Sunday Sun.....

 

The morning rain was slight and the sun does now shine.  The temperatures are suppose to get up into the 80s° this afternoon causing severe weather for our area. 

 

 

The frequent rains has helped to green up everthing.  The grass continues to spread itself into the flower garden area so I have started a new mulch barrier.  Laying down cardboard pieces then mulch makes it more effective.  I have nothing planted yet in the left side but I do have plans for it. 

 

I usually stop feeding the birds by June.  I guess I may stay at it as I want to keep the pair of doves in my area as well as the pair of cardinals. I know that the sparrows will appreciate the feeder staying full too. 

The early tulips are now spent.  They will keep dropping petals as the rains continue.  I got my front yard mowed yesterday morning between rains. The grass is so green this spring and it was needing to be mowed.  I wasn't able to keep up with my two side neighbors as they mowed two days ago all of their yards.  I mowed just the back two days ago.  The mow their grass in diagonal patterns.  I mow mine in a curve to match the curve of my flower bed next to the house.  It reminds me of the way my dad farmed with contours down on the farm.

It is a quiet Sunday even though we have had lightening and thunder.  It has quieted down for now.  We see smoke from our neighbor firing up his charcoal for his smoker.  It was a dense fog this moring when we got up so it is really humid outside today.  Thanks for checking in today.

Weekend....Sat.

 

The house finch is redder during the spring time when mateing or matching takes place.  They do fade out a little by mid summer.  A good picture I missed was a cardinal male and female at the feeder this morning.   My camera was across the room and when I would go get it they would fly away immediately.  Instead I watch them feed and once in a while the male gave the female a seed to eat. 

 

 I ordered plant starts from a company that is based in Holland.  They shipped there stuff by boat so I just now got them at the door. I was told that they had landed ten days ago on American soil.  Their plants, roots, look healthy but their directions for planting were really bad.  I had to use common sense  for them as I looked over the root structures and the minimal starts at the tops.  I have never planted hollyhocks before and had to figure out that it was a three or four inch root to be planted down and let the top barely show at the top.  I planted them with fresh black soil instead of the clay soil that I have in the garden.  I still have dutch iris to plant but I am going to wait for the soil to dry. 

Even though it was very wet out there from heavy rains in the night I was able to fill the boxes with dirt.  I have window boxes that sit inside of them.  I am going to put morning glory seeds in there that I have collected the past few years and want to buy another specific vine to grow with them.  I need to go to the nursery to find the seed.  We will have a wet cool day today.  It isn't raining even thought they said it would.  Thanks for stopping by this Saturday.

Friday with No Funnies....

 

I took a new shot of the neighbor's trees and I discovered there is a beautiful red flowering tree at the next neighbor's house.  That is the most I will ever see of that one. The white ones seemed so great but this morning they were even whiter.  

 

 

I brought up from the basement one of my prized birdhouses.  It will never go outside to be rained on and it can be displayed all summer in the sun room.  Viewing the detail that I put on this one that the winter a year ago must have been a long hard one. 

I have eight buds ready to open on my fern leaf peony.  It has restored form its move two years ago away for the fence construction zone. 

It is raining today and everything is looking better.  It phlox is now taking over everything. I have to decide if I need to cut it off at the ends. 

The bluebells are still slow to open.  I think the plant is in decline compared to when I inherited in six years.  The two years plus of drought took its toll on lots of my plants. 

We took a holiday today.  We went out for breakfast then took off to our large mall area.  There we visited Hobby Lobby and finished off the visit by stopping at the bookstore.  We had a chicken sandwich for a late lunch and came home.  Rain has set in now and we will be in for the rest of the day.  I got wet going to get the mail.  Have a great rest of the day.

Thursday's the Day.

 

I do know she is feeding her young birds but they are not big enough yet for me to see them. She is out in the yard after I mowed picking up all the bugs and worms.

 

 

The hosta is responding to the warm temperatures.  I kept thinking that they were not coming up but here they are.  I have new plantings of them in places and they too are sprouting through the ground. 

I inherited this vine. It puts out nice blooms but it is so invasive. I am always pulling it to keep it tamed. I saw in a garden magazine where they planted it in containers around the edges of a bigger plant. That would work better as it could be cut off when it hit the ground. 

