A Very Wet Saturday.......

I was out and about yesterday trimming out all the volunteer trees and weeds in the yard.  I cut a lot of things down and am waiting now for them to dry up a little before I burn them. The mock orange shrub keeps looking better as the buds are all now completely open.

 Tomatoes are a remarkable plant.  If it weren't for the great things we get from then to eat one could call them a weed.  This one plant was in the house growing in a styrofoam cup and it has now double in size in just a week since I put this in the pot.

I planted a dozen of these in the ground and I only lost two of them.  I think the ten in the garden and the couple that I have in pots will be plenty for us to eat. We may not be hot and dry this summer so they may put out a lot of tomatoes.  I had trouble keeping my labels in order but I do believe this is a roma tomato. I keep mixing up my marking system but I do think I finally figured it all out.  I didn't mark the cherry tomato plants.  I put a wooden match in the soil next to the plants that were romas and the red part of the match stuck up.  The steak tomatoes were marked with the stick side up and the match head in the ground. When I am well that seemed like a good system but when I was  a little under the weather I had to keep rethinking what my symbol system meant.

In the late 70's I moved some peonies along the alley seeing if I could get more bang for my buck.  The area developed into a shrubby mess with too many bushes and too many weeds that crowded out the peonies.  With the help of a friend we cleared the entire area and now the peonies get to develop and bloom naturally.  I see the young guy who planted them must have had a stray white root that he mixed in with this pink one.  I had not really noticed it before now as they didn't bloom well. I can mow the area around the peonies now.

I moved the planter with morning glory plants out by the garden shed. As an afterthought I think I will dig out the soil and try to lower the whole thing to make it look better. They have really grown well in the planter and I appreciate borrowing the idea from one of my great blogger friends.  She plants her glories this way to keep her rabbits from getting to them. We have one rabbit that may be interested but it seems to be too busy running up and down the street and finding places to hide.

The sedum really is enjoying all the rain.  I will be trimming this back soon to see if I can thicken up the plant so it won't fall over and lay on the ground.

The peony blooms are few in number per bush but they do have some good blooms.  This is another one of my alley plants and it is the traditional red of the peony colors.  I do have a redder one in the yard to show you tomorrow.

My old angel is back outside now as I walked through the basement and saw her hiding behind stuff.  She is sitting on the base that use to hold my blue glazing ball.  I lost it in the hail storm and I finally picked up all the pieces of it.  I will move her to a more foliage filled area when I find a new blue glazing ball to buy.

It is raining now and looks like the whole day will be a wash.  I went out early to take photos so I won't be returning today.  No outside work today and maybe I will just have a resting day.  It isn't cool outside.  It is just very wet.  It will help make the corn grow and the tomatoes too.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Normandy.......

 

George C. Horton, died July 1944 

Plot G Row 2 Grave 25. Normandy American Cemetery Colleville-sur-Mer, France ...

Remembering D-day after 70 years has been done so in good fashion by PBS and now also the regular stations.  Brokaw was on site today of the Normandy Cemetery interviewing one of the survivors who is still alive today. The site of all the American cemeteries in Europe is overwhelming when you see how many troops lost their lives.

As I become older I have a greater awareness of all that happened in World War 2.  I was born afterwards in 1950 so it was less of a reality that it would be if I had lived as a child during the war. I did relive the war with my dad going over to serve in the Battle of the Bulge and he suffered and talked about it my entire life.

The couple John and Iva Horton became like grandparents to me who lived in a humble farm house south of Hopeville, Iowa. They were step relatives to my Grandmother but they were family to us.  I speak of them in other blogs many times as my antique collection source as they gave a lot of things from their past.  They really were more to  me than just getting old things from them.

In a country school near where they lived, many boys who attended there grew up to be drafted into the war.  Four of those boys died during the war, a large proportion out of one country school of maybe 12 boys and girls in southern Iowa.  One of the boys was John and Iva's son, George C. Horton who was injured during the Normandy invasion in 1944.  I remember seeing a map of the cemetery being rolled out by John and Iva showing the cemetery where their son was buried. I can still see the pained look on Iva's face as she stared off in space while talking about it. He apparently died from his wounds later in July but I don't know of what had happened. They didn't want to pay for their 19 year old's body to be returned to the states, Instead  they let him stay at the cemetery where 5,000 or more are buried.

I never knew George but I did get to know well his three brothers.  I keep in contact with Loren Horton who is his younger  brother. I remember George's picture that sat in the living room wearing his uniform.  George had a girlfriend that kept track of John and Iva after he was killed.  She eventually married and had children.  She was so good to stop in and see her boyfriend's parents and they really appreciated it. I am sure it was a bittersweet feeling that they had but it helped the cope. They were happy that she had moved on with her life and that she had children.

