Before and Afters..............

Here is a before shot taken about three weeks ago as our last few snowstorms kept things pretty much covered completely.

Here is the after shot of the brown and gray that was under all that snow.  You get to also see the neighbors garbage that is out ready for pick up.  Also you can see the Golden Rule truck in my neighbor's driveway. He works for them so we see the vehicle every day. You can see the small patch of snow still in my driveway.

This was flatter during our heavy snows but this gives you a good before shot of the Japanese Yew.

Here is the after shot of the Japanese Yew that suffered for awhile under all the snow. I think it was glad to get all the moisture that it could.

The squawking bluejay scolded me while I was putting an ear of corn on the squirrel feeder.  By the way he was looking around I am more convinced that he was looking for his mate or looking to find a mate as he kept looking around.

I planted my tomato seeds yesterday.  I didn't have enough soil to fill the whole thing but I didn't need that many plants.  I put in cherry tomatoes, steak tomatoes and roma tomatoes in the starter tray.  I am working on getting them under a plant light but that hasn't happened yet.  8 to 12 days I will see leaves sprouting.

Day 2 of string break.  It is nice to not have an alarm or little dog playing the alarm waking us up so early.  Button is learning to sleep in and that is great. Headed to the big mall today, Jordan Creek, and we will see what fun things we can do down there.  Maybe a movie or a bookstore will be on the agenda.   The sun is finally shining today after an overcast morning.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday............

I have always liked the bleeding heart plant but never could keep them alive.  I picked up this blurry looking package a few days ago and will follow the directions as closely as possible.  My mom had one growing in her garden all the years she was on the farm but never moved any of it into town.  I am going to plant mine in a more protected area. 

The zone here in my area borders on two different numbers and I know that southern Iowa is a much warmer zone.The maps that one looks at do vary from one to another.  Some are more specific than others.  My parents farm were in a 5b zone.  In maps that really show detail the map  has our area in borderline 4a and 4b.  For some reason we are near the Des Moines River and it affects our area to sometimes be in the colder 4b zone.  

It is a one photo day for me as I am out of shots to share.  It is a sunny day and I can get out and about to find new things to share for tomorrow.  It is spring break week so we will have a relaxed schedule.  We have a list of things we would like to do but are not on a tight schedule.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Sunday Snow......and Stuff.

Yesterday my look out window showed a yard full of leaves.  The leaves had been raked but the last of the silver maple leaves fall right before the first snow.  I am anxious to mow them and mulch them but not today.  There is an inch of snow back on the yard again today.  Through procrastination with the sidewalk situation I did win. I didn't have to shovel the last snowfall.  You can see the sidewalk as we had a few days of melting and all of my sidewalks are now clear. 

This is a time of ever changing weather.  I froze to the bone while helping fill the neighbor's feeders yesterday.  It did warm up with sunshine but the wind made it feel very cold.  We were below freezing last night and we won't warm up much today.  Tomorrow we will be warm again.

Two blurry packets of seed that I picked up while grocery shopping yesterday.  We like the smaller tomatoes and I will plant them in a pot for the patio.  I wanted to plant sunflowers this year and grow as many of them as I can.  I don't like to pay the price for sunflower seeds in the winter and I know the nuthatch and cardinals like them.  While looking through an Amish woman's garden book I saw her putting out full heads of dried sunflowers out on her feeder during the winter. I like seeing them grow and watching the flower heads grow and turn to the sun each day.  I hate cleaning up the stems and roots afterwards but I will try it this summer anyway.

I am hoping for a sunny day all day today.  Our neighbor gave my wife a couple of her roses that she bought at the Wally Mart.  They didn't last long but they were nice to see at this brown time of the season.  We don't have green any where right now but maybe in a couple of weeks the grass will come back.  I appreciate your stopping by and sometimes making a comment.  If you don't comment, that is okay.  I see I have a lot of visitors and I am glad you are out there.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Saturday........

The islands of snow that were originally big drifts are still hanging around in the yard.  It has become so cold the past days that they didn't continue to melt.  Our wind is very cold today at 39 degrees.  The windchill will keep us from doing any thawing.

The photo of the flattened Japanese Yew made us think it would never straighten up again.  In the top of the photo you can see none of it on the ground now and no snow is in its branches. You can see my iceberg drift next to the car.

I had dueling cardinal calls yesterday afternoon while I was out with Button.  They were too fast for me to get a shot of them but with the cold winds today I don't think they care to claim any territory today. The two males were close to each other, trying to scare the other away, but never did they touch each other.

The silver maple looks like three dancers as I was trying to shoot a photo of the two cardinals.  There are buds on the trees right now.  While putting seed in the neighbor lady's feeder I looked down and saw tulips up along the south side of her house.  It is in the sun and it is warmer there as I had to contend with my step ladder getting buried in the mud while I was standing on it. She gave me a large bag of corn to take home so my squirrels will be so happy. She didn't want them feeding in her yard anymore as it makes her terrier nervous. It makes her nervous too.

