Trying Tuesdays.........

The vine next to the step is blooming.  It will bloom continually until it gets too hot.  Then the vine keeps on being variegated green.  It is sort of invasive but that really is a sign of a good vine. I have planted English ivy and it can sit still and not grow for a few years before it takes off. The foliage next to that is a true geranium plant.  It is far different than a hardy geranium.

I had vinca at the old place and I think this was moved here with a hosta transplant. They also will not bloom once it gets hot.

I removed some of the wild flowers from this area and everything seems to stay at a better height.  I will get petunias in there but they don’t do well as the soil is so full of clay. The creeping phlox as really lasted a longer time this spring.

The electricians were here for most of the day yesterday.  The fan went up late afternoon.  They put in two switches on the wall so the light and fan have there own controls. The oak beam looks better.  I didn’t check to see if they installed the correct color of blade.  The blades were pinched with two different treatments which help to match the kind of wood that one would want. One guy just shared that the other side of the blade is a dark cherry.

Our neighbors to the northwest planted some of their raised beds yesterday. The woman had knee surgery so she was all giving the directions to her husband, every move,  in the planting of cucumbers.  I am glade I don’t have to have some one dictate my planting of my garden.



So seeing and talking with them about their garden I went home and potato forked my soil.  The former owner brought in black dirt for the raised garden.

The chive survives.  I have another herb to the right and I see it is sprouting out from dead sticks.  It is too cold for now to plant tomatoes.  I do think I will find a space for lettuce and radishes in there.

My tomatoes were not heavy bearing last season.  I hope that it is better this year. I didn’t start tomato plants in March so I will buy them at the green house next to our grocery store. May 15th is our last day of frost scare.

We have a dry wall man here today.  He said there would be two but that doesn’t alway happen.  The second guy starts on another job.

This is the project of the day for the now two guys that are here applying dry wall. This is the before shot.  With this job comes more tools with different kinds of sounds.  Even though the doors are shut to the sunroom, I can se we will have the dust seep into the house.

It seems to be a long blog already.  Thanks for checking in today.

Monday’s Moments.......

The former owner planted this here. It really is close to it being in full bloom. The New England bluebell does grow wild in our timbers in Iowa.  You can see the sedums are ready to start sprouting taller stems.

As a kid we had these in the flower garden on the farm.  I thought they were so magical.  We only had one or two sprouts that bloomed. This large growth is really wonderful to own.  This and the bleeding heart was two of the old fashioned one that we had on the farm.

The tulips here are about spent but the color is still good. The boy with the pail still hangs in there but his pail has a rusted out bottom. I see that a hosta is pushing through in that bed and the globe allium is about to bloom around the corner.

The electricians are here today. They are stringing a line from the garage over the kitchen attic and to out to the sunroom. They had a long metal eel that did the job quickly. We did notice this morning that we now have many windows to get water spotted from the rain.  The windows do lift out so a cleaning from both sides can be done. Screens on every window makes it a room we could use as a natural air outside space.

I planted this spirea next to the red bud tree and it sure didn’t hesitate to start growing.  This particular kind of spirea is planted along of the business fronts in town.

Hopefully the wiring will get done quickly.  Our drywall workers come tomorrow. It will be a busy week.  I will be glad when it is all done.  Thanks for stopping by today. I hope everyone is well.

Sunny Day.....

It is a warm spring day.  The weather is acting normal for a change.  We might even get hot today.  The morning clouds are from the view of the new deck. They seem to look like this in all directions and maybe for all day.  Rain is suppose to come later in the afternoon.

The sunroom company doesn’t want to do these two products.  The asked us to go buy an outside light and a ceiling fan.  It was suggested we buy them immediately  and have them waiting for the electrician. The electrician will be here tomorrow.

We have a real oak beam at the peak and we need a fan to hang from it.  The beam is actually a u-shaped on that slips over the white metal one that extends from the house’s roof to the end of the peak of the sunroom. It almost looks out of place with the white ceiling but it will work.

I don’t remember buying them but the pale yellow tulips look great. The whole plantings in this area look good and in late spring we will fill in with some petunias.  A new planned flower area will go in near here next to the front door to be a memory garden for Barney.  We both thought of it in the past few days and we need to go shopping.