I find it strange to think about all the things in my house that George would have used and seen as he was growing up as a young boy.  The table in my kitchen he probably sat at to eat his meals and the oat sprouter was on the back porch where he passed by to go off to war.  I have many toys that he probably played with as a young boy. I really like history and old things give me pleasure to know their past.  I too find it bittersweet to think of the way things that have touched people lives live on when the person and his family are now gone.  The three brothers are still living but they are getting to be up in years.  The youngest brother, a history major and former Iowa Historical Center Administrator, now lives in Iowa City,  He is widowed now and he travels the world a lot. I am sure he visits his brother's grave as often as possible.

I find it ironic that George was in the war at the very beginning and my dad was in the very last battle that concluded the war. The final battle by the Americans was the Battle of the Budge with their invasion into Germany. My dad was in the service a few years earlier but he was shipped into Belgium to enter the battle the last 9 months or more.   In one of my history books I can follow my dad's platoon as they crossed the Rhine River making the way safer for General Patton to later cross to the south of the Remagen Bridge area. I guess as I age I can find time to soak in the history and understand more of what was in the past. I have more questions about the grave of George C. Horton and hope to understand more of what happened to him.

I will go outside and work again today clearing the jungle that is called my yard and garden.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things......

I am amazed as to how many colors the barberry puts out as it grows through the seasons. I have two of these and this one has grown to be a very large shrub. The other one sits under the birch tree and it seems to be slowed down by being in the shade.

 These iris are in bloom now and I will show those blooms tomorrow.  I am going out this morning after I blog and precede to clear out all the small trees that are growing in the back ground.  I see I have a lily behind there that looks healthy this year.  This is actually another one of my cemetery iris that I have collected through the years.  I saw it bloom for the first time last year as I moved it out into a sunnier location.  The iris stayed alive but never bloomed where I had planted it originally.

I have very few peonies blooming this year but my row of them along the alley are doing a fairly good job.  I still have dead buds on the plant along with these healthy looking flowers.  While out looking at these peonies I am also searching for sight of any new apples on that apple tree which is near here. .  So far I have not seen any.  I will keep watching as the few blooms I saw on the tree were pretty high up on the tree.

The rhubarb that survived the hail storm gave me almost four cups to put into a cobbler.  We make the cobbler together and we each do our thing.  My wife whips up the biscuit topping and I cut up the stuff.  I added a half cup of strawberries with it to cover the lack of a full four cups of rhubarb.  It tends to help cut down on the tartness of the rhubarb.  The strawberries are full of liquid so we did have a run over of the dish.  Did I tell you how great it tastes? I is so good to eat with ice cream and also cool whip if you want more calories of sweet.

I had a couple of these coral bells and somehow through the years they both were crowded out by some other plant.  I picked up this dark leafed one at Wally Mart yesterday and will fill in an open spot in the flower garden with it.  I do have zinnias up now which is exciting.  I didn't get any planted last year and this year I have a red planting and another mixed color planting. I planted my neighbor a mixed color packet by her two wagon wheels. Her's will be taller than mine already as here site is in the hot sun most all of the day.  My tomatoes are holding their own out in the garden.  We really need some warmer days.  Our nights are cooling down to the 60's and it doesn't warm up much until after noon. After last years severe heat I should not be complaining.






I guess I will close this post down for today.  I wore myself down two days ago so I had a resting day yesterday.  Today I feel good enough and will hit the front yard removing some unwanted free growing things. I will pace myself this time and see what I can get accomplished. I am determined to get things a few at a time rather that going out there and letting things fly.  We are still cool this morning and it is overcast so it will be good working weather.  I hope all of you are doing well.  Thanks for stopping in again today. 

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

I took photos yesterday afternoon in reaction to the forecast.  I know heavy winds and rain shuts down a lot of blooms.  This daisy like flower was shut down because of last years drought as it only put out two buds this year.  Normally there are dozens of blooms.  I have one more bud of this to bloom and that will be it for the season.

I picked a couple of iris to prevent the rain from destroying them and I shot photos of things that may be changed from the storm.  We ended up not receiving the severe wind or tornadoes.  It shifted south and headed through all of southern Iowa.  We were about two counties away from all the action. National news covered damage only in the Omaha area but I do not that southern Iowa had a lot of tree damage as well as a few barns and out buildings were lost.

I snapped photos of some of the peonies as rain will take them out in one heavy storm.  I do have a few buds yet to bloom so I knew I would see more blooms again.  The peonies like everything else missed having water last year and the severe cold must have also messed with them.  The peonies have buds that just shriveled up and others never put out any buds at all.  I am glad I did get a meager showing. I am waiting from my grandma's red peony which has about five buds on it to start blooming.

