Saturday............

There are two of these bluejays that have been feeding in the back yard.  They love the honeysuckle berries, acorns from the neighbors old pine tree and sunflower seeds at the bird feeder. My wife and I have decided that they must be newly hatched as that black band on their head is way too large.  I don't think the topnotch is quite developed yet either.  If any birders out there really know about it, let me know.

The heat continues.  I see today that the major part of the dome has moved east now but we are still in it.  Our cooling down at 7:00 tonight is not going to happen though, as they kept telling us that it would stop. Our nights have been so humid and very warm.  The best our air conditioners can do is to keep the humidity down and that does make it more comfortable.

The heat really doesn't effect the coneflowers.  They seem less in numbers this year but the single plants have put out abundant stems and buds this year.

My mystery bud is opening this morning.  I will share the surprise of the colors of it tomorrow.  I don't think I have ever seen this one bloom.  I do know that I have spent all summer picking it up off of the ground.  I will get a photo today to share.  I will get a metal stake on it now that I see how special it looks.


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The heat doesn't stop their blooms but it does slow down the number that are in bloom at a time. You can see in the photo that there are plenty of blooms yet to be opened.

Here is a progress report on the mounting of things from the old basket.  Nothing here is attached but I am laying things out in rectangular groupings to see what it could look like.  I have a lot of crochet things that have to go on here too.  I really am not enjoying this project.  It will happen and I will probably like it when I get it done.  It is a too much time for too little money situation.

It is Saturday and I need to water everything outside.  I need to mow grass but won't. The temps never cooled down enough to even give me a chance to go out early morning.  The city mowed our big mistake ditch yesterday for the first time this year.  I won't share a photo of what is there and it is no big thing. No plans for today as it is hot.  We need to take care of two dogs with a lot of special needs and we are too tired to go out.  The weather does wear on ones strength and nerves. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Friday's Finals for the Week.......

After sharing all my sunflower photos I have the urge to dig out my paints and create a Van Gogh sunflowers painting.  I will have to go back now and take different shots of the bloom as I have now shared all of the ones I took a few days ago.  It will be hot than ever today but it seems fitting to have high temps when you shoot photos of bright yellow flowers.

It took me many years to finally get phlox to grow in my garden.  I don't know why it was so difficult as now I am fighting with it as if it is a weed. I don't know the genetics of the plant but from what ever variety that I first bought I now have a variety of colors blooming in the garden.  The white blooms are only in one location.  I have deeper colors of magenta and of course pink colors.

Butterflies seem to be rare insects in my garden this year.  With all the moisture I would think there would be more.  The dragon fly insects are everywhere.  The lightening bugs are out every night and have been almost all of the summer.  They usually are only around for a few weeks.  I was still seeing them last night when I walked the dog late last night. I usually walk Barney before we go to bed as it has cooled off later in the evening.  Last night it was still in the lower 80s and very humid.

I mentioned earlier this week that the rains had done a lot of damage to the hardy geraniums. I noticed this morning that they are bouncing back with new blooms opened already. I of course will have photos of that to share.

This plant is such a mess right now.  I had it inside all winter and it grew out in elongated fans.  I had it outside for a short period of time and the rains flooded the pot.  The container is an antique pan and I apparently didn't want to put drain holes in it.  I had to lay the whole thing on its side and I will be looking for some different containers to plant these in probably individually. This plant has history as a friend of a friend brought a huge pot of this variety home from Texas/Mexican border.  I now have three different containers of it.  I think I gave the science teacher a planting of it.  I need to fine more people to share (dump) these plants.

I mentioned this project yesterday in the blog.  I am going to just attack the project as if I know what I am doing.  The basket is full of crocheted things, old lace, many knitting and tatting tools. Antique spools of thread as shown will be used as long as they are not too large.  I even found an old straight pin in a piece of cloth that I was washing.  It was all rusted.

The dust/dirt on the whole batch of things is being removed,  I can't wash everything but most cloth items are washed now.  Silk cloth strips and purchased manufactured lace and crochet pieces are also cleaned now.  I think that the frame will be the last thing I make as I want to see how much space it will take to display it together.

I am weary from the heat.  It has taken its toll on everyday life as if you can stay home, you do stay home   I went to get the mail yesterday and there were no cars on the street. We had some rainstorms go through the state early morning and it did drop in temperature temporarily.  I opened all the windows to let in the 75 degree air.  I closed it up an hour later and am taking the humidity no with the air conditioners. Button isn't bothered too much with the heat as he sleeps longer and stronger with it hot.  Barney is very bothered by the warm weather and he will seek out the fan to lay down in front of to get relief.  I have been brushing him twice a day now everyday to get as much fur off of him that I can.  His natural shedding process just would never get rid of it.  He loves to be brushed and glares at me with teeth if I brush him in the wrong areas. 

