Thursday's Things.......

My ferns have done well with all the moisture.  Some people don't like them but I like them a lot.  I remember ferns as a kid, thinking they were a town plant only.  I didn't see them around farmhouses but in town most houses had some ferns along one side of their foundations.  The ones I remember most are the ones that would be planted on both sides of the front porch making the porch seem like the grand entrance.  The ferns I have here were always were here when I bought the place.  I think old houses and fern belong together.

Some people call these pinks. Dianthus is the name I now remember.   I need to remember to move these from my pot and put them into the ground this fall.  Our neighbors to the south have huge plants of these that survive the winter quite well.  I know they are on the east side of the house and are in full sun, no shade trees.

My camera can't keep from taking photos of the field lilies.  This one is blooming out on the east side of the property and it is the last bloom for year from that planting.  The bloom was leaning out into the sidewalk next to my blue gate so I just took a shot of it.

I post on a facebook site or group of photos taken by Iowans.  One photo was shown of this flower.  A person had received a start of the lily and it was still in a plastic bag with just a little bit of soil.  It bloomed right out of her bag as she had not got it planted. I don't think she realize that it was just a ditch lily but it is a great plant.

I made a feeble attempt to take a photo of a spider web.  I had just taken the photo of the ferns and I thought a close up of the balsam pine would look good.  There was the spider web. I may keep trying as the day light changes on different days. You can sort of see it even though it is not distinct.

This is our view as of yesterday from out our dining room window.  The yellow Asiatic lilies are all gone but the phlox and other dayliles continue to bloom. What I see here is a quick memory blink of what we see during the winter.  I don't even want to think about it but the feeder reminds me of the other times of our lives.  I have a hummingbird feeder in the window and I think I have seen birds fly by it twice.  They seem to come only during the evening and I see them from the couch in the living room as they fly by the window.  I am hoping that they were there to eat from the feeder.

 I had planned to start moving an iris bed for my neighbor this morning.  I guess it will be on hold for now.  Maybe tomorrow morning I can start it.  She really isn't able to move it and I have it on my to do list.  I do have all summer but someone is always just a little bit anxious to get things done over there. I think but don't know for sure that the next surface job will be done today and I can't cross the road if that happens.

I have trim board to make one more picture frame.  A customers kids dropped a frame job I had done years ago and I get to put it all back together again.  I bought a heaver frame for it and I will share the historic map that is in it later on in my future blogs.

My fingers are all back to being flexible today and I can hit the keys like w without any bother of taped up fingers today.  Mower vibrations messes with me a lot. We are going to be a little bit warmer today but it won't get too extreme until tomorrow.  Getting work done outside on those days means getting outside early.  I know a lot of my blog friends are really having too much heat.  I hope our cool air is coming your way now as it is moving south.  Thanks for stopping by today.

ps.  the little guy hanging in the tire is a gift from my wife years ago and it has always been inside.  I put it out for the first time this year under the viburnum bush.

Middle of the Week.....

I hadn't been around the corner of the shed for a few days and this is what I found. The William Baffin is a climber and the plant had put out a tall stalk with these blooms opened. I am storing some old tires for my brother in law right next to it so I can't get to it to maintain the rose.  Hopefully we figure out how to get the tires cut off the rims and I can get those tires off my property soon.

The phlox are all at different stages so I will have lots of photos for a long time. I am going to have to cut back phlox this fall.

I picked up a tree at a cheap place and now you see what I have.  It lived for quite a while and then it died. It is from the poplar tree family and I should have known better than to buy it.  For now I will not be able to hire anyone to remove it so it will have to come down naturally.  From memories of a row of poplars that I once had, the  branches will naturally break down in time and fall to the ground. It is a good tree for paper factories to use in their product but as a long lasting tree, it is bad.

The tomato plant on the patio is finally making tomatoes.  It is amazing as to how fast they just appear.  I am out there every day with to dogs and over night I have a large tomato. I have to get this staked up as the weight will make it fall. I noticed this morning that the volunteer sunflower is leaning. I happen to have a stray steel post to put next to that. I will have to find a wood stake for the tomato.

