In the Middle of the Week........

The snow sticks on the tree forever.  It was still on there yesterday as we have not warmed up enough to be off of some of the north sides of things.

Nothing is sprouting up around the trellis as it is too cold. The snow is almost gone but there is still some along the edge of the fence yet today.

My tulips that lay next to the peony bushes are already up.  They are one of cheaper bulbs that I planted so the colors will be great but the flowers are small. I am glad they are up and know the daffodils will be up next.  Also the wild violets should be coming up soon.

I just contradicted myself as these daffodils in this area are now up.  They were covered with leaves and were just peeking through when I planted lily bulbs and my new bleeding heart.

The one section of the honeysuckle is putting out some leaves.  It was only a few small new branches that had leafed out as the rest of the bushes are still dead looking.

It is semi sunny today but it is still cold. The grass is greening now and the I see that the lilacs are budding.   We may make it to spring after all.  I am a high school and middle school social studies teacher today. It has been an interesting day and I am tired.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014.....

A photo done in pure impressionistic style.  It is from a brochure about the town of Woodward, Iowa.  Nothing is in focus.  It is a large group of people gathered at the train station.  I don't really know why.  I do know the original train station is in view and that was a two story, gabled roof building.  It does not stand anymore. It is gone. Who knows why unless it met a fate of flames.  The building the town uses as a replica depot building,  just for show, is actually a storage building that stood to the back of this building. I do know that in the time to the 1970's, railroad depots were being torn down.  People would buy then and rebuild a storage shed or garage out of the lumber.

The photos that I intended to share today are at home on a thumb drive. I usually get them posted into my picasa account but that didn't happen. My wife's birthday is today and I was distracted making a cake and frosting it, so I forgot the important step of download photos. 

I have a computer mess right now with my setup at home.  My originally old laptop has my photoshop application on it that I use to crop and enhance my photos.  I still can download to the computer but I can't upload to Picasa anymore on that computer. I am not able to update my computer to allow me to get to my storage site.  So I edit all my photos on the old laptop, save them onto a thumb drive.  Then move them to my borrowed school laptop, it is an old one too but I can upload the photos onto picasa.  It is all a pain until I get a new computer purchased.  When I do buy one I will have to install a new version of Elements( photo shop baby) on it for me to continue. 

I am a librarian today.  I have learned how to check in books and check out books on Destiny library program.  I was left directions and I have stumbled through them to get it working.  Usually I just write it all down but the head librarian left directions for substitutes to use.  I was doing great today until I found a book that had not been cataloged in the program.  I just filled out paper work for the guy and sent him on his way.  It is so old of book that if he lost it, it would be doing a favor for the library.    

Cold again today but we will still go out to eat for Della's birthday.  I hope to get away from school as quickly as I can so that we can beat the rush hour.  Weather is suppose to warm up a bit but it is still not real comfortable.  We will go out to eat and them come home for carrot cake.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday is Here.......

I think maybe the reason I like my carved bird is that I wish I were in Florida.  It snowed last night and it became a frozen layer of ice under the snow.  Fortunately the roads hold heat so it never really stayed on the roads.   I was letting Button outside late last night and when I carried him down the outside stairs there was a flickering of white flakces in the air among the drizzle that we experienced most of the day. 

I posted this on my photo a day blog also showing the gray light filled with rain.

So here is an archived photo that resembles what we look like again. 












A fix by seeing green that will come soon.

The things we hope for and will be glad to see when spring finally arrives. The snow really does set the body back as it has to deal with cold all over again.  Our furnace had cooled down for a while and the house was too hot just a couple of days ago.  Strong winds and cold certainly changed the inside climate of our house as I had to turn the temps back up on the thermostat so we would be warmer than 60 in the house. 

I am in the art room today.  The teacher is sick so the directions seem to be keep them busy and or make them behave.  A study hall in art isn't unusual as art students who don't want to work try to act like it is a study hall anyway and do other work.  It will be a good day.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Raining and That is Good........

The orchid might enjoy being out in the rain this morning but I am not going out into it.  We have had thunderstorms with lots of lightening the past evening into this morning.  Right now we are have a gentle light rain that will help make the grass grow and maybe the trees bud a little quicker.  I saw a lone robin on the feeder as if he were looking toward the next rain front that was coming in to the area.  He disappeared when the rain hit.

I have a lot of photos of the new addition to the household.  I will not bring too many more out for you unless I find a creative abstract shot that I can get from the plant.  It has only two buds left to open but I read that it will all stay in bloom for a few weeks or more.

Moving into rain from snow is a smooth transaction.  The rain does absorb and go away and isn't glaring back at you with whiteness.  The wet humid days are ok right now but when we really warm up we will have muggy weather.  Spring rains are refreshing, especially when they come done on the back of your neck while going to the car.

The brown grey ground you see in the photo needs some grass seed as the redbud kills out a lot of grass around it.  I trim the redbud a summer ago and I will have to again address its size again.  The redbud is not a small tree, at least the variety that I have here, so it isn't a delicate ornamental tree.  It is a big as a fruit tree specimen with a lot of branches that spread out horizontally.

AJ went on another adventure a week ago visiting New Mexico with his parents.  I am not sure what goes through a one year old's mind when he sees this kind of aquarium in a tunnel.

A new young father who teaches at school told how his newborn looked up at him with glistening eyes when he was first born.  The father just then realize the baby was looking at the tv screen above his head. They are busy little minds soaking in any movement and light that they can.




