A Cold Day

 Chives are a flower for me and yet we do use them for our baked potato. I am sure that chopped chives could work in a lot of dishes. 

 My coral honeysuckle is in full bloom this year. It suffered so much during the three years of drought. I didn't cut it down and my patience with it did pay off. A former owner planted this and I had to research it find the name.

 

 My knock out roses are starting to bloom. I had to cut back so much deadwood this spring that I didn't think they would look good ever.

 

 

 My William Baffin rose is growing large. I know that it is a climber but I have never seen this one grow so tall. I don't know if the branches will eventually lean down from the weight of the blooms or if I will have to cut it back. The blooms above are looking really good. 

 I planted the tomatoes a few days ago on a very cold, wet morning. They don't seem to be bothered that much from the cold. I bought them in an outdoor area store so I guess I didn't think they would be any colder here as they were a couple of miles away from here. I only have four plants this year. I didn't buy any that had multiple plants in the container as I didn't need seven plants like last year. The soil was in great shape and I had mulched it last fall with locust tree leaves and a new bag of commercial soil on top to get it ready for the season.

We took a journey down to the cemetery in Murray, Iowa. It was very cold and windy but I wanted to get things done. My parents, brother and sister graves are there. Dozens of relatives are buried there include the closer ones of uncle and aunts. My grandpa Burgus had thirteen in his family so there are scatterings of all those once removed relatives all over the cemetery.  Being the only sibling living in the state, it was my job to change the vases of flowers on my parents grave stone. The fake flowers were long overdue in being changed.  A group of a  high school class was there at the cemetery doing volunteer work on the area. Some of them earlier in the year cleaned old worn stones. I guess today they were there to pick up anything that need to be trimmed. We have a large painted rock at the entrance of the cemetery where many students were cleaning. The Freedom Rock project by one man is an amazing thing and Murray was the one spot that was chosen for the county. I will share photos on another blog. Freedom rocks are all over the state and now are in neighboring states. The artist is now a member of our House of Representatives. 

Thanks for stopping by today.