Wednesday’s Wanderings....

I had thought that I had seen a junco the other day.  I did see one for sure today with photographic evidence. The migrate south in the winter to better bird feeders, I guess. I haven seen a lot  year but when the wind and snow starts to really hit in the north, they will be here.

This one bird looks back at me as if he is in a state of glee.  The spilled seed on the table is the really special stuff that I hope would bring in the cardinals and blue jays.  Junco birds do like that specialty seed also.

The lily seems to like the cold weather as its foliage hangs around late into the fall.  This week’s freezing temperature at night will take it down soon.  Which ever variety that it is, this is doing better than the common daylily. My neighbors dallies right near here are all showing dead leaves which could be trimmed back by now.

Learning as I go with these "knock out”,  I believe I should get them trimmed down while it it stinking cold out there. I am assuming that if they are trimmed down that I will get earlier blooms when it warms up in the spring.  If I can get to it before the end of November, I will do it. When the temps get to 17 degrees F. I am sure these roses will go away.  They are tough but not that tough.

I was looking back a year to see what feeders that I had.  I need to make a new tray feeder as my last years self-designed one dropped to the ground with a squirrel on it.  Squirrels do not get hurt in that kind of fall but the feeder sure does.  The one shown here also has been found in anther tree in the tree further out from the yard.  I could actually start using that and not make a new one.  I remember cardinals and blue jays could stand on those ledges to eat.  I have not filled it all summer but I will do so to put it back into use on the deck. This is last year’s photo and we don’t have snow just yet.

While digging back in the past I found this box of old things along with sleigh bells.  Maybe this is the year to get them polished up again. The polish well but then do dull out with their being in plain air.  The brass that they are made from just doesn’t hold its shine. I remember that I had lost this box in my shelving a few years back. I do know where they are now in storage in the newer home.



It is very cold this morning.  Going out with Barney is very painful.  I may have to start wearing my warmups on top of blue jeans to stay warm.  The wind chills are bad coming from the north. It is Wednesday and I hope you have a great one.  Thanks for checking in on my post today.

Tuesday’s Things...

My ornamental pear tree is dropping many colorful leaves.  It is more colorful this year than last. I like the natural shine on the leaves and they do go from green to yellow to dark red.

One or two burning bush leaves are in the mix.  The leaves have not shed enough for me to rake them but I am sure when we start to get really cold that they will come down quickly.  It is fun to go out with Barney now as I can look for good leaves with good colors.

The main road into this development required the street to be lined with these kinds of trees.  I drove down it today to see who all had obeyed the suggestion and many of the properties all have at least two of these trees like I do.  Some even had larger lots with five of them in the row.  I like how the blossoms are so nice in the spring and the colors of them in the fall are really great color. Our development addition a few years later after the original one, made suggestions and didm’ make people to fell required to follow it.  Our street doesn’t have many of these trees.  Others have added different good trees along the way.  Both of my neighbors took their trees down.

While visiting shops that sell souvenirs in Minnesota, there are always a few prints from older timed artist.  I remember seeing that their trees were all painted in this particular style the the sedum reminds me.  If you could imagine trees in a painting with trees, they would look like these stems of sedum. Te could be a lot like a bonsai tree.

Our one squirrel travelled to our house to help himself to the seed. He walks the length of many fence tops to get to our house.  I think he lives in one of the silver maples way down the street.  There were two or three squirrels last fall but I am only seeing one this year. The squirrel has to be living in one of the bigger trees which now have no leaves.

When I look through under our deck stairs I can see the vine that covers the crosshatched panels.  As the weather gets colder the leaves have thinned and the wood pattern can be seen.  It is magical with the light shinning through with the line patter being dark.  I am thinking I will still have time to cut back the vine but I will wait for it to warm up a little.

The vine continues to invade but I will shut it down soon.  I know that it won’t do harm but it will look bad when the snow starts to fall.  Snow may be visiting us in a day or two.  I am not happy about that.  Our fall has been too short. We will be said to start on Friday and the temps of freezing will definitely start tonight.

I am headed to the old place this morning to hang some more dry wall.  I have physically rested four days from the last time I worked with the dry wall.  I only have two pieces hung right now out of the ten that I purchased.  My goal is to hang at least four morn today.  I will have to warm up the house when I get there and then I can start work.

I hope everyone is good today.  Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, a Normal Daylight Day...

A few roses are doing well in this cold weather as they are shielded while being close to the side of the house.  I think that looks like a bud in the left of the photo.

The mums are not liking the wind and cold rains. They are starting to nose dive down rather than staying straight.

The golden privet that I moved from the old place is doing well in my clay soil. I really don’t t think I have ever seen the leaves make color changes in the fall before now.  The shrub is there to help cover up the view of the gas meter and does have protection from the weather on the southeast side of the house.

I have seven or more red twig dogwoods along the fence.  I noticed this year that two of them are different colors than the bulk of them. I really like the yellow of its leaves.

All the rest of the redtigs actually have red leaves on them. I will watch closer now and see if the branches are all red in the winter or if a couple of them have yellow stems. Since I didn’t plant any of them I just have to learn as I live here longer.

An inch and a half of rain is what happened over the last few days of sprinkles. The dirty wheelbarrow hasn’t been cleaned  up yet for winter but I can get to it now with the free water.


