Surprises............

I think this is the most unusual summer for us to experience for a long time. Good moisture all summer.  Ample rain for the growing season was good.  Temperatures varied from hot to cold all summer. So when I walk outside and see these blue morning glories blooming for the first time I was shouting.  That is so amazing.  I posted other shots of the red ones and the blue ones on my Photo a Day Blog.

I couldn't stop taking photos of the blues.  The two colors of reds that started blooming two days are just remarkable.  A mixed batch of different colors of seed makes the whole process a gamble.  Even though it so late in the season for them to bloom, it was worth the wait.  Have a good day today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Starting Out.......Saturday

The two hold each other up in the air so it looks like a double bloom. The blooms of the zinnias seem to be more on the fading side than the new side of things.

My Friday work included using these two essentials.  Somehow the mosquitoes are back out there and they like to be in one's face.  Warm blooded people are their favorite victims. One of the insects made it into our living room while watching tv.  I had to relieve it from its duties to bite me.

While mowing yesterday I was carrying my camera in my cargo shorts. I was near the pear tree and went in to pick up a few of the pears before the insects get to them.   I looked down and saw one of these feeding on a pear that was rotting.  I was not getting good photos of it.  It was cold and all of a sudden the butterfly crawled over to a violet leaf and started to warm up its wings. I looked this one up and found it to be the Eastern Comma butterfly.  I had taken a photo of a Question Mark butterfly a couple of weeks ago. They are from the same family but they do look differently. 

I don't think I ever knew their names before and really didn't think they were significant but now with the internet you can identify even the little butterflies.

I was out early on Friday and had to return to get the camera.  You can now see why.  With the cold weather, the morning glories are blooming very early in the cold and are closing off quickly.  I did get a lot of great shots of them but I have already tired everyone of these blooms. I well sneak a few of them each day until I share them all.

The darker red bloom, it is almost violet. was a surprise for me to see. The light pink ones are on the other side of the trellis and they were not blooming yesterday when these were.
 I planted my mums into the ground yesterday and I moved a large lily bulb with the big stem on it to a new location.  Our fiber optics people will be digging into a flower garden area and I now have all plants moved.  I gave the red peony to my neighbor and the lily is gone.  The old fashion rose bushes will have to be on their own.  I don't think they will be harmed.

I am trimming off phlox now every time that I have to go out with Button.  I have the clippers laying right by the door.  I don't trim at 2 in the morning but I do clip off things all during the day.  He doesn't stay out long but it keeps me moving forward with the project.  We were very cold again this morning.  I had to mess with the furnace to get it to be at least 70 degrees F. in the house. 

I found this bud out there to my surprise.  You will probably seem many shots of this bloom once it is open. It is one of the three dahlias that I planted earlier.  The grew very slowly and then had insects eat off all of the leaves but now they are back.

No big plans today.  The bookstore is  in the upcoming events column. I have a frame job, a big one, that is so close to being done, and I think sitting around is also in my future for our day off. Cold but no rain makes the day an ok day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Harvest Time........

Standing on a step ladder gives me an ability to pick the bigger apples. It was a hazy afternoon and it was hot and humid.  I picked a lot of apples and there are so many more to be picked.  The squirrels really do like them and I see on carry off a smaller apple every once in a while. The neighbor lady across the way watched her two dogs playing in the yard and also kept an eye on the old man on the ladder. I keep asking people and there are so many people who don't want to take time to peal and apple and bake it in something.  Our society has gotten too spoiled and they just buy it out of the freezer at the store. I do know it takes a lot of time to put it all together but some time one needs to fit cooking into life somewhere.  My wife and I put out two batches of cobbler late afternoon and we froze one of them.

My stock tank turned into a fish tank outside has had water in it all summer.  I have never had to add water to this thing once this summer.  I have apples that fall from a nearby tree falling into the tank and the larger goldfish chew on them.  You can see them floating in the water.  The foliage in the front is the patch of field lilies that decided to revive after it had all died down.  As I keep clearing my paths back to the fish I will eventually cut back the free growing plants back there.

The burning bushes are turning red and also putting out red berries.  It looks like they are going to have a normal fall.  The past few years there were leaves by this time or there were leaves and no berries.  The rains have been good to them.




















The weekend is coming and we are going to be going through more storms for a couple of days.  I am right now headed to the yard to mow  and I have a famed job to finish up this afternoon.  I hope everyone has a good day today and will find fun things to do for the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by today.

THURSDAY !!!!!!!!!

Yes, I know, it is another photo of a morning glory.  I was up early with my wife to go to Des Moines yesterday and I found out why I couldn't get a photo of the ones outside the door. The seem to be blooming when the sun comes up and then they close up by 8:00 in the morning.  I snapped it right away before breakfast as by the time we got  home everything would be shriveled up. Today's rain is destroying them as the rain seems to tear at the thin walled trumpet flower. I have a new darker purple flower out at the shed but the rains have smashed them to shreds.