AJ called last night and talked to us about the new foods that he likes.  He was eating at home having sweet corn on the cob and watermelon.  He likes them both but his new favorite is strawberries.  How a little guy can get an extra syllable in the word strawberries I don't know but he can.  I think he adds bebe in the middle of the word.

AJ loves to eat.  He has been taught at daycare and at home that meal times mean to be quiet and just eat.  We saw him a couple of weekends ago and he had a small bottle of milk at a Burger King.  He would just sit and broad smile at the bottle of milk with appreciation.  It may have been that it was a cute little bottle but he loved it and kept smiling all the time he was drinking from it. Of course french fries are a hit with chicken nuggets.

I have to look back to be sure I am not repeating geranium shots. This one is more orange that what the photo shows.

White ones are some of my favorites but the automatic camera really doesn't like to photograph them.

I am waiting to see one more plant to bloom to see what color of red that it is.  I had a rich red geranium and the cheaper red looking plant.  I am thinking this is the deep red one but I can't be sure.

I am typing today with two fingers taped together and I am beyond irritated.  I just push on without throwing the keyboard across the room.  I wouldn't do that but it does make me fell very frustrated.  i mowed yesterday and trimmed some trees and the one finger wants to get stuck in one position and won't loosen up.  It will get better the farther away that I get from my yard work.  I did get the last of my free growing trees trimmed down.  I put some shrub killer on them hoping I don't have to trim them ever again. I will drag the mess into on big pile today and do some other odd jobs.

I wish you well today and hope the temperatures get better for everyone.  Iowa is getting the second day of cool weather today.  We have been needing a few days of relief and then it will get hot again. Thank you for stopping in today.

A Good Day.......

We will have a sunny day but with cooler temperatures.  The flowers seem to be abundant with buds so I keep seeing new blooms each day.

While out with the camera and I turned to see this.  The plant has put on another full batch of blooms as if it were its first time blooming. It is its best year with so many blooms showing since I bought it a few years back.  I mention the two years of drought way too often but those were the years when maybe only one stalk of flowers showed and some didn't even send up stems. I guess that bad two years keep me amazed as to how the normal is so great to be experience.

I doubt that I ever get a picture of the fish in focus.  Even so the bright colors of them show up easily in every shot. I am assuming that if I had a dull day with very little reflection that my camera would pick them up in focus.  I did count five small goldfish that have survived and the two large fish are still doing well. The rains have filled the tank all the way to the top now.  I didn't add any water all summer saving on the water bill.

The mosquitoes bounce back after a couple of days from the town spraying for them.  The fish are enjoying the mosquito larvae again as the number of them is so great again.  My water barrel was showing yesterday that they were reproducing again.  I just put the lid on it so no more can lay eggs and none can fly away.

This is the two colored hardy geranium that was given to me by the neighbor last fall. It isn't my favorite but it is a new and unusual one.

This is a variegated one also that I really like because of the leaves. I have only one pot of it and I don't think I have a successful cut from it growing in any other pot.

 I don't go out of my way to collect these things.  I just happen to get this one a couple of years on a fall sale. I haven't looked at any geraniums this year in the nurseries but I doubt they are not any new ones at this point.

I will head out to mow now this morning.  My mind and body is against such a task but my mind will win over the argument.  It is a nice cool morning and the grass should be dry by now from yesterday's rain. My body will fall into line once I get it up and moving.  The grass is a lot less thick now so it is easier to push through.  I have a few sticks that have fallen from winds yesterday. I won't collect grass today as I have the wheel barrow full of water from runoff of the garden shed.  I will pour that off onto the garden during the next few days and I can collect grass the next time.  I have mosquito repellant now so I can plow through the grass and the bugs.

I have a couple of cute shots fo my grandson to share but it does take time to process them from the mail. Maybe tomorrow will be AJ day. It is Tuesday and things seem quiet in town. Thanks for coming by today.  

Raining in Iowa........

The promise of more blooms from the coneflower.  I have noticed the buds in early summer but the color of the flowers really makes them stand out.