One of the boys of my Philippino’s friend help me assemble this a few years back.  He was a cute little guy helping me by holding the bolts and offering directions.  We saw the small boy on Thursday last week and the guy has grown up to be as tall as me.  That makes him taller than his father, who is from the high country people of the Philippines, That group of people are short.  Isaiah is taller than his mother too who is from the Pella, Iowa area.  Isaiah has graduated from putting wheel barrows to learning to play the violin. He has a deep voice and is still quiet and all smiles.

The honeysuckle vine is showing great yellow color right now.  The plant as a whole did not bloom much this year but it is going to be colorful this fall.

I am doing chores around the house today.  I don’t like all the sprinkles and cold.  I don’t know if I can get to work outside.  I hope everyone will have a great Monday on this normal light day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday Afternoon Break....

Two cheap cookies and a good cup of Green Mountain coffee helps to make a cloudy, cold day seem better.

The burning bush on the north side has dropped a lot of leaves to the ground. It looks better on the opposite side. The leaves are blanketing the ground.

This is on the other side of the bush. I could see these falling and being gone in the next few days.  The rains did help make some of them fall.

Getting into November a little bit farther and I will have to rake.  I hope you have had a good day today. Thanks for stopping by today.

Falling Rain in the Fall.......

The front trees are looking really great for fall. My wife and I don’t remember this much color in the leaves of the tree last year.  This is quite a fine show.  The developments north of us required everyone to plant at leas two ornamental pear trees.  In the thirteen years one can see that some of them chose to take the out.  Both neighbors beside us have removed their trees. I think that it makes us look uneven with out having trees lining our streets.  I was given an excuse from the one neighbor who said his trees had some problems.  I sure don’t have any problems with mine.  I will have to rake all of the leaves up and put them in the truck when they all fall to the ground.

I put out some specialty seed for cardinals and bluejays.  It rained and I had to dump it all on the table. So far the squirrel and sparrows are the only ones that are eating on the pile.

Here is a photo of a sparrow jumping into the skillet.  I didn’t intend to get a motion shot but it did happen.  It is raining today so the birds are busy eating in the falling rain.

It is a dreary cold day.  We were out in it to go to the bookstore and had a sandwich.  We came home and put on the fireplace for a little while to take the chill off the house.  We can warm it too much because Barney’s fur coat keeps him toasty warm. I wish you all to have a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by toady.

Friday is Here....

Thursday evening looked stormy but only a sprinkle of rain came from this. This Friday morning was worse as there were too many clouds to get a sky picture.

This afternoon seems to be pleasant but the clouds are having a hard time to get a specific formation.   I drove to the old place this morning and worked on applying new drywall on the walls.  It seems to always be a challenge but I will be happy with how that room will look with all new walls. No popcorn surface treatment. My goals are good but the time element seems to always be interrupted.  I had a visitor today so I lost time when I could have been working. My person who has mowed the law all summer at the old place will mulch all the leaves until they are all gone  I offered to truck some to the dump but she likes mowing.  My leaves in the front yard at the new place still have not dropped. I guess when they do I can expect snow to start.

I wish you all to have a great day today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Feeding the Birds.....

Some of the sparrows do look like bandits.  I filled the feeder again and the flock came to eat. I shared how I had bought a more expensive seed to feed with my cheaper seed. You can see the seed above the cheaper stuff in the transparent tube.

The sparrows are easily spooked so I have to sneak around the wall to a small window spot to catch them with the camera. I think all six spots were filled at the time that I took this with two of them not being in view. I would like to see some different kinds of birds here and I know that I will.  I did see a junco out on the deck picking up loose seed fallen from the feeder.

The backyard leaves had turned to red but now the dominate color is this great yellow.  I have a few leaves to rake but I will wait for a few more days for them to fall.  I might spade these into the vegetable garden soil. The angel boy is holding his own out there across the way.

My new redbud tree worried me a little as I had forgotten to water so much after it was planted.  But I have really worked at watering now and I see that it is still alive. The few leaves on it are turning into nice colors and the shrub is also changing colors.
I wanted to plant something else with these two but it didn’t get done.  I suppose I  could transplant a peony into the arrangement.  I will have to dig one at the old place if I do that as I want it to be a free plant. A yucca would look good there too but I will see what I can get dug.

Off the deck we have a good view of the neighbors to evergreens and the other neighbors leafed trees. Our blue spruce bends in with these two making us have something more like a forest. I really enjoy the view of the different fences and we get to enjoy the neighbor’s well groomed grass.

The vine from below continues to close in on the sculpture.  I will get that vine trimmed from underneath the next few days. The mother source plant will need to be trimmed back severely this fall or I will have the big job to do in the spring.  I do like the vine but it really controls me a lot. You can see behind the encroaching main plant behind the sculpture.

We had breakfast out this morning with an old friend and his son.  Norm and his wife Heidi moved to New Mexico at the same time we moved to our new house. It was fun to get caught up on all that they are doing in Carlisbad.  He got a very good job there working for the booming oil and natural gas industry.  Moving from a very green state to a dusty sandy state has been a challenge for them and their five children.  They are doing well, raising chickens. and living on the edge of town. The children have grown so fast as the young boy with Norm, Isaiah, was already my height.  That doesn’t seem unusual but his father is from the Philippines so he had a good chance of being short.  They were making mad dashes around visiting people before they head back to the south. We enjoyed our time with them.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope all are well.