Mother's Day Sunday....

 One of the newly hatched doves was hanging around the deck today.  It was picking up the thistle seed from off the deck floor. 

In just two days the iris have started to sprout up to form buds.  I had not seen these three days ago as I was out there working.

The one cemetery iris blooms first for me anymore but this hybrid white is the first hybrid bloom each season.  I had this at the old place given to me by a neighbor lady who is long gone now.  I moved this iris to a new location this past year and I was so glad to see it.  I had not remembered even planting it. 

I like my chives to bloom and I still use it.  Chopped chives on baked potatoes is the best. This one I never clipped from and I have it as flower in the spring. I have three other plantings of it.

The lily of the valley is blooming now.  There are a lot of them yet to open up but this one sprig is great with the white bells contrasting against the green. 

Have a great day.

Sultrly Saturday.....

 

 

 

 

The rains have taken away all of the blooms shown above.  It is a long time before they will bloom again. I planted three tomato plants this morning and got them caged and staked.  I also planted a couple of bulbs of a star gazer type lily.  I tried to buy a certain vine for my three planters with trellis and they just don't have them.  I can order on line to see if they can be obtained.  We are living with heavy humidity today and one doesn't want to be outside for very long.  All this humidity and rains makes the grass grow too well.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Soaking Wet.....

 

We had a downpour yesterday afternoon so the garden angel got his bath. I was caught in that pounding rain when I left the grocery store to go to the car. I was soaked.  I grabbed my stadium umbrella from the back of the car which didn't really help as my shirt and hair were already soaked.  It was a cold rain and we had to dry out a lot of the groceries, especially the cardboard boxes, before we could put them away. I was chilled from that episode for a couple hours afterwards. 

 

 I won't use the word ruined, but the flowers took a good beating from the downpour. It sort of cuts the season short for them. I am glad that none of my hybrid iris were in bloom. 

I patched my leaky birdbath a few days ago.  It was about a half inch of rain that came is less than ten minutes. 

I did not see this bloom during our two years of drought. I thought I had lost it. The two weak buds that I had on early actually did develop into two bleeding hearts.  Two are better than none.  I need to nurture this plant so it will grow big again. I am not sure how other than keep any invader neighbor plants away from it.

It is Friday.  News of this country's happenings  are beyond explainable.  We are strong but we are being destroyed from within.  I hope the people will straighten things out.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday...

 

 A geranium bloom next to my front door steps. The plant dies down over the winter and comes back robustly in late spring.

I am at a lost for the name of this plant.  It is in the carnation family and it did come back from last summer's planting.  My mom use to call them "pinks" and she usually had a few of them around in her garden. 

A sparrow is building a nest here.  It doesn't seem to be brave enough to stay and use it unless it is down inside the nest and I just can't see it.

My other Siberian iris looks this good.  Again I am glad that I cleared away the last years foliage.  It isn't easy to cut back.

I am awaiting for a lot of different iris to bloom.  Some do not have buds yet but I am hoping they start to develop soon.  Most all of my iris have been in the ground at least two seasons so they all should bloom. 

I mowed the front yard this morning after I used the weed eater to cut tall grasses on the edges of things.  It did get too warm while working and I had to take a water break and get rid of the long sleeve short. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Middle....

 Sometimes this is this the only view that I get of the female cardinal.  She flits in and out so quickly.

She did give me a turn with a look back this time and she showed off her feathers.  I hope she has a nest nearby and that we will see young ones soon.

I am glad that I cleared away the dead leaves of the Siberian iris.  It really is looking healthy and promises lots of blooms. I really am not bow legged as seen in the reflection but one has to lean down to get the shot. 

My fern leaf peony has put out eight blooms this year.  It is healthy and will increase in size for sure for next year.  I had planted a spare part of this nearby and that plant put out two blooms aright now.  The history of this plant being transported by wagon train across the country in early American years. The toots are tough and they wrapped them in cloth and stowed them in a small crack in the wagon.  It is know that it did bome for Europe and my France blogger friend has one that hasn't started blooming yet.

 

 

I have two plantings of this iris in the front yard and they both look this good.  I like how this old fashion iris blooms all out and very few of the blooms die back as it fills out.  I did have to take of two dead blooms of this before the shot.  The tall hybrids so not bloom like this. 

I mowed the backyard this morning because it need it.  I had mowed it six days ago and it was really long already now.  The rains are keeping it growing and it is a good thing.  We are going to get up to 75° F. today.  It feels warm when you are out mowing in it.  It is nice to be done and tomorrow I will mow the front yard.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Things.....

 

The leaf structure of the locust tree is completely different than most trees.  I like the fern-like shapes that develop overnight giving one a tree of lace-like textures.  I didn't plant this one but am so glad that he did.  My memories of the old fashion locust on the farm was lots of thorns falling on the ground and it was horrible to walk under the two trees with bare feet.  

 

 

The last days of the multi-petaled tulip develops into an open flower before the petals start to drop.

The blooms on my bleeding heart are pathetic.  I am going to nurture the plant with better top soil and maybe a protection barrier to keep the neighbor plants out of its area.  It did bloom well a couple of years ago but the two full summers of drought has done a lot of damage to a lot of my plants. 

A northeaster bluebell that I moved to the back of the house a couple of years ago is now producing blooms.  I like to move things around a lot in case the original plant fails.  I have a peony that didn't grow well for my former neighbor was moved to the back gardens and I am going to have blooms this year.  I don't think I have ever seen it bloom the past five years.  Clay soil can be so hard on some plants. 

I finished spreading my turf builder product in the backyard this morning.  I had the strength to do it all at once.  After a rest I then spread grass seed in needed areas and put scatterings of new loose top soil on it to encourage it to grow.  The grass was so wet this morning that I soaked my socks, shoes and pant legs while pushing around the spreader.  I didn't know it was so wet but it still worked good.  The dandelion pictured above was enjoying its life in my flower garden. The soil was so good I could pull the whole thing by hand.   There may be stray roots that still survived but I did get rid of the mother plant.  

 

 

The phlox is fading now but it has been a great show for the spring.  I worked out there this morning pulling grass and weeds.  I also put potting soil in bad areas of the yard.  I then seeded the spots hoping they grass will grow better.  It is a cloudy day and I can see we are going to warm up as much as they say we will be.  Thanks for checking in today.

Monday Starts......

 

The first iris to bloom.  It has a buddy plant five feet away in another garden and it too has one bloom.  This glob is made up of four different blooms.

 

 

A potential bloom may come in the morning.  Its partner plant a few feet away also has eight blooms ready to open. 

One of my favorite hosta plants is showing off already. I have planted more of this elsewhere and it too looks good. 

I remember that I had planted these there last summer. I mulched over them because only two of them were up. Surprised yesterday to see all the others just sprouted through the mulch unhindered. It should look great there if they develop this summer and fill in the whole area. 

There is a duck story that I could tell today but I am not going to today.  The pair showed up again this year at my neighbors pool. 

I worked in the yard today with limited strength so I just stopped and came in to blog. It is frustrating when a spreader is too much for me.  Maybe tomorrow I can do the rest of the yard.  It is going to be a warm day for us today.  I had to turn on the air conditioning unit at ten this morning.  We have had an inch and a half of rain and it is very humid out there today.   Thanks for checking in today.