Sunday's creative zone........

This is the old fashioned rose that grows next to my side porch.  It was  here when I moved here 35 years ago and it has spread out more along our kitchen side of the house.  It was effected a little by my neighbors spraying his yard but the blooms are surviving and I don't have to show you the foliage.

The four kittens that she blessed the world with are now moved into the neighbors garage. I haven't seen them yet but the plan it to stop having kittens.  She has been to our door all winter and now all spring to be fed twice a day and we can pet her sort of.  She is staying in a cat friendly garage and she is now getting fed over there too.  We will see who and what cats end up where as they grow up.  I have not seen the kittens yet to know what they look like but soon I will go over and take some photos.

Thanks for stopping by............

Saturday.....................ah yes.

The William Baffin rose continues to put out new blooms on it's new canes. I dug a part of this rose bush and moved it to a new location a couple of days ago next to the old wind mill.

 

The peonies are now all gone with days of continual rain shutting them all down.  The heat made them droop but the water just washed them away for the year.

It is Saturday and we will be at a reunion today on my wife's side.  We are finishing up a ten day set of meetings at our church tonight also.  It has been a busy week with yesterday a day of working on the house down south.  

The house has decided to fall apart before it gets sold.  I replaced the innards of a toilet tank as the water was continually running otherwise.  The sliding door decided to quit sliding and I discovered that the header above the door had settled with all the moisture in the air from all the rains down there.  I had to saw off and eighth of an inch off the top of the one door\ so I could have room to reinstall it into the track.  I think the settling had cause the main sliding door to go off of it's track.

The back door to the sun porch also had problems and I had to raise a bracket on it as the moister caused the framing to decrease in size and I couldn't shut that storm door.  With the repair to the water line a couple of weeks ago and getting the water turned back on by the city last week, I guess I am now ready to find the house caving in somewhere now.

Have a good weekend and may Sunday be a good day for you.......

A day of memories...........through archived photos.

Objects that we surround ourselves with may have little meaning or they may give us each a definite flash back in the past.  A special event or an activity that we were involved with during the time of purchase.

My wife and I returned to Colorado for our fifth wedding anniversary in 1989.  While there, we rode a train up into the hills with black smoke and sulfur falling on us near from the smoke stack at Cripple Creek.  At one of the stores were sets of dishes and we bought this one mug as a memory.  The goose decoration theme was really going strong at that time. It is a heavy thing and I bet the plates were heavy ceramic pieces too.

My mom's very first afghan that she made while we were still living in the old house on the farm.  That would be probably around 1957 that she created it.  She bought it as a kit and my Aunt Mary bought one too.  My Aunt Mary's was in pastels and if you knew my mom you would know that these are my choices of colors, most of her life. The two compared notes so to speak and learned together how to follow the instructions and to complete them at about the same time.

The plastic farm animals remind me of the barn and farm set that I had as a kid. What really comes to my memory it the cold old house that we live in when I received it.  I would play with it on an old linoleum floor of the loving room.  Marbles and balls would roll to the west from one end of the house to the other.  It was a cold house in the winter and a very hot house in the summer.

On the farm the coffee can was a container of many uses.  My dad would store his different nails and fencing staples in these things.  Many times they would be left behind out on the farmstead and one could easily get cut up stepping on them with bare feet. When the lid was cut off of them their was a sharp edge of metal left on the top rim.  They were great cans for my dad to pour milk into after milking the cow so the many cats could have a taste.  The old tom cat had his special can far away from the crowd as he was touchy or grouchy all the time.

The final item is the old iron that held my Grandma Brooks"kitche door open in the summer so the breezes could come into the house from the back porch. That was an old house with lots of history and I remember that door had a table that sat nearby along the wall where the meals were eaten. Everyday the butter and jelly and condiments sat on the table and were never put away in a cupboard.  I think the bread was left there too as well as a box of all bran for breakfast. She had a gingham cloth place over them between meals to keep the flies or flying insects from getting in to them. I can still see her taking the cloth off and placing it back on. When she moved to town she never did that practice again.