There is a lot of green in the backyard this summer.  The monarda is in the far back corner and all the other layers are in front.  The phlox are dominate this year in most areas and the most of them are not even in bloom.  It should be quite a sight once they are in good color.

The seasons are changing already as the field lilies are beginning to collapse.  If people didn't know better this could look like the edge of a real pond.

I keep trying to get a shot of a wren for this year but it just doesn't happen.  I can hear a strong call from a wren up in the apple tree but I just can't catch a shot.  The apples drop a few apples early each year. I don't know what that is all about but there are plenty of apples still on the limbs.

I can pick these from the roof of the garden shed this year.  There is another part of the branch that is on the back side roof and it is loaded too. I saw apple tarts for sale at the bookstore coffee shop.  I think that we need to search for some recipes for that kind of dessert.

A large amount of the phlox are budded now and some are in full bloom.  I can see that the plant does change colors as the plant spreads.  This is almost white while most of mine are pale pink.

When I was young living on the farm, we had a lot of these colors of phlox. The darker colors I remember most and then I think the white was the second one that I remember. To have the variety of colors is a good thing. I do have to thin out some of the plants just like the monarda.  The fragrance is stronger now the further into the summer season.  At first I could not smell anything from them.

We have light rains today which will be good for the plants.  I thought I needed to water things when I was outside yesterday.  It may be a small amount of rain but I can wait until tomorrow to put heavier amounts on them.  I am not getting any of my yard mowed now but maybe by this afternoon I can get started on that. The road construction people are still not done and it is getting to be dragging on and on.

We had a tough week last week so we both are very tired today.  I know some down time is in order.  Heavy lifting and long times in the yard are completely not on my list today. The heavy lifting is actually never on my list.  I have one frame job to assemble and I am still in need of some more supplies for other things.  A large order of framing left on Saturday and the customers were very happy.  Another batch went out on Friday by a person who had waited almost four months before picking them up from me.

I see various people in the blog world are getting a lot of different weather right now.  I hope the drought lets up soon and also the excess rain doesn't flood others. There is a mild break from the heat here but the humidity continues.  Thank you all for stopping in to my post today. 

Sunday's Sharing........

The foliage of the phlox could almost be confused for a weed.  Once the buds form it doesn't take long for it to bloom.

I have various colors showing now with none of them fully opened.  I see a caught a couple of insects on the blooms while shooting the photo.

It is an artsy shot with a half of a bloom above and a new bud just now developing.  It was an accidental shot as I had a butterfly on the coneflower bloom but I missed it because them mosquitoes where nailing me with bites.

The oxalis seems to like our hot, humid weather.  It looks a little weathered from the rain beating down on it.

On one of the blogs that I follow a gentlemen called this variety "false sunflower."  I can see that but really had never heard of it before.  I took the shot to show how well this particular daylily is doing.  It still has a lot of buds to open.

I bragged about how this flower was following the sun.  Now that it is in full bloom it doesn't seem to be moving.  What is with that? It faces the house and it is difficult now to photograph.

Sunday will be the same routine for us today.  It is not suppose to be as hot today and the humidity will be a lot lower. We will be about 86 degrees.  Thank you for your stopping by today.

Stuff and More Stuff.....

The honeybees are enjoying the nectar from the coneflowers. I saw that one bee had his back legs  covered with the yellow of the flower head.

The lilies out by the road were also the same yellow ones that I have in the back yard.  They waited a few days before they started to bloom.  I have them all tied up as they were laying on the ground last week. 

I really like this hosta because of its color and the large leaves. It is so large this year that I have to walk around it because a lot of it is leaning out on the sidewalk.

I bravely cut a section of it out from the above plant last summer and now this plant has really established itself. Next year it will be larger than ever. I have quite a few hostas that really do need to be divided.  I am sure the town will be thinking it is time to condemn the farm here with too much foliage and not enough grass. I am not going to dig and divide and just throw it away.  I have my eye on a place to put some of them in my neighbors unkempt side garden next to her house.

I have many shots of this one butterfly that I will share again.  He posed like a fashion model for me as I was snapping shots.  Some butterflies, like monarchs, tend to eat with their wings closed.

