The Sunday Times........not the paper.

My return visit to the cornfield proved fascinating.  The morning glories are playing the role of weeds that are incredibility out of control. I am betting that the farmer who rents this land does not have a clue as to what is going on in this one field.  My conclusion is that the young son prepares the soil, the farmer plants the seed and the herbicides used didn't work. When the field is harvested, the farmer will see the corn field for the very first time. From what I could see, as far as I could see, the morning glories have taken over the entire 13 acres of corn.

I saturated my viewers with shots of the swallowtail so here is a different one. The red admiral cooperates  with having its photo taken.

This smaller butterfly kept bothering the red admiral.  It wanted to be on the same flowers as the red.  Finally it just landed on the leaves below to warm its wings in the sun.

I don't see the honeybee as often because they are smaller but I do know they are out there.  They helped pollinate the fruit trees early spring.  The bumble bee is easier to see and I have them landing on blooms everywhere.  They love the bee balm flower most but they are on the coneflowers and now zinnias a lot of the time.  The camera can't decide on what it wants to focus on so it is hard to get the bee to come in clear.

Just to prove to all that I don't just shoot flowers, bugs and bees I will share the sight as I walked to the cornfield. 

The neighbor flies his two flags year round with a light that turns on at dark.  While he was living in Florida the flag "did yet wave" all winter. The photo also shares the basketball setup and some great clouds and trees.  The trees you see are the ones that are in my early morning sunrise shots. For those who are not of the USA the bottom flag is our state flag.  That flag does not weather well as it has to be replaced every once in a while.  The cloth of the flag must be of poor quality.

Life is busy.  Life can be tough and life is not predictable. It has been a different kind of summer for us and I now see it coming to an end. Time moves on and there are so many things I meant to do. I am hoping the next few weeks will be a time of completion for some of my projects and yet there is more fun to be had.  I wish you all to have a good Sunday day and all is good with you.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Goodbye Picasa........

We were being warned by google that picasa was going to be changed.  It actually was yanked.  I opened up the app and they now send me to google chrome photos. I refuse to count the number of extra steps that I now have to do but I did figure it all out. In the past when I hooked up to google photos, because of my son's involvement with it, I did notice every photo that I was downloading in picasa really was downloading in google photos at the same time.  Everything from my past picasa files was moved to the new company's files.  So now I can play with restricted collages and download to my new, by name, storage file. When I want to get a photo for blogspot I do still see the same picasa format menu in which I can select photos. I did try to write this without being negative today.

My neighbor's are now living in their trailer at the fair.  So I was able to walk the property line down to the cornfield to see what was going on in the field.  I will be returning this morning to take photos of all the morning glories.  If the neighbors were home they wouldn't care that I walk over there but I just like not invading their privacy.  The could be soaking in their hot tub if I go over some times.

The corn seems to be a little slow in development for as early as it was planted. I was expecting the ears to be farther along in size. The farm renter has switched to a different variety this year. Two years ago the corn stalk only grew one ear of corn per stock.  Last year's variety had one large ear and one medium sized ear on one stalk.  As you can see that he must have liked the one ear per stalk.  I do think they plant this variety closer together.  I am sure the computerized planter is set for putting out seeds at just the right spacing.

The farmer who rents this land was one of my former students.  He is a father of 7 or 8 kids and one of his sons now does the farming work on this field.  The boy, Will, who has a twin sister, would tell me while at school of  the processes that they have to do to get the field ready and planted. This years corn doesn't look like the past years.  The guy who mows the grass must have put on chemical on the grass as the first row of corn is all short and stunted.  There are a lot of weeds in the corn this year.

My dad would make us boys walk the corn to get rid of the button weeds and burdock.  Seeing how tall this button weed is I can understand why he didn't want to deal with it during corn picking time. They grow taller than the corn.

Last year I would go over and catch photos of a few morning glories. This year they have invaded the corn field like it was a happening in an alien movie.  They are growing thick all along the edge of the corn.  I guess the herbicide that they put on did not do a good job. The whole field is weed filled. 

I will be returning to take photos this morning while the glories are blooming. It is an amazing batch of vines.

No big plans for today.  We spend a lot of time taking care of our aging little dog.  We don't like to leave him for very long so just take short trips to get supplies.  Our weather has change to a great cooling off period.  Maybe we can leave the air off for a while.  I guess the cool front is shooting far south of us into Missouri and maybe into Texas.

 The cool front has created some great cloud formations.  The early morning trip outside with the dogs gave me a clue that I needed to get the camera.  I really don't think the iphone did a good job of caputuring the true color.  I guess I should have gone back to get my camers.

It is the weekend.  I wish everyone well today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

The Friday that is...........

Sunshine and clouds are in view before the next shower. I don't think our soil has dried out all summer.  We have had, quoting the morning weather guy, globs of clouds that keep passing through.  Those globs have serious stuff in them and we get thunder and lightening with them each time

 My neighbors will now see me in the street looking up with the camera.  I didn't notice the open window view of the sky in this location until I walked the dog there yesterday afternoon.. Barney was refusing to go outside in the backyard so I had to walk him to get him some exercise.  There was this gosh awful humidity and heat and the only way to get him was to treat him to a walk. It was no treat for me.

