Tuesday's Stuff.......

This is the reason that I let it grow.  It puts out such great color and with the hydrangea in the back with its white blooms it makes it look great. 

The other white thing growing is this yucca plant.  I had dug it all out two years ago because it appeared to be dead.  Now it is back living and blooming.  They grow well in Iowa and do spread some crowding out whatever is around it.

I will finish with this hardy geranium that I bought a few years ago.  It was a dollar seed geranium.  I bought it for its foliage colors but the flower is not shabby either.   I show a lot of photos of this plant as it blooms late winter in my living room window.

Thanks for stopping by to view my post.  It is a four day week this week and I will welcome a day off.  The Friday after will be a low keyed day as it will seem like a Monday and Friday wrapped up into one. 

Hostas.........

The old water fountain that was given to me is getting pretty weathered. That is ok that it is as it looks ancient and makes the splotches of hostas all around fit in to the circle theme.  That is unplanned but it looks good.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

At the Arts Festival of Iowa...........

I didn't take many photos of this day of activities but I have a few to show the  scale of the shows.  The horse sculpture was massive. It was made from scrap metals of all kinds.  I really don't know how it would be moved to be put in a truck to be taken home with out a lot of people power or a lift.

 The downtown festival was filled with artist's booths from all over the United States. Only ten percent or less are from Iowa in the show.  The protest festival of artist from mostly Iowa is held at the State Fair grounds, inside an air conditioned building.  The other art show was created the second year after the first show started out. Both are good shows and fun to see the work from all over the state and the US.

 

This is a second shot showing the crowds at the downtown event. It was crowded and people went in all directions.  If you walked slowly the general crowd mulled around in either direction or sometimes just crossed right in front of you. 

The whirligig artist was back again this year.  It is a lot of fun to see all the different things he can make to move in the wind all at the same time. To give credit to the artist, one can go to the Iowa Arts Festival web site and see the names of each of the exhibiting artist that were downtown and one of their works.

I did get some more outside work done Saturday afternoon.  It is crazy how it has all got bogged down but I am slowly turning things around.  I need to find my shears and start trimming the volunteer trees that are growing in all the flower gardens.  Asiatic lilies and stargazers are about to open up.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Too Hot For Coffee.......

I  have my first cup at 5:30 in the morning before work and I have no coffee the rest of the day.  But after supper I have one more cup as it is cooler in the evening and drinking coffee at work with 80 degree temps in the building is not a good thing.

I whined yesterday and then in the evening I mowed a lot of yard.  I also pulled some weeds. It was a hot afternoon but the wind was blowing hard so it made it almost pleasant for mowing in the hot afternoon.  Our day isn't planned for today yet and I guess I won't share the possibilities until we finalize what we will do.  We have a lot of options and some plans seem like work and other plans seem like play.  We will see how the day goes. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Findings..........

If I were a professional photographer I would say that I leaned the camera on purpose to create a mysterious effect.  Since I am common man on the sidewalk shooting wildly I caught a jungle scene with a killer lion laying on top of a part of a windmill structure and it leans.  Tom Tom seems to find it to be cooler to be on top of garbage cans, fences and the like that keeps him elevated so he can feel the breezes.

Snowballs in the summer as seen on this hydrangea bush.  They are looking great and it seems like there are more blooms this year than the past year.

This was tough to shoot but my body shaded the plant from the bright sun to give me good color of the flowers.   The creeping bluebell is doing well in the front of the house now but is not all in full bloom.  I just have portions of it showing color.

I noticed the rains have kept me from doing my garden work.  I noticed that my body of aches and pains say the garden will have to wait.  I guess I am happier that all that is there is green and not dead from the heat.  I can see hours of work that could be done in the yard but it will wait.  Maybe I can start to whittle away at it when I am feeling better and or stronger.  Work will come first and the rest will have to eventually fit in to my schedule.  I get home from work at the hottest part of the day so I don't venture out.  I will mow sometime in the next three days unless it is downpouring again.  I did see that I have just a few red raspberries that need to be picked.  Maybe tonight that will happen.  Thanks for stopping by today.

An Old Timer.......

It was on the north side of the kitchen and I was to build an art gallery on top of it.  So I moved some of it to the east side of the house where it has spread throughout that side of the house.  I even have a little of it now growing in the backyard as it has traveled by roots under the fence and grows almost to the back door.  

It is an old rose that was probably planted there when the house was first built in the 1900's.  I don't see it growing at any other homes around my neighborhood.  Either everyone else didn't like it's spreading tendencies or I just have one of a kind.  It is nothing like the wild rose that I have in the back yard.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Blooms for food......

I was surprise a few days ago to see the tomato plants in the garden had grown thick and tall.  Also I was pleased to see these blooms will bring me tomatoes.  I don't know if this is a beefsteak tomato or a roma tomato but we will find out in a month or less.

Thanks for stopping by today.