The river birch is doing well with all the rains we have had all summer.  Today it rains.  Our state capitol wasn't getting it so they weather people were not to excited about it.  It has rained now since 5 this morning when I got up with Button.  I take Button out the side porch and sit him under a Japanese yew bush and he doesn't get wet while doing his business.  I on the other hand had to get a towel and dry my hair.

Button turned 17 years old a few days ago.  When we first got him he was about the size of a guinea pig.  We would carry him around in the nap of our neck and that is where is wanted to be.

He requires a lot more carrying now that he is old but it just works better to get him up and down stairs and outside without him having a lot of confusion.  He can still jump up on the couch and find his favorite pillow.  He sees pretty well considering his low vision capacity and I think his nose keeps him out of trouble when he wants to find his way.  His nose can sure know when we have chicken for supper as he is ready for his fair share.

The oxalis that is planted in the large pot is doing well.  It has lots of blooms as it quit raining for a week or so.  It had a bigger problem with too much rain this summer and it made it sluggish to bloom.  I brought outside my second planting of this that is in a smaller pot and I think it will have to be put into something larger before I bring it in.  It is nice how I can just let the outside weather to take care of them for me and they are of little work to none at all.

 The moss rose is struggling but I still have a few blooms on it.  There isn't a drain plug in the granite ware pan and I won't be putting one in it either. So I need to keep moving the pan out from under the free rainfall so it doesn't get too wet.  I guess I need to bring it onto a side porch so I could control it better.  I have not good luck in growing this moss rose directly in the ground but I have had a few years of success in this pan.  For some reason it grew better in southern Iowa when I was a kid than in the location where we live now.

The transitions of the seasons are disturbing sometimes but the gentle change is better than waking up to ice and snow on the ground over night. My biggest problem is that I need to get to work on those things that make the garden look like it was abandoned and then it snowed. When the rain stops I will get outside and get to work doing a few things.  I am glad we got some rain and we needed it.  I don't like the mosquitoes coming back as it rains but that is happening.  I should be done with the tomato picking the next few weeks and I will be picking big apples from the tree the next few days. 

Thank you for stopping by today. 

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

It is a small town alley.  Mostly covered with gravel trails but sometimes it gets really muddy.

Job is completed and was delivered to the school yesterday. The memories of 49 seniors preserved in pictures.  It is added to all the ones that are made each year since 1919 when the first class graduated from the Woodward building.

They wind was so strong on Tuesday that his flower box of geraniums ended up off of the shelf and onto the ground on its side.  It is a mess but I should be able to get it all back into order.

Today we go to Des Moines to help our friend during her hospital visit.  It will take up most of the day.   I hope all are well.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Toodle Through Tuesday..........

These smaller mums are all being marked down as winter approaches.  I need to plant the three that I bought into the ground soon.  I want them to get established as they do winter over and bloom next year.  I have a couple of neighbors who had great looking beds of mums and both of them just got tired of them.  They have pulled them up in the past springs to have nothing to grow back or show for this fall. 

I have things to get done today and I hope I can complete some of those jobs.  I like to work on things but I don't like them not being finished.
If I complete anything today and I will take a photo and share it. 

It is only Tuesday so I can be glad there are days in the week to help me get things accomplished.  Our weather really has been good the past two days now and I hope for another good one today.  We had electricity off one more time early this morning.  That is the third time now but they did do a robo call to some of us to say it was coming.  They fixed things the last time they were working on it but apparently they needed to return and do it right. 

Thank you for stopping by today.

Monday Mania........

I walked out to the shed last evening to feed the feral cat and I usually come back with tomatoes.  If I had a sack and the energy I would have picked up apples too.  It didn't seem in my blood to pick through apples and will do it this afternoon.

The zinnias are struggling to get out their last blooms.  It is always amazing to see how the petals project out and then unroll themselves. The colder temps are slowing them down but the hot afternoon sun helps them.

While outside at the garden shed I caught a morning glory in decline.  It had warmed up in the afternoon so the blooms didn't stick around for very long.

My wife did a portrait of our grandson, AJ, when he was one year old.  The photo doesn't do justice to the work but I took a photo of the frame I made for it.  It is recycle framing material from one of the old school composites.  The frame could be older than me.

Another project in progress is this years senior's composite.  We have all the photos printed and cut apart now so we will attaching them.  I am in the Spanish high school classroom this morning so I won't be getting any work done on it today.

These were cheap and I will plant them for next year.  The flowers themselves are pretty much spent but it is nice color.  I bought a couple of yellow ones to go next to the lavender one.

It is Monday and starting my first job back at school does seem a little strange.  The kids grow so fast over the summer and the changes in their height. Their faces seem to fill out too.  Hairstyles seem to go into a different direction during the summer for boys and they shave it all off. 

I hope all are well today and thank you for stopping by today.