We are off to teach Sunday school this morning and need to pick up some groceries afterward.  The neighbor want us to pick up a ham for her to share with her family next weekend.  Easter Sunday is coming and I guess we need to get ready for it to.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday is a Good Thing.......

I bought a new orchid yesterday.  It is a new one and my only one.  I had a couple that didn't want to grow under my conditions.  I will try harder with this one.  I do remember that they can grow in spagnum moss and be attached to something with little water other than humid air.  I was again told by the salesman to give it three ice cubes once every two weeks.  That apparently helps people gage how little water that they need. I think ignoring them is probably the real way to care for them.   This one is so full of roots that it appears like they had stuffed it into the plastic container. The bottom of the pot is rounded so I will have keep it inside of anther container to get it to stand up vertically. It will never stand on its own.  I am not sure buying orchid material right away will be necessary.

I grabbed the first thing that I could find when we got home from the store and this tall vase seems to work well.  Its proportions seems to go along with the height of the plant and plastic pot fit right inside of it.

I was checking on the birds this morning and I see I have the geraniums really responding to our spring light. This is the red orange one that had so many plants in it.  They are putting out a lot of stems right now.  I have to water them a lot to keep them green and budding.

The deeper red hardy geranium is pushing out a lot of blooms also.  I was also surprised to find the white geranium blooming.  I had not noticed any buds on it all winter but now the one just shows up this morning.  I am saving that photo for my photo a day spot tomorrow.

I will go plant these starts into peat pots with some real dirt today.  In fact that is what I am heading to do after I post this spot.  I had repotted a few earlier on Wednesday and they already are responding to the better soil. I need to remember to start adding fertilizer to the water.   I have a frame to cut this morning and to assemble.  I finished up the small cross stitch framing early by getting the hangers on them.  I need to pick up sticks in the yard and if I had energy I would mow the leaves off the top of the grass starts.  I don't promise to have that done today.  We have rain coming late tonight and spotty chances on Sunday.  We need it as we are having a lot of grass fires in our area.

I hope you have a great weekend and that normal spring is coming your way.  It is early for us to have a regular normal spring but at least 3 o 4 days of the week would be nice. Thanks for stopping by today.

Green Stems..........

That is a good sign when green stems of the rose show up in spring.  I am hoping that the other roses do that too.  With 40 inches of frost I will be grateful to see any green on any of the roses.  Right now this is the only green I have. 

Saturday's plan includes getting these into the ground.  I will be disappointed if I start digging and I can get down very far.

The other thing to do in my plan is to plant the bleeding heart roots.  I have to dig through my blogs to see what I bought so I can remember to get them in the grown.  I did pick up some new zinnia seed to plant but I think I must have put them back onto the rack as I don't see them in my blogs.  I do have the sunflower seeds laying out on the counter so I will get them into the ground in a few more weeks.  We get frost up to the middle of May so I wouldn't want to plant them and have them turn black on me and have to replant.

The robins are so busy getting their nest built.  This one spent some time out there and then took a bird bath.  I also have a shot of it in action on my other site flying away from some commotion.  I found that the water pan is a favorite for them as it is an easy way to get a drink from the table.  I don't know if the robin is fat or if it is just fluffy.  

Our naming of the robin was a mistake as all our European friends keep telling us we are confused.  They are right as our robin by our name is really a Thrush.  Our early settlers are the one's who misnamed them and the name has stuck still today.   People in the know will say that it is a Robin from the Thrush family.

I am an English teacher today with most classes dealing with short stories.  They are reading them and writing about them.  The person of whom I am subbing tells me that no computers should be up and running during the whole class.  I asked them the students and most said this class is the only time they ever read in their real life.  They would love to be reading their short stories on their computer, but they would also love to switch over to a game in the middle of it.

No big plans for the weekend.  Maybe I can find things to do that will make it special but there are no big plans.  Thanks for stopping by today.

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

I repotted some of my tomato starts yesterday into bigger containers.  I tried to get them down deep in the peat pots so that could develop roots on those stems.  I took this shot to show the multiple leaves that I have beyond the two leafed stage.  I have to finish potting the others in larger pots also.  Maybe Saturday I can get that done.

Tulips and a tennis ball emerge from the leaves.  The ball probably is a torn up one as Barney likes to take them apart.  Things really aren't up that well bulb wise but a few more days of warming we will see other things coming up to the light.

One of my recent projects was to frame these cross stitched faces.  The friend that does these has her son run the photo through a program, which then gives her a pattern in which she can follow to sew in the stitches.  She has done these for every niece and nephew and said that she believed these two will be her very last ones.   I think she is glad she is done with doing the last ones. Each one she has done is created by the photo of the person at just the same age.

I was switched in assignments today as I arrived at school.  I became a history teacher to the lower grades in high school.  It has been a good day so far.  We had to assist our neighbor last night as she felt she was in breathing trouble and needed to go to the hospital.  She had called the ambulance and wanted her dog to be contained and help to get people into her house.  She really didn't behave herself when she return from the hospital a few weeks ago.  One of the ambulance person of the local rescue had to go bang on the door of her son to tell him she was on her way to Des Moines.  They shut their phones off in the night.  I am dog sitting part time while she is back in the hospital.  A new neighbor is going to help out so that will be an easier job.

It is going to be another nice day today.  The sun is out and the 70's will be our average. I will take them with pleasure. Thanks for stopping by today.