We are having a very warm spring day today.  It does inspire me to get out and get sum yard work done. I mowed the yard up so the lawn treatment company can work on it tomorrow.

Happiness was finding this William Baffin rose for sale last fall.  Now with a whole new planting area developed because of our new room and deck I may end up moving this before it gets too settled in there. I am looking forward to the challenge of many new planting area and landscaping with shrubs but I really don’t want to rush in to it.  I think living with a newly created veranda under our sunroom and another area with the deck will need to be lived in for a while before anything can happen.

These tulips were planted willy nilly last fall but they do look good here.  I have plans to box in the area with wood and make it more like a shallow raised garden area.  I don’t like there is no edging on this garden as the grass keeps creeping into it.

Sunday is a good day for rest and we have done that today.  We went to a place that had southern fried chicken for lunch and we carried home half of that.  We have rested all afternoon.  I just now am finishing the blog after starting it this morning.  Thank you for checking in today.  I wish you all well for the rest of this day.

I need a title,,,,,Saturday.

My red bud tree is giving me a meager amount of blooms this spring.  I know that it takes a lot of patience to see them grow but next year I might have a more showy bloom time.

The hybrid columbine is looking good this spring.  It puts out a lot of nice blooms that I will be taking a lot of photos of them. My neighbor has his side of the flower garden all prepared with weed barrier and a lot of rock.  The former owner had a leave barrier which I have had to dig through to get my thinks planted. I have day lilies and iris planted in the same area.  I also have a few hosta plants there too.

The back corner tree is my temporary spot for birdhouses while the construction was going on near the house.

The tulips from the old place are pretty.  I figure we should just enjoy them here. The lilac busters are not quite open yet. Next week I should be able to get some good cuttings of flowers.

My rembrandt tulips are looking great now as they are in full bloom. I am glad that I got them planted last fall.

These tulips remind me of the ISU colors.  So I call them my Iowa State tulips. The pink ones are certainly pale in comparison.  I don’t begin to have any of this variety at the new place.  I may dig the red and yellow ones and move them.

The sunroom is done as far as the carpenter is concerned.  Monday is the day for the electric  work and Tuesday is set for the dry wall person . Somewhere after that the carpet layers will show up to put it down.  Maybe by Friday we can start thinking about assembling furniture.  I am going to get the grill back out on the deck today.

I have lost track of which photos I have shared but I did just become a Grandpa of a sweet little girl.  It has been an exciting week.

There is room for a grille out here and maybe a small table with two lawn chairs.  We are making the decisions as time goes by.  It is amazing that this whole project was put up in two weeks with two rain days. I never imagined that it would look so good.  The tools all went home on Friday and the carpenter will return to put on some baseboards after the wiring is done. The carpenter whose name is Randy said he had another one to start on Monday.  He says he installs these all over the state of Iowa for the company.

I won’t share any more photos of the granddaughter until I get some new, better ones. She came home on Friday with mom.  Grandma from Chicago area will be there to help for a while until things get settled with the little one and two boys. Dad will be there over the weekend so all will work out well. Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday’s A Go.....

A new person for our family looks out at her new world. We don’t have word as to what her name is but we should know soon. She was born on May Day evening and is in to her third day now. I heard that she is going to be home today.

ELLA MARIE is our granddaughter’s name.  It is a pretty name for a pretty little girl.

We will have a second day without rain.  It is Egood but we sure could use some warmer temperatures. The sun warmed us up in the afternoon only when one was standing in the sunshine, t he temps were still cold.

I had a good conference meeting with my carpenter boss this morning.  I opened the shades while having breakfast and there he was.  He was establishing the schedule for the electrician and the people who will do the drywall work.  He installs he heating/cooling unit while the electrician is here.  Monday and Tuesday are appointed days and then we will see when the carpet people will come.  It has been a whirlwind experience but our end results in appearance is wonderful.  The back of our house was ugly and it isn’t anymore.

A neighbor up the street has been down twice to visit with our installation guy.  The want to put one on their house now.

It is a small space but it will be nice to have for a grill and a small round table with chairs.