I had to go out and add more steel posts to help keep the tomatoes standing.  The ground was so wet that the cages couldn't hold the weight.  I just now noticed the water that was still clinging to the sides of the tomato. We are really anxious for some of these guys to ripen. 

Life can be too short.  I know that it has been said for generations. I just received word on the internet that a newer friend of mine has died.  As a substitute teacher for the past years I became good friends with the shop teacher.  Even though I was not there everyday I did get to know Richard.  He was a former teacher who joined the Airforce and ended up being a F-16 repair person.  In his past few years he spent a lot of time in the deserts over seas repairing and maintaining the jets. Obama sent all of Des Moines' aircraft to a graveyard or other bases and closed that all down a few yeas ago.  Rich returned to teaching and that is how I meant him. 

Obituaries do not do justice in explaining a person's life.  I know that funeral homes now have a simple form, as I have filled out too many of the them. which just ask basic questions.  The secretary types up a fill in the blank obit, and very little is really said about the person who died.

A massive stroke took his life at the age of 60 in just a few days. He will be buried at the Veteran's cemetery near Van Meter, Iowa.  I will always remember him as such a kind man who had more stories than anyone would have time to hear.  He flew his yellow biplane over our town many times during the summers in the plane he built himself. He is gone in an instance and I was his friend for too short of time.

We are in excessive heat night and day now. Our air in the house can barely cool the house but the humidity is kept down and that is what we suffer from most.  We made a quick trip down to help my wife's friend yesterday.  She had a new bed delivered and the old one needed to be torn down and tossed in the dump. It was an old bunk bed type of bed with drawers under it and full head and foot boards.  I took a lot of tools and I needed many of them in order to take it all apart.  Her apartment was cool but the trips to the dumpster reminded me of the days when I made hay as a kid out in the open sun. The heat was harder on me than the carrying of all the old bed parts. It makes you wonder how any living thing can stay outside in it all the day long.

I thank you for your bending of a ear to my post today.  I hope all are safe and the weather does not put you into any danger.  Take care..........until tomorrow.

Friday's Finish....

The daylilies have loved all the rain.  This stray lily sits on the edge of a wild rose bed and a ditch lily bed.  I put it there on a spur of a moment a few years back.  It hasn't bloomed much but now it is doing well.  I like this one but I have a similar one that is also a favorite.

This one is so similar but the color is stronger.  The line down the petal leaf is also whiter and more pronounced.  The very red lily next to this tends to make this one seem a little washed out.

The job is done and the car is floating on air. The whole process of going to any garage is one of triple the amount that you plan to spend and then they will give back your car. The tires were very old and probably had been used way beyond their intended use.  If it were a second car the tires would have still have been fine.  The reflection of all the green next to the car makes this metallic green paint seem a lot greener than it is.

Our visiting cat has made itself at home on our porch.  Here he is getting a quick drink from my water pan.  He follows me around in the garden and when bored he returns to the porch to rest.  The cat goes inside at the neighbors house, his home, so he wants to come into our house too.  Barney wouldn't hurt him but he doesn't like to share the house with any cat.

I am waiting for the red hardy geraniums to come into full bloom.  All of the other colors seem to be out but the red ones are slow to open their buds. The did get their dose of fertilizer some time this week and the rains have been good for them.  I do have a lot of flowers now down because of the excess rain. 

I had one lone red admiral butterfly in the garden yesterday afternoon.  It played hard to photograph for a while and then it started posing for me. The mosquitoes are back and it was difficult to take pictures.  I stayed because it really was the first time that I was able to get any butterfly to hold still. I have seen a monarch out there and an all white smaller butterfly.  I did see a swallow last week but I never saw it again.

The end of the day turned very humid and that was harder to deal with than the heat.  We didn't cool down last night so we are headed to 94 degrees F.   We will have air on all day to stay ahead of it.  It is difficult to adjust to such a change from one day to the next. 

Everyone is weary today as it has seemed to be a long week.  There are things to do of course and we will schedule it all out for the day.   Thank you for stopping in today.