day. We have been in need for it for so long that I won't worry about it being too much at this point. We drove by some low level swamp areas in the valley today that have not been filled with water for five years. The birds, frogs and maybe some fish will come back. My yard will need to be mowed in a few days to clean it up. We still have such windy days and the wind from the south is welcomed. The mourning doves are back and there are many of them. I am sure thay are nesting already.

Thanks for checking in today.
 

The Saturday Report

 

 The grackle was feeding while the sun shined and its colors from the sheen of its feathers. The green colors of the head of the bird are so great and the different browns are subtle until the sum brings out the different colors.

 

 The sparrow has a lot of different browns showing in its feathers. The patterns are also created by the lighter colors of outlines on its different sets of feathers. 

 Yes, it is time to see some peony actions. The do sprout up quickly oece it warms up and the ground warms up. 

 I took a blind shot of this bird. It may not look like it but it is a very large bird. It was soaring, floating on the winds.  I am thinking it is a juvenile bald eagle as it is solid brown in color, with its wing span being so large. The head is not white until the second year of age. Being close to the big lake and the bald eagles do live all along the lake's edges. The like to fish from the lake. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Friday's Finds

 If I were to buy a new one of these I see thay are described as Cleveland Select flowering pear tree. They do not bear real fruit but a small fruit that is the size of a cherry.  I lost the larger on last fall as it had too many parts of it die down. The city came and took it down. 

 I was becoming impatient with the tree as it didn't seem to be very showy. I see now that the rains and time helped make it bloom better. It is just s as white as all the other trees in the neighborhood.

 

 The red bud is looking bright as the blooms start to open up more. The tree is a great looking specimen tree in shape and color. 

 

 The wild violets are blooming. I had only purple violets at our old place and here at the new place they violets are mostly purple and white. 

 This company hires the best photographers to sell their products. I am tempted to buy some potted iris and yet I have over planted things around here. I guess I could put some in the back corner where I took out the scraggly tree. The set of groups of kinds that make it so tempting to buy them. I will try to not buy any today.

Thanks for stopping in today. 

 

Thursday

 A walk around in the yard gives me some new views on the world. The shot of the weathered birdhouse to the newer real sized house is great. 

 

In the backyard I have the William Baffin rose coming to life again with green new leaves. It wasn't pruned back very well but the rose doesn't really care about that as it will just grow anyway on whatever is there. 

The red bud is still being so slow at opening its blooms. I guess the longer it takes the longer we get to enjoy that haze of color that is one it. 

 The workmen who removed the tree in the backyard moved my bench for some reason. Maybe they just accidentally hit the stone top with their equipment. Whatever it was they replaced it back upside down. The chunk of stone was from the old place. The kitchen had this kind of stone as its foundation material. They had taken some of it away to get from the basement to under the kitchen. This one ended up buried in the backyard. It is so heavy. The other side of it is smoother. The researched material says it is limestone, dolomite, sandstone. 

The basement was added to the main part of the house years after the house was built. The kitchen was like a summer kitchen, extended away from the main part, as the wood burning cook stove kept everything hot. They didn't put the basement under the kitchen so that is why the original stone was left under the structure. The house was built in 1912. The basement was added during the 30s. 

 I was glad to see the workmen didn't scrape away my hostas that are planted around the bench. They are just now poking through.

 

The grape hyacinth are always fun to see as that purple just pops a great color against the green. It seems to be spreading everywhere and I like that. 

Thanks for checking in today. 
 

Visuals Only

 

 

Tuesday's Things

 I had a visitor a couple of days ago at the back patio. It was a friendly cat and it was in good health. I took its photo. It eventually wandered back to the crack in in the two fences of my neighbors and disappeared. She seemed to be out for andventure. 

 The grape hyacinths are up. The have spread into my yard through the years and it is nice to see the in the natural.  I just mow them off and ignore them when they are in the grass. 

My one last flowering tree is looking like this. It looks less impressive than when there were the two side by side growing there.  I would like to replant two of them but they would look funny next to the big tree. 

 The flowers are open fully now. There is not any scent with them and by fall there is a small fruit that looks more like and apple than a pear. 

 The dirty window can't block the view of the cat looking up at my pet cockatiel. She certainly could not come into our house as she can spot a meal very quickly. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Monday

 

Saturday's Stuff

 

 

A lone mourning dove was out at the feeder this morning.  It wasn't a very large one but I am sure it is the adult size. It is rare that they come alone. I can't see that a female would be nesting already but maybe so. 