For reference of the kind of dog it is I will share a photo.  He is a tan colored border collie.  The shining coat is from me brushing him thoroughly every day to help stop his summer skin condition.  He gets bad allergies in the summer sometimes, not every summer.  When he does I brush and rinse him down with the garden hose in the evenings to wash off stuff that could cause the allergy. He had a siege of irritation about three weeks ago and it took us that long to get it under control.  He can now rest and nap and not be bothered by anything.

Now that it is August, I am discouraged with the tomatoes.  I should be picking things now and it doesn't look like that will happen for a while.  My vines are healthy and there are lots of green tomatoes but why are they so late? I know they need a lot of hot dry days.  They have been getting a lot of hot and wet days. The cherry tomatoes that I am picking now are from a plant I bought that was raised in the greenhouse. It gave them an early start.  But its vine seems to be yellowing from too much moisture.

I am not making plans today.  The weather and other things keep me from meeting any set of plans.  I didn't meet the goal to finish the frame collage of old things. I am not happy about that.  I started it days ago.

When the sink strainer went bad a couple of days ago so did our overhead light above the sink.  My wife  and I spent a lot of time at Menards to find the just right replacement of two hanging lights.

We get them home and the outside photos and descriptions of natural textured glass globes with brass parts was wrong.  It ended up being the right glass globe but shiny black parts and cords.  They are ugly.  I wonder how many people just keep them and use them. We are not keeping them. That will be returned and we will go to a different store. At first we had found one light fixture that we really like but they only had one of them, not two.  The ones we picked out were a compromise as the wires suspending the globes would have to have the wires shortened by me 12 inches or more.  I could have done that but I can not hang black shiny stuff in the kitchen where the main ceiling light is brass. Enough of me complaining for today now and I will quit.  I am waiting and watching the grass dry so I can go outside and mow.  When it visually quits shining, I will venture outside.

Hey, it is Friday, I hope you have a good day.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

 I just proofed my blogs and I only had four negatives today.  I will work on that and cheer up a little. Maybe I should start hiding my emotions when I blog........not.

Thoughts and Things for Thursday.........

As homeowners we find ourselves wearing many different hats. The sink drain was giving us problems.  The caulk used  by me many years ago when I insialled the unit must not have been the right kind of caulk.  The caulking did last over 25 years but if eventually must have dissolved.  While washing dishes we started having a problem of the water rushing through around the drain fitting and down under the sink.  I bought the unit new and put it all back in for another 30 years.  I used plumbers putting to get the job done.

The surprise lily, which was not a surprise at all, bloomed its flower yesterday afternoon.  The flower itself puts up a stem and all these buds form and it puts out a few flowers at a time.  The weight of the buds and blooms causes the stem to give out from the weight and the stems, every one, leans over to hit whatever else is growing around it.  I try to stake them up a little as the look like something has knocked them over.

It looks like there will be a total of eight blooms on that hollow stem.  When I looked at my neighbors surprise lilies they are up all around the base of a tree. They all have their stems falling to the side of each other looking like a bunch of x's.

The multi-flora rose is blooming again putting out these little buds. I need to weed around it some but right now we have high heat and 91% humidity.  It is not comfortable to be outside today.

The William Baffin rose put out one more flower.  I keep checking out there as after all the many blooms that I already did have, the shrub seems to put out a few blooms.

The weather today effects everyone. Our house doesn't cool that well but we manage.  The day is just a wash in being able to get outside work done. I hope everyone is staying comfortable where ever you live and that you are safe.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday'a Wanderings..........

The morning glory that grows in the planter on the porch is starting to act like a real contender of the plant world. Because it is in the hot sun all afternoon and is in a pot I have to water it every day.  The morning glory is a stronger vine than some. After it becomes totally wilted it seems to bounce back better than ever. If you enlarge the photo you can see the 112 year old siding isn't holding its paint and I  need to scrape and repaint. That is the kitchen part of the house that sits on its original flagstone foundation. The cedar siding is original also.

Another vine in the area is my neighbor's trumpet vine.  It has grown to be so large and now is growing up into the pine tree.  I am really zoomed in on this as the blooms probably are 15 feet up in the tree. I had to correct myself before typing the name as I use to call it a trumpeter vine and it has stuck in my mind ever since. As a blogger I have to think about words and not just toss them out without thought. I still remember seeing our neighbor boy pull one of the blooms off of the vine and sucking in to taste and or smell the sweetness of the bloom.  That neighbor boy, Monty, is about 70 years old now.

I also remember as a kid on the farm this plant which bloomed in the middle of summer.  It had foliage in the spring that was full and green.  After it completely died down a batch of stems would shoot up and there were many pink blooms on the ends of the stems.  Most garden people know I am talking about surprise lilies also called naked ladies was the traditional name by people of old.  My two whole stems will have many flowers.  I should have a dozen stems but it just doesn't seem to happen with my plants.  It didn't bloom last year. You will see pink flowers very soon.