This is not a beautiful shot but it shows the area where I once had overgrown stems of wild roses.  I removed about three loads of dead stems with my wheel barrow.  I know this is a vigorous plant so it will be back next year. 

A bonus will be that I may get to see these day lilies bloom this year as they don't do that well with the roses on top of them.

The plants that did survive are blooming out with their pastel simple pink flowers. There are a lot of buds on the stems so we will see them bloom for a longer time this year.

When I was on my third or fourth day of being sick I wanted to do something.  I dropped some of my morning glory seeds into a leftover cup of tea and soaked the seeds for a day.  The planters were already filled with dirt from last year so I just poked the seeds into the ground. 

I will move the planters in a couple of days to the two trellis areas and let them climb.  I like that they can get a good start in the hot sun before I move them.  Both trellis areas are in partial shade.  The glories have done well there before but it was so slow for the to mature enough  just to start get into the vine stage.

The old mock orange bush is putting out great blooms this year.  It is such an old shrub that it isn't showy like a younger one would be.  The mock orange was on the property when I bought the place 38 years ago. The fragrance of the blooms is wonderful.  I guess it doesn't bother my allergy as I was out with it two hours yesterday and I didn't have any problems with them. 

We had a lot of rain last night so it will be too wet for me to venture outside for quite a while. I don't have a major thing to do today as I wore myself out yesterday.  The backyard does look great now and it doesn't bother me to go out there now.  I trimmed out so many small trees and pulled a lot of water grass. No big plans to day but I think my wife needs to buy ink for her printer and I think she needs to hang out at the bookstore.  She is giving an adult art lesson this morning but this afternoon we can venture away from the home place.  I hope everyone is safe and sound today and you get the weather that you want.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Everything in a Set of Two.......

This is the first time this iris has bloomed for me.  It too came from my neighbor's collection.  It has two blooms hanging close together which seems a little unusual.  We are expecting bad storms this evening so I will probably cut this and bring it inside.  It has one more bud on the stem yet to open.

Another set of two is this old fashioned iris.  It looks like the one is trying to crowd into like at the drinking fountain.

Another set of two is this hybrid iris.  They are gone now as they closed up and shriveled up overnight.  It is good that I have the photo of them. 

The next set of two that I have is the lineup of my wheel barrows.  The old wooden one is one my dad made for filling of petunias each summer.  It has a good wheel set up on it and I couldn't just throw it away.  The other newer one, even though it isn't that new. is the one I like to use around the yard. I carried many loads of dead rose stems from my wild rose.  It had winter kill that took out probably two thirds of the plants.  I also loaded up sucker trees that I cleared out of the flower beds and fence row.  I have a huge pile already as I made numerous trips from the backyard to the burn pile.

This only a single peony.  I am so glad my peonies have decided to bloom.  I won't have only about a third of what I normally have bloom but at least they are going to bloom.  A lot of the buds dried up which is a strange behavior for our very wet weather.  I am sure winter was hard on them.

I mentioned I worked in the backyard today.  I put in about two hours there and I am really pleased to how good it looks.  I have a lot of water grass that comes up once in spring.  It can get big but once I have pulled it the grass doesn't come back for the season.  It is done.  I have some blank spots in the garden which I need to bring in some plants from other areas.  I may move a few hostas in,  digging and separating an older one.  I think I will move the flag iris and also maybe some regular iris.  We look like we are going to have a very wet spring so it would be good to get them moved.

The national weather is pointing out today that our specific area is going to receive severe weather and a lot of rain.  I saw predictions of 4.5 inches near us and south into Des Moines.  I hope that the wind will be a little calmer and the hail storms don't happen.  Some of my neighbors are claiming insurance  payments for damage on their roof or siding from the last hail storm.  I don't want to relive that again.  I see the local weather says it will start at 8 in the evening and last until 8 the next morning.  We will see how that all works out.

Tired from all the work I did this morning but I am glad I got it done.  More to do all over the property but not doing anything more today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Mountains of Things to Do.........

 

I am glad that I did have a few more blooms on this iris.  I had so many last year and the hail storm we had earlier left me these two surviving stalks. This is one of the oldest varieties of iris that was found at a lot of farm houses and cemeteries when I was young.  I noticed a couple of days ago a planting of it still survives across the street at another old house.  It has a lot of its original plantings along side of the house as they probably were planted 80 or more years ago. I have plans to move some of my iris to the south side of my house also to see if it will grow there.

  

 Here is another shot of the iris in a closer view. It seems to be very hardy to survive living at the old farmesteads and rolling hills of the cemeteries across Iowa.

While on the subject of cemetery iris, this is a small one that has bloomed for me this year for the first time.  It looks like the other larger ones that I have but it is a third smaller than the normal sized iris.

I will share another shot of this rose again today.  I wished the camera would pick up a truer color of it but the brighter the day the harder it is to get a good true shot.