I hope all is well with you in blog land.  I know a lot of us are suffering with this heat and high humidity. We are promised that Saturday evening we will see the change back to normal temps.  Everyone be careful and thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's a Go..........

I was surprised to see this bloom yesterday afternoon.  I had a photo of a sad looking bud but the rose did develop its petals into a good bloom.

As you can see here the bud did not look very healthy.   I missed its earlier bloom time as the rose would have had those reddish colors at first before it fades into pale pink to a white in color.

The promise of cherry tomatoes is beyond the dream stage. This is the first batch of them that has started to turn color.  I have a lot of branches of these so we should have some good tomatoes to eat. 

I had promised to share a photo a day of this sunflower and I see that I mess up that sequence already as I didn't post one yesterday. I have not seen this flower follow the sun so far but maybe it will the more it matures.

While mowing the back part of the orchard I was surprised to see the William Baffin putting out one loan bloom. I am thinking that it may rebloom later on this fall. The vines sure are healthy this year and it has done so much better after I took out all the old dead stalks. The thorns on this rose can be ugly and rip you skin open easily.

The next large framing job that I have to do is a shadow box.  It was asked of me to take the contents of this old basket and display it under glass.

As of what was in the basket you can see here in this one photo. I have to wash most all of it to get the dust of of it and to clean what stains that I can off of the items. This is just one photo of many that I took as the material in the basket covers my whole work counter. I will share more photos but for now it all seems to overwhelming. 

I won't spend much time on the weather as it continues for three more days.  Our cooling system keeps us with lower humidity but the house just can't get so cool with the heat staying around at night.  As a kid in southern Iowa I remember we would have to get blankets and just lay outside in the yard.  It would be still 80 degrees but the sun wasn't shining.  It was more pleasant than the inside of an old house.

I discovered things about my visitors to my blog that made me pleasantly surprised.  I don't have a lot of followers but it looks like at least a third of you do stop by to visit the post regularly.  I don't know who you are but I will start to write and think of all of you as my audience.  I may pretend some days that you are some person out in the boonies in a swamp or in the desert.  It inspires me to write when I think of the people that I know are checking in regularly.  I thank you all for stopping by today.

A HOT Wednesday.......

It is very early in the morning and my dog has me out side already.  The neighbors outdoor light is still on above the door of the garage. It is a cool 70 degrees with 96% humidity.  I am assuming the heat dome over this part of the country is forming as it effects the clouds in the early morning.

 

The heavy rains yesterday caused floodeing everywhere.  We had four inches of rain in the rain gauge but I am thinking a half inch of that was from a previous rain. I collect water at the garden shed from off its roof.  I have water to use for the tomatoes out there as things start to heat up today. We will be very hot for days to come.  High heat and humidity makes the index become a dangerous time outside. 

The heavy rains beat up all of flowers leaving petals shredded and phlox flowers laying on the ground. All the hardy geraniums will need to regroup now as they look pathetic.  They will spring back quickly though.  

The crowd before the rain looks good.  The outer edges had some weaker stems so they now are laying on the ground after the daylong rain.

I have completed some major frame projects this summer and everyone who picked up the work was very pleased.  One person gave me a big tip on the bill because she was so pleased. The next project with pictures coming up will be making a shadow box to hold numerous old sewing items of someone's great aunt.  All of the stuff was removed from the dusty old basket and I have placed it all out to view before I create.  Unfortunately the most of it has to be washed and dried before it can be displayed.  I have numerous crochet hooks and antique spools of thread to place in this shadow box. It will be a great challenge and when done, the people will think it was such a simple thing to do. 

I was up very early with Button this morning so the day will be a long one.  I will stay inside as much as possible. I know a lot of my blogger friends will be in the heat dome today.  I hope all will stay safe and inside.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Things.......

The small sunflower has grown up from the seed fallen from the bird feeder.  It is a small bloom in which I took many photos.  I have decided to share a sunflower photo a day rather than show them all at once.  So sunflower for today is shown with all its brilliant colors. Actual size of the flower is probably 8 inches across.

This is my moss rose picture for the day too.  The plant has regrouped and is putting out a lot more blooms than it has the past two weeks. Some of the blooms do have a similarity to a rose flower.

This surviving bud has now bloomed out and I have a lot of shots of it.  I will share a couple of them today.  The rains are going to take the flower out very soon as it doesn't like all that moisture on its fragile petals.