I was surprised to see this budding but it is time.  I am thinking it is a white iris and it does bloom earlier than all the others.  I planted that there two years ago and it now is getting established. 

I can't stop taking photos of this. I go out in late afternoon when the light is great and keep finding new compositions with them.

I mowed the backyard this morning.  It was 70° F. already so I did get too warm.  It is so much longer in the backyard than the front so I had lots of grass clippings showing again.  I will be busy tomorrow so I had to get the most of it done today.  I can do the front yard on another day.

We will hit 80° F. this afternoon.  We have a few mild days and then it gets too hot.  I ran the air last night to cool the house down.  I bet I will need to run the air this afternoon.  It is a great sun shiny day and that is good.  Thanks or checking in today.

Will it be Wednesday? Yes!

 The sun was so bright that the camera didn't want to shoot right at it.  I decided evidence of the sun can be seen in this shot with all the shadows created by the morning sunrise.  The pussy willows in the vase continue to go through their cycles and the branches are forming leaves. 

The May Day flowers look like this. There are always five stems in the bunch.  On accent flower, large white one in this batch.  The filler is the use of Peruvian Lilies.  The are variegated this time.  The color scheme works well this time but sometimes they want to throw a lime green flower into the bunch.

I went out in the dark to bring in the flag and there it was.  I have taken so many shots of it but I just had to do it one more time.  It is easier to see what stage it is when seen in the photograph than it is by just looking up at it. I had to search for info and the moon is still waxing.  It will be a full moon by Friday. 

It is finished.  I need to go to the nursery to see what vines that are available. The boxes are lined with plastic window boxes.  I am resting today from it all even though I have spread mulch this morning.  I am glad to have all the tools picked up and put away along with the scrap wood pieces.  It seems to be warmer out there even though we are not at 60° F. yet.  I just dress in layers and take off things as they get too warm.  It is just long sleeve weather out there right now.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday....

 

The sun is shielded by so many houses but the red bud stll gets a glow from the evening sky.  I have grown the tree for three years now and it is really becoming a good looking specimen.  I need to plant something that will block the view of that internet box.  My neighbor really love the tree and appreciates it.  They have developed a plan of have no tree growing on their properties.  I guess it works well to just enjoy the next person's growth.

 

 I am happy to see that I planted that hosta there but I really don't remember doing so.  The wild violet, which I did not plant, seems to want to partner with it.  I really don't mind having it there.  When you plant with no abandon you do get lots of things filled in everywhere.  It is a perfect place for it to be. 

I really like the Rembrandt tulips.  These two seem to be the only kind of them of all of the varieties that I planted.  A mixed bag makes sure you don't plant in restricted groups.  

The white and pink ones are striking to see also. I can see the peonies are doing well with all our moisture in the ground being restored.  The drought seems to be over even though I may still water them to be sure they do their best as the get larger.  

I have one iris planted in this strip flower garden.  I think I will put more of them in the area so I can have one more thing blooming in the cycles of spring/summer.  I have tulips first, and iris blooming secondly and then the peonies.  Hosta isn't doing well there yet but I am working on it. I have two that are trying to grow. The clay soil left there by the building development means I need to add more black dirt to the area.  

While working on these things last week I had something fall and injure my shoulder.  No blood but it hit something that gave me a lot of pain with any movement of my arm.  Me being my own dumb person worked the next day and I had something else fall and land on my same injured shoulder.  So, I have been healing.  Icy Hot and Tylenol have helped a little but time has been the best solution.  I will work on this today even though the wind is blowing strong again today.  I have refining judgments to make to improve the design.  Those changes will not involve having anything falling down on me as well as me falling down either.   Old age is the pits but I refuse to let it control me.   Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's a Breezy One....

 

The back view was the best as the sun shines through the pastel tulips.  The winds are really beating them up a lot and we have another very windy day. 

 

 

Three shots of the same area is probably a little too much but each picture has its own merits. I went out to put out the flag and had to return to get the camera.  I was only wearing socks so the rock bed was a little hard on my feet.  You can see the rose bushes are now coming back to life.  They seem late this year in their development.

We are warmer today but the wind still makes it feel chilly.  I won't work outside today even though the sun is shining.  I have plenty of things to do inside. I made it to the lumber store this morning and picked up groceries on the way home.  The lumber yard gave me some pieces to paint to add to the trellis project.  More to show later.  Thanks for checking in this Monday.