The bleeding heart is at its peak bloom time. I have to get a new photo of the bluebells as they are now also in full bloom.

I didn’t succeed in mowing at the old place a few days ago. It was too cold and too wet.  I am assuming that the sunshine will have it dried off today and I can get the job done this morning.  We have had a week of marvelous things happening with new granddaughter being born and people invade our home space for the whole week.  The day that the shingling was going on that we almost went bonkers.

It is Friday and I hope all are doing well.  Thanks for checking in today.

Grandparents' Surprise.....

Tulip time from our garden at the old place.  It was so wet and cold yesterday that I did not mow when I went there.  The grass is tall in some places but it all will wait until next week.

The tulips are not all opened yet and things seem slower in development for spring.  The fern leaf peony is not blooming yet so I know things are slow.  It is one of the first things to bloom. I didn’t take all of the tulips so some can see be seen from the road when people drive by there.
The apple trees are budded and are blooming.

I am thinking we are going to see this lilac open up most of its blooms. Both of us are bothered with the pollen from them so they may get moved to a farther part of the house, maybe the garage. I don’t own a lilac at the new place and I don’t know that my lot size can handle it.  My lawn salesperson told me I have a very large lawn compared to average size and my price for treatment was a little bit more.

The vase is what I call Heidi’s vase.  When my friends Norm and Heidi moved to New Mexico I let them put their last minute trash in one of my dumpsters. I rescued the smaller green glass vase that they left behind as a memory of those two great friends.  They and their five kids are headed to a second new job near Santa Fe.

The carpenter and his son put this sunroom kit in less than two hours.  The roof was put on and the whole roof was completely shingled. I see that there is one section of eaves trough that needs to be installed.  We have a great view now that also restricts some of the clutter view and the lower level. The triangle windows give a framed sky now and it is a good view.

Our view from the deck shows the good storm door that we can use to come and go. The clutter on the ground is almost all gone now as the parts laying on the ground are now assembles on the platform. If the guy comes today to work he will need to put up a center beam inside and then add all of the railings.  That would mean hew will be done.

The electricians will work tomorrow installing the heating/cooling system, a ceiling fan and light,  and also outdoor lights.  We are having dry wall installed on the wall of the house next week.

It seem strange to see it in place but we will get use to it. Most all of the moldings that helped connect the room together are almost all gone now that lay on the ground.  We have been doing research of various examples of their products and we are going to paint over the green wood.  Everything will be painted white on all exposed green wood. I think it will look more like a veranda from the south with the post painted white.


It is Thursday and the week has gone quickly.  We are glad that all the noise from building is completed.
It is a new grandchild and it is a .................GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were anxiously waiting and she has been born.  In other pictures she was screaming her lungs out and now she had probably been fed and has gone back to sleep.  Our daughter-in-law is doing great.  A photo of her and our son both with the new baby shows two very happy parents with such a blessing. She has two older brothers to share space with when she gets home.

Needless to say, but her Iowa Grandparents are so happy and very proud of this new addition to the family.

Going Up......

One day this week we had a sunny day and the tulips look pretty washed out in the sunlight.  We have not see sun for a very long time.  Today is to be a dry day but a cold and cloudy one.

It rained all day Tuesday so the work was stopped all day. The track for the new sunroom was laid the day before but today we have two workmen building the walls. I keep seeing parts going by in the lower window.  We here drilling and banging as they attach things to the house and the floor.  The electricians are suppose to be on Friday so Randy said they needed to hustle to get it done.  I am not thinking the weather will be very good tomorrow so they may put in a long day.

The one window and the track are all history now as the men have out sides and end of the sunroom installed.

It is a veiled view of what is happening.  Through the kitchen window we can see two guys putting it all together.  It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle that fits tougher very quickly.

Needless to say, we are excited.  The roof will go on next as the metal, covered with plastic, ridgepole is attached to our roof. I am sure they are trying to get the place sealed up quickly before tomorrows rains.

I am off this morning to mow what I couldn’t do yesterday. Thank you for stopping by today.

I amended the blog with this shot that I caught this morning. It is looking good and they are putting it together quickly.