To have this rose survive the Iowa winters makes it a winner rose for me.  I have only three other roses and they don't perform that well. This rose will give me another set of blooms before fall.  I will have to cut it back to get that to happen though.

When I was a kid I would help walk the corn and bean rows on my Dad's farm.  These were called button weeds, or that is what my Dad called them, and we were to cut them down.  They can grow very large and cause a corn picker or a combine to have some problems. This weed is growing in my ditch created last summer by the city.  I tried mowing some of it the other day and pulled muscles in my one leg. The slant is not a good one and the mower wants to roll or slide to the bottom of the ditch rather than to allow me to mow it. I have decided not to mow it.  I don't have a gas weed eater and my cord would not reach that far.  As it grows bigger I can find a hoe and knock it down from the road.  I had forgotten about button weeds and tree foil until the ditch started growing them for me to see again.

I snapped another one of these shots as they just keep showing off their blooms. They should be gone in another week.

I am surprised of the colors of the blooms on hostas.  Sometimes they don't seem to be a color that should be matched with the leaves of the plant. This has been a great year for all the hostas and they are getting rain again today.  I know this will be our less hot day for the week as the rest of the week is suppose to be filled with high hot temperatures causing higher heat indexes. 

I am having a slow morning today.  I got the blogs done and now I will move on to other things.  I hope all is well with you.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Monday Morning Mentions........

It was 10:00 at night and we were still sitting at 90% humidity and an 80 degree temp.  It is the typical weather of Iowa and yet we don't have it that late at night.  The second flower is feeling the weather as it is not really wanting to come out in this weather.   I have these black eyed Susan's in one area of a garden and every year I think they are not there but then they bloom.  The foliage is so much like a weed so I tend to think I need to get the area weeded.  I should probably move them into a less crowded garden area but all my garden areas are over planted and crowded.

The heat also seems to make this lily a little reluctant to open for the day.  The foliage of these lilies make the flowers more interesting to shoot as they have such a great leaf pattern that can be used for the background.

The rains really don't bother this kind of flower and yet the spent blooms do get really messy with all the rain.

We had a monsoon rain in the middle of the night and then I guess we are going to get more rain this afternoon.  It looks like Iowa mud in all the gardens and fields.

This hardy geranium sits on the porch and is partially protected but it too shows the wear of the raining weather and the heat.  The morning glories in this pot are having a difficult time of establishing itself. 

The first of the two rosebuds on this plant was broken off from a falling tree branch.  This last bud did finally bloom. My camera went crazy yesterday with the high humidity so I got a foggy shot of this rose.  I have better ones that I took earlier and will share another day.  You can check out my other foggy shots on my Larry's Photo a Day blog. I could never plan to get shots like them but I do go with the situation when it occurs.

We have a pair of bluejays that are feeding their young from the berries and bugs that are in out yard. I keep trying to ge a photo of at least one of them as their black band around their necks seem much darker and larger that what we normally see on bluejays.  I saw one on the feeder Sunday morning and rushed to get my wife's camera.  When I got back to take a shot these two were standing there instead.  They are Eurasian ring necked doves. They are large compared to our morning doves.  They like sunflower seeds also. 

No big plans for today.  I have ongoing things that loom over me and the weather will determine my work for the day. I am feeling physically older that I should feel so I will take it easier today.  I hope all is well with you today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday's Showing......

They seem to stay green for a long time.  Maybe I can start taking shots of them with color soon.

Somehow life has gotten so busy that I let the white lilac bushes grow to 25 feet.  That is not an exaggeration.  I planted them there probably 30 years ago and I kept saying I need to thin these out.  Now there are palm trees way high where the only foliage is and the flowers are but they can't be seen. I told the neighbor that I just really had not taken notice.  They were shading out their grass and one batch was leaning heavily on their fence.   I worked two days with a trimming saw and have taken down over half of them.   I still have about 8 tall stalks of lilac bush to go.  I saw them down to about three feet from the ground and I will dig out the chainsaw to cut them out of there.  It will take a couple of years but the new sprouts will be up and it can bloom again.

I was sitting at the patio table trying to cool down after my second sawing session.  The rugged looking trim saw was my dad's and its blade will slice right through that kind of wood.  There is also a 40 year old honeysuckle bush there that I will have to deal with.  The wood of that is a lot harder to saw by hand.

I thought the view of this lily regrouping was an interesting one to see.  They bloom out then fade away and a few days later a new batch starts to bloom again.

When they regroup this is what it looks like again,  Last night's rain was hard on them again.

One last photo to share today is this planter of moss rose. They seem to have regroped from the past and as blooming wee

It was raining early morning with lots of thunder and now it is hot again with heavy humidity.  It is not comfortable.

Thank you for stopping by today.