Thursday's Shots.........

As the construction continued the white iris has stood its ground.  Three main stalks with a lot of big white blooms. The machinery has been removed from the area so I guess they finished up yesterday.  I have not been out to see what they did to get the ditch to drain the right way.  We have not had any rain in which we can test it.  These shots were taken in a period of time when it was not blowing.  It let me get good specimen shots.

Every spring I like to get a shot of the barberry shrub.  The leaves don't stay red but it seems that the new growth is red for a while.

This weigela keeps putting out great blooms.  I see they are starting to look a little weathered but the color is still great. It is the best that it has looked for a long time.

I am subbing today for teachers who are in meetings today and will do so tomorrow for a technology person who is collecting students computers for the school year.  Tomorrow will be my last possible day to work and I will be done for the summer.   We are having a sunny day today and we will be having normal weather for a while.  I need to catch up on all the outside work now as I couldn't or wouldn't get out in the rain and the cold.    Thank you for stopping by today.

Wading into Wednesday......

Larger than life this white iris is a winner in my book.  It seems to grow strong for a hybrid iris and I will probably move some of it elsewhere for next year.  It has really spread out so I can remove parts of it and it won't even show.

The pin oak has leafed out for the season.  This is the north of the house one which leafs out first.  The pin oak in the back yard is just now putting on leaf buds.

It is an older shrub that was given to me years ago.  It doesn't usually bloom but this spring it did. I use to call it a Russian Olive but I don't necessarily think that is correct.  As a specimen, it is not that good of a shrub for show.  I trim it back each summer as it grows so tall to block the art gallery window where my wife works .It's flowers are closer to being like honeysuckle and the smaller branches do have thorns.

I see I have an insect crawling around on the flower here.  I have thought about taking this bush out of the area but I don't want to replant anything there at the time. It is just easier to trim it back each year.

I have so many iris photos right now that I don't remember which ones that I have shared.  This is a new photo of a branch that I brought inside.  They are all blooming at the same time because it is nice and warm in the house.

I have the day off today and it feels like I just need to rest today.  I can't mow as it keeps drizzling and I think it would be best to wait.  I have two more days of work and then I will be done for the school season.  The last two days of school are Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and I won't get called in to do any of those days.  One day the middle school is going to Adventureland the the next day is a short day for them to check out and go home.  I will be glad to check out from school also and just go home.

Thanks for stopping in today.  Have a good day everyone.

Today is Tuesday........All Day.

The winds for three days along with lots of rain has caused the majority of the iris branches to lay on the ground. When they break off I bring them in to the house.   There are a couple of them I just let lay in the tall grass as they are too damaged to bring inside.

This small old fashioned iris is a cemetery iris that I got from an overgrown patch.  It is so healthy that they mow it down to keep it under control.  Mine is healthy too as it keeps spreading. I didn't get a great photo of it but its colors are so subtle that the colors don't reflect back to the camera.

The white iris out by the corner where all the construction is being done on the ditch seems to be surviving it all.  The wind has knocked most of them down but I have staked them back upright.

All of them are so distorted by the wind that I can get a great specimen shot.  They seem to only allow me to take abstract shots of them.  Today the big crane will be out and about reworking the ditch.  I suspect the flowers will be damaged but the iris plants themselves will survive for another year.

The ditch story continues.  I had placed on facebook a couple of weeks ago my concern for the job being done.  I said there that I thought they had installed the culvert  too low into the ground.  I didn't think about the readers but the mayor's wife is a former student of me who follows me on facebook.  After our big rains the ditch proved that it was done incorrectly.  Water is standing in my ditch and not going down the hill.

So you can see they are back.  It looks like it will take two days to rework it.  They have removed the neighbor's culvert, which is down hill from me and they buried it a whole lot deeper.  The ditch beyond this was totally reworked and dug deeper to compensate for the mistakes at my end.