It has taken me all day to get this blog completed.  I started at eight in the morning and now that it is after ten at night I have finally finished it.  I had a lot of busy things to do all day and I worked at it off and on.  Thanks for stopping by............

Thursday's three..........photos

You have to have a pretty classy shed to have a fancy light fixture. Not really, but I do have one. It is one that I removed from my parents home.  It hung in the middle of the living room and most people hit their head on it.  I thought the house would sell better with a little less of it instead of more. It should have been  hung over the dining room table but I guess my mom just wanted to look at it.

This is an older iris variety that I have in the garden.  It came from the neighbor's and it bloomed this year for me for the first time. It is a flower with subtle colors with cream colors and lavender falls.

I brought this peony bud from the heat. It really enjoyed the drink of water and started to open  with great color and shape.

Thunderstorms are hitting this morning and I have outside work to do in southern Iowa.  It may rain again tomorrow so I am waiting to make a decision on which day to go.  It is an hour drive down so I have to make my time worth while when I am down there.

Thanks for stopping by..........

Wednesday's day of many words..............

This is an area that I am starting to give more attention.  I take an area each year and try to bring it up to par in comparison to what I see on the blog.  I split up a crowded hosta this morning and made three new plantings around the old water fountain.  I have cut out the young tree saplings and the creeping charlie is going to be almost gone.  This is more like a before picture than one that I want to brag about to you.  I have a new climbing rose that is starting to bloom behind the fountain.

It became too hot for me to stay outside but I did get these transplanted and I also was able to establish my zinnia garden this morning.  I also moved some iris to a more sunny location and planted some gift starts for my neighbor lady along with some of my free zinnia seed.

I have the magenta or redish colored spiderwort but it is struggling in it's location.  I think it is too hot now to move it so I will trim back the hosta and phlox that are crowding it.

Lastly, I want to share this subdued photo of a mock orange bush.  It is a very old plant and I really hate to trim it back. A neighbor did his and it died.  I will try to thin out the dead wood in it and see if that will help it.  The bush was large and old when I bought the property thirty five years ago.  I guess I should start a new one somewhere and let it get establish.

I did finally make a decision as to where to plant my two spouts of reddish colored lilac bush.  It is hard to place them just anywhere as they do become a large bush.  I decided to put them at the far southeast corner of our patio so that it could help to shade the patio area and give it more privacy.

Thank you for stopping by,,,,,,,I know summer is busy for everyone and if I don't get comments posted, I am still trying to keep up with the viewing of your blogs.

Checking in, staying in out of the heat.......

Yellow Kockout Rose

We are 96 degrees today and it is taking everything down except for the tomatoes and the the pink knock out rose.  The yellow one does not like the heat.

 

Portrait of Lorrie, Iris

My neighbor sprayed for creeping charlie near this iris so two out of three buds perished and this one  ever opened normally.  When strong winds helped to deform it's shape but it's color of blue is still wonderful.

Bumble Bee, iris

This is what I called a cemetery iris and that is the name many call it when you research it on the internet.  Some have given it the name Bumble Bee.  I did read a couple years back that this specific variety was the one scientist use to develop the hybrid iris of today. I have only three cemetery iris that bloomed this  year.   I know there is a full yellow plant and lavender plant in this early older variety.

Here is another shot of my purple and white cemetery iris.  It bloomed well this  year for me and I think I have it established in a good location now that it will multiply. 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog..........I still have a snake story to tell, a new one, after today.

Monday morning's offering.........

Across the street

This was a field of alfalfa hay a week ago.  They mowed it down and only received three large bales of hay from it.  They think the alfalfa was diseased as it usually made eleven bales on the first cutting. They brought in a special disc and cleared the plants and it has now been planted with soy beans. 

Another view of peonies that are all but gone because of the heat.

Have a great day...........