One other shot of another of my cemetery iris.  It is a pale yellow with whitish falls.  I have shared it before but really like the colors of it. My white and dark blue cemetery iris is not going to bloom this year.  I will move some of it to see if I can get it revived. I have my eye on a planting at school of a pale blue with lavender falls that I don't have in my collection. 

The science teacher at school works as a landscaper assistant in the summer.  When the new building was built he gave of his time and flowers to landscape all around it.  The school pitched in to buy the mulch.  His cemetery iris has overtaken a large area on the back of the building.  I gave him some iris last year so I could get a sample of his.  I will wait until they are through blooming to get a clump.

 The redbud tree update is that is still has not leafed out.  The redbuds on the main street in town are full of leaves.  I still think mine has died.  What bothers me is that below it are two privet bushes  that are also dead.  I know winter was harsh but why would all three things not survive when my other privets are very much alive. It will remain a mystery and I will wait a few more weeks before I think about removing the tree.Who  knows what is underground down there on this old property.

Things to do today seem to be simple things.  I need to return to school one more time to pick up the senior pictures so we can start working on the group composite.  They are digitally transferred to me so the problem is just getting the teacher to get them onto a thumb drive for transfew.

I bought sunflowers that are called "mammoth sunflowers."  I bet they won't be puny decorator sunflowers like the ones I mistakenly bought before by mistake.

I borrowed an idea from a fellow blogger who planted morning glories in a planter and the set the planter at the base of her trellis.  She wanted to keep the bunnies from eating them.  I want to guarantee that they grow in the planters because my ground isn't it good shape under the planters.  I soaked the seeds in my hot tea  one day and planted them the next day.  Because the hard shell of the seed was softened, I had plants up in two days.  I will share a photo later on in the week.

I need to mow around my garden shed.  I seem to be able to push the mower around ok and I will just do the small patches that I had left behind from the other day.  My neighbor's son mowed my yard for me again this week with his rider mower.

I started pulling grass from my flower gardens and that grass will be used to mulch my tomatoes.  It is too wet this morning but when it gets a lot warmer out there I will transfer the pulled grass to the garden.  I am going to mulch my vegetable garden area with grass clippings also from the mower.

Oh yes, I have muskmelon seeds from a small melon that was given to us last summer.  We are not big melon eaters but I thought I would put out a hill of them with the saved seeds.  The are small and the two of us could get a meal out of just one of them.

I can see already that I have put too many things on the list. At least I am making a brain bank full of ideas to keep me busy.  I do have all week to do this in so I know that I will get there.  I think we are done with rain for awhile so that is open up things to get done outside.

It was a good weekend and I wish all of you a great week.  Thanks for checking out my spot today.

Lots of Green......

The river birch that sits beside my garden shed really is having a good year so far.  I don't remember it having been so leafed out and green as it has this spring.  I did see one of my robin baby birds hanging around low on the bicycle and lower branches waiting for a parent to feed them them  They seem to be more hopping around than actually flying, even thought the could a little to get to a higher branch.

Another shot of a different hardy geranium that had wintered inside shows the great different colors of greens in its leaves. I need to replenish these geraniums will some fresher soil and I hope to get on a fertilizing schedule this summer to help them revive more.

The few parts of the wild rose that survived the winter is just now starting to put out its blooms.  When I am feeling stronger I will have a lot of dead stalks to clear out of the area.  It will be a prickly job.

This seems to be blooming from the bottom up but it really isn't. There had been a first bloom on the top of it and then the end bud of the branch off of the main stem is now in bloom.  I broke off the faded bloom at the top. This is the one iris that my mom had growing all along her garage in Osceola.  It bloomed while all the cemetery iris around it did not put out a single bud.  I may move some of the surrounding ones to help find a better place for them to grow.

I bought the"William Baffin" rose in Duluth, Minnesota. It is a climber.  Three years ago it drowned out which I think I  mentioned before. The past two years were dry and I had very few blooms.  This year the whole plant has resurrected with large long branches and many buds.  I am going to have to tie up the rose so I can mow in the area and will probably tack it to the side of the garden shed. I have a lot of photos of this but they will be shared a few at a time.

Sunday school this morning and a meal out with church friends that we work with in the Asian Ministry. It will be a fun day and it is good to be feeling better.  I am still guarded on my physical activity. I have decided if I stretch all that needs to be done out in short jobs that I will eventually get it all done.  It just won't be done immediately.  I did have a kind man mow my outside yard yesterday.  I achieved getting the dog's backyard mowed and Button was sure pleased with that.  I have grass to pull out of the flower beds but that is being done off and on when I journey out.  It is the kind of water grass that once I have pulled it, the stuff doesn't regrow. 

Everyone have a great Sunday. Thanks for stopping by today.