So last night the machine sat in my neighbor's ditch.  It was back at work this morning at 7:00. I am glad I am work so I don't have to see what will be happening in my yard today.  My pond should be gone when they are done and the water should not be backing up into the culvert. The next rain will again test it out to see if they crew figured it all out to get it to work as a draining ditch.

The blue boy hides his face from the job that is going on behind him.  So far his planted area is still in tack and he will turn back around when it is all done. 

It is very cold in Iowa today and my tomato plants will survive.  I am hoping it won't dip any colder tonight.  We were at 37 degrees this morning.  I hope all is well with everyone.  Thank you for coming by today.

Monday, Monday......can't trust that day.

Lily of the valley was on the property when I bought the place back in 1976.  It has spread to new locations as it was growing where the art gallery was built.  It moved as a plant around the corner and now is at the back of the house. I am sure that a large majority of the old homes in town have lily of the valley growing somewhere in the shade.

I have yet to discover who the nest belongs to.  It does remind me of the robin's nest but I have not seen birds coming and going.  I bet when the eggs hatch that I will see the parents coming and going to feed them.

As a joint effort, my wife is the brains of the project, we made a cobbler. I had found a recipe of strawberries and rhubarb  added together in equal amounts.  We don't eat only one or two a year of the cobbler but this is a great way to make it.  We have  a third of it left to eat right now.  Maybe we will take a break and have another one in a couple of weeks.  I had picked up a plastic container of strawberries to encourage us to get it done.  Milk or cool whip works really great with the cobbler.

The promise of blooms can be seen on all of my peonies. It is funny how you really can't tell what color the bloom will be by the color of the outside.

It is no Lake Mead but it proves my thoughts as to them having put the culvert too low into the ground.  The rains left this body of water and it is suppose to be draining to the right.  But as we all know that water does not run uphill. It really is downhill but the ditch didn't get put in that way.  I guess I could buy fish and turn it into a garden pond.

Picasa keeps finding the photos that they like that I have taken and they decorate it for me.  The allium is going into a stage where the little green seed heads form in the puff ball.

I have a half day of work this morning.  It is cold now at 43 degrees F.  but maybe it will warm up enough for me to do some mowing. With school being close to the end teachers are gone on half day errands rather than on full day leaves.  I have two half days scheduled for the last of the week.

I don't think the cold weather will damage the tomatoes that I planted.  The high winds were challenging and only one of them broke off.  I have 9 more to plant in the next couple of days. I didn't plants seed of roma tomatoes so I tried to buy some at Wallymart.  They were sold out of that variety.  I hope all are well and thanks for coming by today.

A Day to Rest.....

The rains have made the spirea bloom so abundantly that they don't look like my normal spirea. In dry weather they just don't bloom out this abundantly.

My pink weigela is full of dead branches but I noticed yesterday there was one long branch that is blooming.  I am still going to cut it all back so I might get full blooms again next year. The long branch was stretched into the redder weigela and I didn't know there was a live branch on the shrub until it bloomed out.

This newly planted area is growing in well.  Only one of the iris will bloom this year but next year it should look great.

The construction people were back to add some more soil.  I have a new photo to show my new pond.  I hope I get frogs. The newest photo will show 10 times the amount of water from the rains we received last night.  Maybe I should plant cattails in the ditch.  I bet the city would not like that.

We were awakened at 2 in the morning by our severe weather warning system.  A funnel cloud went by us on the west edge of town in the country.  It took us an hour to get the all clear before the funnel clouds headed north two counties up.  It does interrupt a good night sleep but it is better to be safe.  Our town siren was turned on and left running for 15 minutes or more.  I just got word this afternoon that a first cousin and his wife were hit by funnel action down in southern Iowa.  Theu lost their outer buildings early this morning on their farm and did have some damage to the house. When I saw photos on facebook I remembered that my dad helped build their house. We were not effected by that storm but it was the same straight line storm that was moving through the state. The storm did move at a slow pace to the north east and it did stretch north to south borders of the state.  We were completely silent once the storm moved through and Button just had to go out then.