A day of rest on Saturday is good.  We are both weary and will not do much today.  If we go to get groceries it will be a short fast trip.  I hope all of you are well and that spring heat will be with us soon.  Some of my blogger friends will have to wear double winter jackets and some of my blogger friends will have to turn on their air today to cool them off.  Thank you for stopping  by today.

Skyview........

The seasons are changing as the sky looks more promising.  We have had some cloudy dull days but we have had some great clearing and it looks bright out there. The birch should be forming bud like shapes soon and drop out its spiral fuzzy things.

I found this in my last years files to show you what they will look like.  They should be visible in the next couple of weeks and they do get fuzzy.

 Most of my hardy geraniums are in long planter pots so they can not be turned.  Their blooms are all facing the glass of the window and I can't freely turn the whole planters around.  This one is in a pot so I can move it around so it isn't so directional faced.

I was first hour study hall keeper in the middle school and the rest of the day I will be in the Espanol room in the high school.   They are researching an imaginary Latin American vacation and have forms to fill out.  All classes are doing the same thing today.  The Spanish teacher is gone for the whole week as he and his wife have a new baby boy.

I am looking forward to spring break.  I don't have specific plans but we will be creative and find things to do that we normally can't do when I am on my 8 to 4 job.  Thanks for stopping by today. Take care.

Thursday's Things..........

There are three little boys in which I my wife usually buy books at Christmas time.  I pick up things after Christmas and send them in January.  Christmas is forever and the three like books year round so I don't even try to send them before Christmas.  This  year the after Christmas clearance was basically non seasonal things.  There were a lot of off theme books about things that their parents would not want their kids to read.  So I waited and found Easter books.  The oldest boy is 5 years now so I have to buy books for a young 1 and 3 year old and one more for the older.   The train one is a book loaded with stickers to apply in the book as it is being read. I really haven't looked up when Easter is this year but I will ship them out to Virginia next week.

Just for fun, I shot this of a very small trivet.  I think it was from my parents house and it has a small iron that was with it.  I have shot photos of the iron which is in the toy cabinet.  I need to move this over to match them up again.

I didn't remember buying this.  I don't know how I came to own it.  The Woodward centennial was in 1983 and I must have picked it up then.  I found it in the buffet in the dining room and thought I would try to take a shot it for the challenge of shooting pictures of glass.

My grandmother's pitcher had a great fall.  It has been glued back together.  It is on the throwaway list.  I will do it on a good day when the stuff gets to be too much.  I am disappointed that it lost its ability to hold liquid.  When I feel badly about it I remember the day that I took out three tea pots in one blow.  One was antique and the other two were not. They all fell from a shelf like domino's  as one tea pot acted badly with gravitational pull taking the other two with it.  You had to be there to truly understand the disaster.  I joke about it now.

I will finish with a shot of one of my mourning doves.  I have seen the Eurasian ringed neck doves at the feeder but they didn't stay long enough for a shot.  These mourning doves love the flat top of the feeder but will move to a lower one if the seed is inviting enough to eat.

I am back at school today being two different staff members. I will run from one end to the other this morning but this afternoon I will stay in Middle School study hall.  Spring break is next week and we have no plans.  We will be spontaneous and do what we like to do when there is time off. It will be warm this afternoon when I get off work today.  That will be welcoming as we have fluctuated so much form cold to hot.  Thanks for checking in today.

PS.  I know some are curious about Button and his trip to the doctor.  He is doing as well as a 16 year old dog can do.  He is scared of the place but then warms up to the assistant to the vet,  teaching her that he would rather be held than stand on that shiny metal table. 

Going Bananas.........

The stories of my fellow workers and their reaction to adjusting to DST are funny.  It makes me feel better when I am trying to figure out where on the cupboard shelf can I sit the milk.  My wife and I have been doing many non normal things the last couple of days.  It is worse than when I was doing strange things before DST. 

I reported on Photo a Day that Jack Sparrow is doing well in spite of his loss of his mate.  He is in with his offspring, shown above and he seems to be much better and a whole lot less nervous. 

The dismal sky shows the Canadian Geese flying around trying to find open corn fields.  They can pick up loose grains of corn with the snow melting. I guess they do hit the bean fields but a lot of farmers are growing the soybean crops like they use to do.  We have a lot of year round geese living here  so it is hard to identify the ones that are migrating. 

Middle school remedial reading is my assignment today.  I hope that all goes well with that.  It is an abbreviated, shortened day and that is good.   We take Button to the vet this afternoon to get his check up and his nails clipped.  It has gotten so that I can trim his nails as he can pull the sympathy card of being hurt by the process.  The vet can do it in less than two minutes and strangers doing give him a chance to yank his paws back like he does for his mommy and daddy.

We are cold today after having a warmer day yesterday.  We will warm up more the next couple of days.  Thanks for stopping by today.