Sluggish Saturday........

The phlox are on their way out for the season.  The rains keep knocking the small flowers to the ground.  The hardy geraniums have had to regroup from the rain so many times that it is good color to see  but bad flowers that are really in vies.

It is difficult to get a good set of blooms as parts of all the flower clusters have had rain damage. I think we got another inch of rain last night.

I shared this rose on my Photo a Day blog today.  It has a different lighting on the flower so it looks like a different rose. The rose fades out to white within a day after it has bloomed. There is a second bud that may be opened today.

Waiting an watching for blooms to open on the other vines. We are having cold damp weather today.  We may have to run the air today to make the breathing easier.

The Knock Out rose does put out lots of splashes of color.  The blooms don't see to last very long but I assume it will just keep blooming if I trim off the old blooms down to the five leaves on the stem.

It is a quiet Saturday with the damp weather and no sun.  People are not going to work so the traffic is light today.  The city sent out people to trim back the weeds in our new ditches yesterday and that was noisy.. It is late August and it seemed to be a decision that was a last minute thought done too late in the season.  We did have an impatient neighbor that drove down in there with his small rider mower and took the tall grass and weeds down about a month ago. It is so wet that we won't hear mowers for a while if ever. I have some inside work to do and it is Saturday so I can rest today.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday's Here.......

The birch stands tall and provides a great foliage that seems to frame it great looking bark. The bark is little exposed all summer and in the fall the yellow leaves help to accent its color and texture.  I haven't taken many shots of the tree this summer as it is one large tree of green.  I just happened to walk through my backyard gate and noticed that I can see tree trunk from that side of the tree.

The apple crop is good again this year.  I can hear them fall to the ground about any time of the day.  At night when I am out with the dog it is kind of a spooky sound and it goes bonk in the night. I can see evidence of animals at night chewing into the apples for food.  Squirrels do like them in the daytime but I am suspecting that the coon and the opossum is out there at night.  I did have a skunk go through one time last week but they tend to stay out in the cornfield.

The past weeks have been busy and I have been too distracted to get some of my photos posted.  The small butterflies are all that I am seeing out in the garden the past few days.  The coneflowers are almost all gone now, which is early for them, but the zinnia planting is keeping insects with wings coming around.

We did some facetime with our son and our youngest grandson, Teddy, last evening.  We need to get his first toy from us sent out to him soon.  The other grandson needs to probably have a gift purchased too and then they can be sent out together.  I am amazed at the kind of toys that are offered these days based on movies and tv shows. The PBS show about Thomas the train is one of our oldest grandson's favorite. He has quite a collection of those kind of toys in you young life of 3 and a half years.

The second bloom is out and now gone.  I see a bud that is about to unfurl to take its place. If any of the other three vines ever bloom I might be able to take photos with some different bloom colors.

Many things have been going on in our lives this week and we are just trying to stay ahead of it all.  I do think rain is in our forecast for this afternoon.  The weekend is coming.

Thanks for stopping by today.

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

It finally bloomed on August 17th and here was my very first shot of it. By this morning it is already gone.  That is the natural actions of a morning glory.

From the view there are more buds to open.  The flower isn't quite like a day lily as it was not in bloom today but you can see the next bud that will open probably tomorrow. The white really is a drastic change in color to all my photos of the cornfield glories of purple and magenta.

I shared a similar photo on my Photo a Day blog.  The earth is tilting and now the sun can be seen again on my narrow open of the sky. There is now wind today as you can see the flag is not moving on the flag pole. I really can't crop out the corner of my house as the sky would be limited.  I guess it makes it more like an urban sunrise.

I put these plants in the granite ware pan a year or so ago. I keep the plant inside at most times of the year but I like to put it out under the grill in the summer where it gets light and won't get sunburned.  I don't want to put a hole in the bottom of the antique pan so when it rains four inches I have to turn it sideways and let it drain. The plant is like an aloe.  It may even be an aloe, but whatever it is I keep getting more of it as I move it into more containers. I can't even kill it when I drown it.