I am late blogging today but I do have new pictures taken now for tomorrow.  We are windy today, stronger than a normal windy day.  I am  picking up iris off of the ground and restaking tomato plants for their safety.  I did have one of the plants that I put in yesterday break off but I have 9 more plants yet to be put in and I can replace that one for sure.  If we don't blow away I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by today.

Spotlights on Saturday Stuff.......

The one insect got to this iris before it opened. Every single petal has the one hole in it to show its tunneling into the bud. I was more disappointed that I found iris blooms laying on the ground.  The rains the last two days have cause the stems to be so full of water that they bend over from the weight. In some cases I found iris blooms hidden in tall grass, not knowing that there had even been a stem on the plant. 

I like the shorter old fashioned iris because they always stand straight and hold up their stems.  This was the first to bloom and I think this is the last bloom for this one iris plant.  It is a classic in color and shape.

This is the last of the blooms for the fernleaf for this season. They come early in the season and the traditional kind of peony will now start to bloom. I have some peonies that I moved from the farm that will bloom this year for their first time in three seasons since I planted them. I am anxious to take shots of all peonies when they start to bloom.

The globes are lasting a long time.  I guess I think I take too many shots of them but if it does warm up and we see sunshine I might just go out and take some more pictures. They are like weeds as they have spread into the entire garden area and yard.  Once they die back the hostas and one rose will show up in their place.

 We are suppose to be in the low 80's, F. today and it does feel warm outside already this morning.  It also is cloudy and looking rainy.  I worked a long week last week and school is closing down soon.  I am glad to be home today. I hope all is well with you out there in the world.  Thank you for coming by this day.

Busy but on Task......

Sometimes the camera gives me a good abstract.  I really don't know what I had done to get this shot but there is a squirrel in there somewhere. Life has been looking like this lately.  I stayed home yesterday and witness the days that Della can put in.  The phone never stopped ringing with everyone wanting a piece of us, to do a job, to solve a problem, to set up doctor's appointments with my wife's friend. We will be taking her to doctor's and hospital visit for most of the summer.  The last call that I got to hear was one that asked me to come in and be the high school physical education teacher for the afternoon. I changed clothes and shaved off my face.  I made it to school by 12 noon.

All iris blooms are in ruin right now as the rains just kept coming.  It was foggy and wet this morning again this morning.  I think it is suppose to clear soon.  This is one of my better shots of the small iris but the wind is still trying to mess with it.  I had to arrange the top petals before taking the shot. I can see I am not going to have a large amount of iris blooming this year but they will do better next year.

A college friend of mine from back in the 70's declared his plant that look like this was a wild cranberry bush.  I guess the names vary but the shrub does seem to be the same.  I will just call it a viburnum and not get into the name calling game.

One last fernleaf peony bloomed in its location. I think this is the fourth one that bloomed this year.  I do have another one planted next to my new fence area garden. It was just foliage this year.

A shot that I have shared early on my photo a day blog.  The red bellied does show up once a day to the feeder and this morning I did see a small downing woodpecker at the suet last evening.  The sparrows are hitting the feeders hard and once in a while a bluejay does come for a free sunflower seed.

On the inside I have a new development with one of my cactus.  The giver of the cactus says it is from South America, southern desert part, where it grows.  The little baby cactus line around the rim of the barrel shaped cactus. I never expected to see this and the cactus friend says this small ball came off of a big one, her parent plant,  like this. I don't think I will use my bare hands to pop off the new plants to get more cactus.  Gloves or metal tools are all I care to use with them.

I am in the special education room today, following a couple of students around as they go to their classes. We are in a warm building with no air conditioning.  The humidity is very high so I can see fans will be turned on to move the air around so it will feel better.  Thank you for checking in on me.