A piece of leftover wood from my fallen trees has the appearance of some imaginary animal.  I saw on someone else's blog a piece of natural wood looking like an animal so I thought I would share mine.

The old wagon wheel leans against the river birch tree retired from work many years ago. It is weathering well and a reminder of older times of hoses and wagons.

It is going to be a hotter day today.  We were cooler with a lot of fog early morning but it is now warming up. No place for fog in the air when it gets hot sunshine beating down on it.

I do appreciate your visit today.  As the flowers die down the blog will evolve into a different one.  I guess the blog is a seasonal one and when we hit winter, it does get to be boring.  I wish everyone well today.

Second Day of the Week.........

The old windmill, a small one used as a lawn ornament, gives me a good center of interest in my photo as the sun shines through it.  The wild vine that grows on it is healthier than last year and almost covers the whole thing.  The encroaching river birch on the right also seems to be crowding it.

The story behind it is funny as I remember my wife and me trying to stuff it horizontally into our old van.  It was at my wife's Aunt Irenes's place and the property was being shut down and sold.  The blades ended up sticking as far forward in the van as to be projecting between the two front seats.  My wife is use to me loading elephants or giraffes into the car and driving them home, so she took it all in stride. I need to buy an older truck with a very large storage bed so I can haul the world with it.

I am amazed as to how tall this hollyhock has grown.  There are flowers blooming now at the very top.  When I tilted the camera upward I did not realize what an unusual sky that we had.  Our weather is freaky right now and we are on the edge of fronts that makes the clouds look different.  We ended up this morning though with a lot of rain from one of the fronts that did allow some storms to go over us.

The blurry big zinnia is just a foil for the focused background. You can count the three zinnias that I now have in bloom.  Each one is in a different stage of development. My garden shed tomato patch is behind all of this with stakes on it.  I had leftover tomato plants that I had started so brought them out here on a very muddy day and put them in the ground.  There are 12 of them and they did well without much care.  It will be my fall back crop of tomatoes as the other batch next to the back yard is probably a couple of weeks ahead of these plants.

I took this photo intentionally to see the special effects that are created by the camera. The orange-red hardy geranium is in the sun and the digital picks up these yellow almost glowing colors that really are not there. I can get truer colors when the flower is in the shade.

I am sure the nursery catalog people would really appreciate a photo like this but I have to share my success as a tomato farmer. I shot the photo through the webbed wire fence so the fact that it worked is amazing.  We have had a rain this morning again so I should not have to carry water today.  These are a steak tomato which have formed so quickly these last few days.

One cannot tell the plants apart once they are mixed together but I only had two varieties that I planted from seed.  It just so happened that I ended up with six roma and six  steak tomatoes in this row. My wife usually buys roma tomatoes at the store as she liked working with them better than the other kinds that they sell at the grocery.

The framing project continues.  I took everything off of the front of the mat and turned over the mat.  I then cut four different sized openings in the mat to make the finished collage more interesting to see. I will have some things now in windows that recede back to help make it look more like a display. I can also put small spools of thread in the openings to make more space. You will have to wait and see what that is all about as I finish and put glass on it.




We will probably have the same kind of day today as the weather is just the same.  I have yard to mow but it is just too wet in the morning.  It will be too hot in the afternoon to do it so it will just have to be long. I hope everyone is have a good August 2nd.  We lost July while I wasn't looking. I go back to work at the middle school on

the 29th of August for the very last time.  I will share more about that later.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Monday's Mellow Mentions........

The early morning sky was full of clouds reflecting the rising sun. We had a high and low battle going on and we ended up being on the side that didn't get much rain.

As the time passed I went back out to see things breaking up and moving south. It was becoming more daylight so the red glow was ending and a clearer light was taking over for the morning.

This is a better photo than I thought it was.  This particular butterfly gave me a lot of problems moving around rapidly and then just flew away.  I grabbed this shot not looking in the viewfinder because the insect wouldn't give me enough time to set for the shot.

One of the few last blooms of the ditch lily are still adding color to the garden.  The side view of the bloom makes it look more like a sculpture than a flower.

It is Monday and the day seems to have started too early. My body doesn't want to run any races today and my mind seems a little duller than usual. It is a blurry eyed day so I could be typing huge mistakes and not see it! It is a good day for the dogs to sleep as it isn't very bright inside or  outside.  It sounds like by the end of the day though we will have lots of sun and it will be hot and humid. It will be a really true Iowa summer weather wise the nest few days. All hot days and all hot nights to remind us that we live on the prairie.

I appreciate your stopping by today.  Do stay safe and enjoy your day.

No one has ever asked or criticized (and I am surprised about that) as to why I do dots at the end of my title.  I almost always do that since my first time I started.  I know English teachers teach that you have to put words at the end of that pause and sometimes I do.  I think it was a nervous habit to write the title and just type a few dots as to pause to begin.  The blog is the completion of that pause......so that is why.  Well I think that it the reason but......maybe not.