 

 This plant usually winters over well but doesn't bloom as well as it is doing this year. Begonia is its name and I have had it in that pot for a few years now. I sprinkle fresh soil in every spring. I almost put the plants outside but now see that we may get a hard freeze in the near future. I would be shuffling them in and out so I just will wait to get them outside. 

 My Thanksgiving cactus is blooming right now. I don't really follow all their cycles but usually it does bloom in November. I guess the spring light has brought it in bloom again.

 I tried starting some zinnia inside this  year. I know they are easy to just sew them in loose soil out side but I though the nurseries sell them in starter pots. I have two special one this year and I wanted to get them to be ahead of schedule and strong before I put them outside. It won't hurt to try anyway. I am told that zinnias are a major popular flower butterfly workers like to plant in wild fields. I have had a large bed of them every year since I moved here.  We are cold and windy again today. 

Thanks for stopping by today 

Ducks

 A flock of four were hanging around the neighborhood yesterday. In the afternoon I looked out and these two mallards were sitting on our neighbor's roof. The look a little bit confused. 

 On the roof of the nest house over is a pair of ducks. They seem to be resting up there and just looking around for something. 

 

I promised to share visuals of my one flowering tree in the front yard. When the area was first developed some parts of the development were required to plant flower trees along the streets. Our development was done later by a different company but a scattering of flowering trees are in our area.  Lots of them have been cut down but the healthy ones are still there.  I my larger tree removed by the city last fall as the strong wind storm of the past had destroyed the center of the tree. I then had a new large section start to die and it was ready to fall. Our tree really isn't a pear tree as the very small fruit that develops is more like an very small apple. I don't remember the variety's name. 

 

 

I connected that small green hose up to the drain pipe a few days ago. I checked it this morning and the many rains that we have had, caused the barrel to be full of water already. I didn't expect it to fill so quickly. We did receive another inch and a half of rain in the last 24 hours.  Having been through three years of drought this is such good news. I know the gr ss and weeds will grow better. 

We are having a cold day today with projections of rain. I did empty my rain gauge to get my own measurements. The reported rainfall for our city should be in a north end of the town verses south end of town report as the weather is different when you have a stretched out city. We are closer to the Des Moines River and the big lake that gives us a little bit different weather. The Des Moines River should be full again.

Thanks for checking in today.
 

Thursday....Ozempic Day

The first to bloom of the dozen I planted last fall. I really had forgotten that I did plant them but I remember now that I wandered around the garden placing them in different locations.  I have few also in the back yard gardens. I have always been fascinated by them and remember them back on our old farm in the early 1950s.

In the back yard the red bud is starting to turn color. It is subtle and is worth the wait as they slowly fill out with full blooms.

The past rains have given us another inch of rain. I didn't empty the gauge as it is suppose to rain for a long time. I want to get the total when it finally stops raining.  This added to our other rain of an inch and a half are all welcomed totals. 

We have always been reminded that our last frost date is May 15th. I keep thinking I will start taking the geraniums outside but I will wait. It will be nice to get them outside where they can get watered naturally. 

I have onea flowering  tree in the front yard after losing its partner last summer. When I went to the hardware store I saw all sorts of trees that are in white blooms but hadn't been looked at my own. It is in bloom and I may have to go out in the rain to get a photo of it. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 I take Ozempic for my one of two forms of diabetes. I always say the day of the week with its name, the day I take it. I won't forget to take it this way. I really haven't lost the 15 pounds on it as the others who take it for weight loss and are non-diabetics. 

Middle of the Week

 It was time for an adventure. The propane tank needed to be filled again. I take a photo for the hardware people to see to prove I do have the tank for refilling. I also needed to buy new parts for my one toilet. The job of replacing the mechanism in the stool is done but the tank sits next to the grill. I want it to be warmer before I attempt to get that heavy tank back inside my grill. 

 While I was getting ready to drive away there was the mallard duck sitting in my neighbor's yard. The pair have been hanging around. There are stories that mallard duck pairs do nest in the suburbs. The taking of them to a pond after hatching really is impossible around here. 

 It is going to rain this evening.  It is suppose to rain all evening and through the night. We can use the rain. We had an inch and a half the past rainfall and it was the most rain of any place in Iowa. The way the wind and rain and hail hit it seemed like it should have been a greater amount. I do have my guage out to get a new measure of the moister that falls from the sky. 

I recycle the water that I remove from the aquariums. The peperomia is really responding to all that nitrogen with all the upward growth of the plant.

The day seemed busy and carrying heavy propane tanks can take a lot from the body. Also the repairing the stool with new parts means being down on your knees crawling to get  parts detached and reattached. No leaks when I turned the water back on and the part I replaced is a lot quieter when the water fills the tank. 

Thanks for checking in today.