The trellis on the porch is starting to fill in now.  It is a perfect place for the vine to be but it is hot there in the afternoon.  I have to water it everyday to keep it from wilting. The vine itself is trying to grow up over the roof. I may have to just cut it back when it gets too tall. The morning glory does not like to vine downwards.

The hostas have had a great season but the excess rain is now causing them to brown up on the edges. They have all bloomed now and when the first frost comes they will shrivel up for a winter's rest. I have plans to move a bunch of hosta snd to give some away to a neighbors garden.  Plans and time need to balance out but I sure hope I can get that done.

The parent planting of this big hosta is very small and crowded this year.  I planted this one here last year and it has grown so large. I will move more of the original to some new locations.


I will stop the rambling for today and get this posted.  We are to be in the 90s today and it will be summer again.  I am hoping that the floods and fire can come to an end soon for those who are in the thick of it. Some of my blogging friends are getting much needed rain right now and that is good.  Thanks you for stopping in today. 

The garden angel in the backyard seems to enjoy all the different kinds of weather conditions.  It is always collecting water when it falls from the sky. We had a small sprinkle this morning but nothing major.

My other angel, the "thoughtful one," lives on the porch under the roof.  He seems to always give off some expression that can be interpreted differently at different times of the day. On my Photo a Day blog I have shared the other garden angel that guards the hostas.  The old wash table sits on the porch next to the door with a crockery stoneware jar making up the most simple decoration.  The neighbor cat is my decorator as he likes to set on the table and helps knock anything else that I place on it onto the porch florr.

I spent a short period of time trying to photograph butterflies yesterday afternoon.  The sun was too bright in the sky and I ended up only getting a couple of good shots out of a dozen that I took. I really don't know the identity of this butterfly.  It has moth-like qualities but I am sure it is a butterfly. Its wings are so long and narrow compared to others that I see out there.  Its body reminds me of a moth's body.

It is time to take the birdhouse down and move it.  I don't remember ever of it having a bird's nest in it.  I don't think the location is the best and a change is needed.  I may find it filled with twigs and just need to clean it out.  This view beyond the fence is so unusual to me as that is where all the lilac bushes had been.  There were 25 foot branches on the white lilac and they stood tall or hung down over the fence.  After cutting everything back I seeded it with grass seed and it is green and lush under the once canopied area. It probably has not had grass growing there the past 20 years.

I have morning glories planted in four locations.  They are healthy and growing big now but I still do not have buds on three of them.  I discovered yesterday a bud cluster and a bloom about to unfurl next to my back door.

The vine is wimpy and the plant grows out of metal container.  The bloom of course is going to be right in front of my bad corner of the 110 year old house where I haven't scrapped old paint and repainted.  I haven't check for a bloom yet this morning but I will take the camera later as I am sure I can see a blooming flower.

Staying on my unwritten lists of things to do today.  I mowed the orchard yesterday and moved a small wood pile that needed to be move a few years ago. It feels good to get the things done and it is all cleared and mowed, clean under that tree.  I did not know that we had bull snakes in town but I saw a baby one yesterday while moving the wood.  Weeds and old shingles are my main concern but I can find other things to do.  Our days start out really nice right now but by late afternoon we tend to be heated up to the uncomfortable range.

The weather and fires in California do dominate the news as people are put into such danger.  I would hope that as we move through the summer that a lot of this settles down. I hope my blog followers are all safe.  Thanks for stopping by today.

An added note, I took a look at the bud outside before I finished this writing and the white morning glory is big and beautiful  I don't remember planting that color but that is another story for another day.

Things and Other Stuff.........

The little dog brings benefit to my life by showing me the sunrises in early morning.  When Button was younger I would take him out in the middle of the night and I was blessed to see the stars in formation.  I think the views of both are so worth the time in my life.  I would have missed the stars and the sun without his needs of having me take care of him.  It is all so worth it.

The colors in the sky were so much more softer and yet just as dramatic as the bright red and yellow sunrises. We are cooling off a little but the humidity is still hanging around.  The cool air that we let into the window in the morning is of a low temperature but the humidity has to eventually be removed by the conditioner.

