Tuesday's Flowers........

The apple trees have opened up their blooms the past few days.  It was too cold to go out and see that they were budded but now I can not miss seeing them.

Lilac blooms are to be seen in the near future.  I thought the lilacs were first to bloom before the fruit trees but this year they seem later.  They don't look very promising when you view them at this stage but they will look great. My lungs will not like them and I will just take shots of them and not bring any into the house.  I don't like how allergies develop as you get older and I never had them in my youth. 

 The wild violet is doing well in this location.  I treat them like a weed eventually and mow the foliage down.  I get the best of both with the flowers now and then it is a good green ground cover next to the vegetable garden. I think if you click on the photo that you can see the white violets that grow on the edge of the bed.  We never had the mixed colors of violets when I live on the farm as a kid even though friends in town had them.

Here is a close up photo of the mixed colored wild violet.  They only bloom in early spring.

The violets do grow freely and spread freely, even among the weedy areas. You can pick bouquets of them and bring them inside.  They don't last very long but a bunch of them make a quaint little set of blooms.  You have to get out a small vase to put them in as even with long stems they are small.

I have stray tulips planted all over the property instead of a bed of tulips.  These photos show how they won't open when it is so cold. The stem to the right is the wild rose.  It died out on me and I have only a few stems left now.  The two years of drought killed it.  I would never think it could be bothered by drought as it spreads by its roots and somethings seems to be coming up all over the yard from those roots. Not this year. I will get to see all these daylilies bloom this year as they are gettting enought light and space to do so. They were always shaded out by the wild rose.

I get to be home today. I can get some yard work done and will probably have to mow grass in a few days. Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday the 20th.......

The flag iris is coming up in three different locations this year.  I am hoping at least one location will be good for the plants to give me blooms.

The wind was strong from the east and it was cold enough to keep the tulips from opening up in full bloom.  This time of the year the days will be windy as we keep shifting from winter to spring. The wind with the low temperatures made it uncomfortable while out there.

The hostas are magical as the shoot up their leaves overnight.  The moisture that is in the ground is helping them to look good so far. Things are looking better around on the property and unfortunately the grass looks like I may have to mow it. 

It is growing bigger and this iris did give me some blooms last year.  The leaves are more decorative than the blooms are on the plant.  I moved a few of these to other locations to see if they would grow better.  The conditions are so touchy for iris as they can't be too wet or have too much shade. 

I didn't notice until now that a hosta is shooting up behind the iris.  I keep digging and moving the hostas here and there with no real design plan.  The more the merrier whit green plants everywhere.

I am test giving this morning in an advisory room where the students are connected to a computer at the main office.  I have to monitor everyone and keep them up and running with the staff computer.

Once testing is done I will continue to be the special education staff person for today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

A Wet Weekend.......

It is a rainy weekend with lots of clouds and lost of sprinkles.  We need rain and we will take anything we can get. Saturday afternoon we had a hard torrential rain coming from the east which should have had significant measurement in the total amounts.  The rains are cleaning up a lot of winter dirt and it is greening up everything.  The trees are filling in with leaves now and it is great to see.

We will be off this morning to teach Sunday school and have a light lunch before coming home.  I am going to give away some of my tomato plant starts today to a friend at church so he can babysit them instead of me. I don't think they are big enough to plant and I think it is too early but my neighbor across the way thinks it is time.  I will give her some this afternoon to give her a start and then make her wait a few more days for the smaller ones to get bigger.  Planting garden seems early when we could freeze again for the next two weeks or so.  I don't think our ground has warmed up enough and high winds are tough on new plants that haven't become established in the ground.

Everyone have a good day today.  Thanks for cruising through today.

Slidding into Saturday.......

I only see two blooms showing right now of this particular tulip.  There were more in number last year.

Picasa, my storage site, decided to decorate this one photo today.  Who is to argue and I will just share it. Most all of the tulips in this area are now yellow.  My neighbor lady told me that as the bulbs age that they revert back to yellow.  With the majority of my blooms, they are yellow.

The New England Bluebells are opening up looking more like clusters of bells.  I was glad to see that the flower had been on the property when I bought the place and I have seen them spread in the years that I have lived here.
Our gardens on the farm when I was a kid had a tendency to be overcome with orchard grass every spring.  The bluebells would still shoot through the thick grass and I could pull the grass away to see them.  They were planted or had spread to a number of areas along the long flower bed of iris and phlox.

This vinca is what I contributed to our property.  It has survived many years and always is  blooming in spring. I have planted it in another location from the original planting and it now is pretty much established into the area.

City hall always knows best if you ask them.  I will share more about this marker on our waterline at a  later time.  We are going to have something done to the slopping green grassway ditch that is between the road and our yard.  I will have photographs for you  It will be an ugly thing that they are going to do.  I don't know why the landowners were not asked about their opinions of the said project.


I am posting late today as we had errands to do this morning.  We are getting short spurts of rain and it is said we may have a storm this afternoon.  We need the rain so we will be home with the dogs ready to watch it happen.  I hope everyone has a good weekend.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday's Arrival......

I noticed last night that I have two very small white tulips blooming right now.  I don't have shots to prove it but maybe by tomorrow that will happen.  Our tulips are few and far between with spots of color showing up in various areas in the garden areas.  We are getting a lot of new green foliage but the flowering season really has not started.

I am watching to see if the bleeding heart will bloom this year. It is nice to see that it survived as you can see it popped up among the dead twigs and leaves.

This lilac looks like it won't bloom again this year.  I have lots of patience because that is all I can do.  I can't make it bloom until it is ready to do so.  I hate that I have to wait a whole year to see it to try again.


It is Friday and I am a different associate in the same special ed. room. I follow some of the same students into their different classes.  It seems to be a beautiful day today and it would be nice to be outside working in the yard.  Saturday may not work for that as it is suppose to be raining.  I hope all are well and thanks for stopping in today.

Viernes..no Jueves........

Looking through the forsythia you can see that there are not very many blooms. This is a good show for this year as usually there are less than this.

The rhubarb is doing well as you can see.  I was asked by a friend if it was ready but in a couple of weeks I think it really will be mature enough to harvest.

It is a lot of foliage but there are no buds yet.  I will be anxious to see some daffodils.  I have two different kinds here and the other variety is to the right of this one.

 The New England bluebells are getting ready to bloom.  They look like rows of bells once they all open. The plant looks very green here regardless of the dry soil.  They are early to mature as the ferns will be poking through soon and they will be overcome by them.

The phlox stems make a nice pattern on the patio as they await for me to take them away.  Having them cleared is a big step for me so getting them out of there will be the weekend job plus some raking.

Happiness is seeing iris recouping from the grub infestation.  I really don't see any iris that did not make it through my treatment and also moving of them to new locations. I did completely lose some iris as there wasn't anything left to salvage.

I may water them as they do need all the help that I can give them to get blooms from them this year. I know that I bought three new varieties last summer so I will be glad to see them this summer in bloom.




This is the black and white version of the tulip photo that really is in color. I will share more tulips as they come out.  I don't really have a very good collection of them but macro shots make them look great. I am an associate today helping different students in the classrooms.  It seems to have become a long week when having a cold is involved.  I am better today and will make it through Friday.  Grandson called his grandma last night to sing happy birthday to her.  It was the best version the he has ever done.  AJ and his dad both had colds and we both had colds on the other end of the line. Spring is going to turn into summer here very quickly.  We jump from mild California type weather into hot weather in just a few days.  There is never ever any dragging out the mild great spring weather in Iowa.  It is one extreme or the other.  I hope all of you are well today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Slim Pickings............

I do have some new photos taken and they are home on one of the cameras.  I thought they were already downloaded but no they were not.  I am sharing what I have and that will be it.  The lilac above is an older shrub and it is now showing green leaves.  The buds seem insignificant right now but all of sudden there will be great colors of blossoms.  I took this shot because of the great sky behind it.

I have this photo as a header on my Photo a Day blog and I will share it here too.  I have some people who never leave my Creative Zone and sometimes are surprised I have more blogs. I cecked the cherry blooms yesterday and there are a lot of petals on the ground right now.

Some tomatoes get the privilege to sit on the dinning room table to get lots of light.  I am showing the cactus that is in trouble.  The plant was created in a green house by placing a large chunk of it in the soil.  It sprouted out all of these limbs but since it was overwatered, the limbs are rotting off of the base.  Two major parts have fallen off and I have put them into drier soil to see if I can start them.

It is Wednesday and it is my wife's birthday.  After work I will be taking her to an Italian place and we will eat a lot of food.  She has a carrot cake at home that we will enjoy when we get back home. 
We both are still under the weather somewhat.  We are better and eating out will make us feel better.  I thank all of you for stopping by today.