The grass is wet every morning from dew and it takes longer each morning for it to evaporate.  I have more grass to cut today but I get to slide into it while waiting for it to dry.

 I need to get the Knock Out rose planted today. I know it has survive in a pot all summer but I think some good Iowa dirt will make it feel better.  I lost the one rose like this a few years ago.   My wife and I will discuss the place to plant it.  It does say on the label to plant it in full sun for most of the day. Roses do not do so well in Iowa unless you spend all your time just on that flower.  We have parks wth rose gardens and they really work hard to get them through the winter.  My solution was to by a William Baffin rose which is a Northerner at heart.

It is Tuesday and the day is an unplanned one.  I have things I can do and none of them are at the top of the list.  I have a beautiful pile of old shingles in a pile that I have removed from the art gallery roof.  It will take a few weeks to get them all shipped to the landfill.  I will bag some of them every day until they are all ready to go on the truck.  Rather than trying to load them on a truck, which I don't own, I can send them away in small batches at a time.  In a couple of weeks they will be all cleaned up and gone. I may share a few of them with my neighbor's garbage bins, of course, with their permission.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Have a great Tuesday......... all day. 

Monday.......

One very last set of blooms on this day lily before it shuts down for the season.  It looks very weathered with all the rains we have received for weeks. It is one of my favorites of the lilies but the faded color doesn't make it look very impressive.

They are a late bloomer compared to a lot of my flowers.  They do start slow with just a few blooms but by August I have a lot of blooms. The foliage of this plant seems to look more like a common weed to me but I don't go ahead and clear it when it comes up.  Black eyed Susan is the name but I have heard it called other names.

We are having a lot of great cloud filled skies.  The sky seems bluer this time of the year as the earth keeps tilting.  As I walk the dog in the evening I watch the effects of the earth's changing angle by watching the moon.  The moon right now is moving down in the sky in the south as I can't see it anymore with my trees blocking the view. As I walk down the street I can see that a full moon is coming soon.

The next generation of Hot Wheels guy is my grandson AJ.  As you can see his dad on the left and my other son Aaron are getting into the small car racing game.  AJ's brother is too young to be involved but I bet Teddy will be a Hot Wheels kind of guy too.

I am not sure who took the photo but I bet one of the daughter in laws took the shot. AJ has a great basement room in the split level house to keep the tracks set up and ready to go whenever he wants to play.

One of the neighbor girls has a butterfly net and a butterfly cage to hold the collected butterflies.  I asked if they were going to be released later and she said yes.  The majority of butterflies that are out there these days are the smaller ones like this plus the white and yellow ones.

 As I walked the dog yesterday afternoon I could see girls running up and down our ditches trying to net the insects. It was actually humorous to see. It is nice to have young people in the neighborhood to keep life interesting. We have the four girls to the south of us, many grandchildren of the neighbor to our east,  two more grand kids to the north and two young ones on the west.


The day looks to be a good one all day.  I will mow grass and be glad for good temperatures.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Sunday PM......

 

The river birch spreads wide as well as tall. I promised the shed to get that branch off of it and it is done. I took the ladder up with a trim saw in hand and stood on the roof to trim it all away.  I did the same to the other side of that peak as the apple tree was doing the same thing. 

Young squirrels were out and about chasing each other up and dow the old tree.  With my two large trees removed the population of squirrels has become slim.  I think two maybe three is all that is out there anymore. 

The normal color for the hydrangea in the front of my house looks like this photo.  They started out white and now have turned to this light green color.

So right now I have one branch that seemed to miss the blooming season message.  Here is a very late bloom on the hydrangea.

I am posting in the afternoon today. It has clouded over for the afternoon and we are warm.   The wave petunias just are not growing quickly.   Every rain that we have caused it to close up all of it flowers making it look like it was in a ten foot flood.  They are back today looking somewhat normal.

I hope all have a good Sunday afternoon.  Take care of yourselves and thanks for stopping by at my post.