The Rainy Morning.....

Freshly mowed grass gets more moisture this morning.  Last year at this time, this was mostly dormant grass looking dead and dried out. We have flood warnings today to the west of us and the Missouri River is going back into a flood stage from all the rains north west of us. The blue recycle bin is in view.  Some neighbors have their garage so filled up with things that they can’t put their garbage and recycle bins inside out of sight. We have new neighbors who also leaves their bins out all week.

The neighbor west of us complemented on  the flowers yesterday.  We never know what people think about them as most people don’t have much planted in their yards. He compliments the flowers most every rtime that we talk.

He and I have a dilemma together. Out of six houses in a row on our side of the street,  four of them have new roof shingles from a hail storm. Our houses sit between the four. His company is fighting him to even inspect his roof and I haven’t called in yet to talk to the company.  We were not home during that hail storm and I think we were in Chicago.  Anyway, if four other different companies have replaced thirteen year old roofs, all the same shingle brand, then we do think we should be able to have our shingles replaced.

We flipped up our new calendar to find this photo of a cat and a dog. It mad us sad and happy at the same time.  The little poodle puppy in the photo with the soft brown ears is a duplicate of our little poodle, Button, We first got him in 1998.  We lost him in 2016 and he was a much loved dog. He traveled with us everywhere. We remember being in Grand Marais, Minnesota ten years ago, a couple walked by our Button and called him Dickens.  They had one just like him too.

The volunteer sunflowers sure are great to see. The mammoth ones that I planted the past years would really make these look like dwarfed flowers.

My day is planned to be a resting one.  I did work for two straight days to the degree that I do need to rest the old body. Being a rainy day does give me a good excuse to cut back on the chores. It looks like rain for most all of the morning so I won’t be able to be outside if I wanted to.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week.......

A favorite bowl for my grandma and my mother too.  I remember seeing by Grandma Brooks mixing up fruitcake in that stoneware bowl.  My mom must have snatched it when they were closing down here house. I picked smaller toamotes in the bowl.  Rose petals from the neighboring yellow rose are laying on the step.  The moss rose is reacting to the fall weather and it isn't lookinb very good now.

The volunteer pear shaped tomato is putting out tomatoes now.  They are so supper sweet.  I had to wait a long time to see this vine growing in the flower garden.  I guess I should dry some seed if I want them to grow sooner. The former neighbor had them in the one garden next to the house so when I saw a    plant or two showing up I let them grow even if I didn't know what they were.

Terrace lines is one of my patterns that I use on the front yard.  This morning I broke down and create the diagonal pattern.  It does look good but it is a pain with so many things can be run into and I have to make so many more turns. I mowed this morning and also chatted with my neighbor from up the hill.  The temperatures kept raising.  I think it raised about 10 degrees during our discussion. I stopped after finishing the front and had a fluid break before I finished the back yard.

We met with some missionaries who were on furlough from Swaziland, Africa.  The brought us a gift when we went out to eat. It is a wonderful metal elephant with plant decorations on it.  The leaves and flowers are mirrors. The elephants ears are the shapes of a  plant leaf.

I turned it to take another photo and got a completely color reflection on the whole piece.  This seems to be a good keepsake of sculpture made in Africa. For those who don't know where the country is, it is northeast of East Africa. The work for Childern's Cup feeding thousands of children through out the years. We have not figured out where to place it in tho house but right now it is in the flowerpots area.

Neglect is the best thing for violets but I have a couple that look pretty bad and they sure are not blooming.
A hot day means we will stay insdie the rest of the day. Our humidity isn't so bad or I wouldn't have been mownig the yard.  I hope all is well with my friends in blog land.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Tuesday Afternoon.......

The grass really is that green.  I need to mowing it again.  I am going to be doing that on another day as we are sporting 88% humidity with 89 degree F.  I worked outside this morning up at the old place and had to just stop early as it was just too overwhelming.

The zinnias are showing their wear and tear from the seasons changing. They live only a certain time and then they just die. They have a neat sculptural form as they fade. From the past two years I remember that I pick one last big bouquet and then cut them all down. I have a couple of more bags of dirt to fill in onto the area when they are done.

The view looking back does look a little more worn away with more dead flowers.  I am looking for a weather vane, small, to put on the finial. It will have to be just the right size or it will look dumb.

This iris nurses makes me happy.  I don’t have all of my cemetery iris and these are small sprouts from the old place that might be a couple of those varieties. I will need to replant them elsewhere but by next spring I might see them bloom and see what I did save. It looks a little weedy but it jus needs some fine tuning with hand weeding.

I took time to pick some of my cherry red tomatoes and cherry yellow tomatoes. It takes a lot of time to pick the little ones. I almost need to do each day as they are going bad on me. I am glad we gave a lot of tomatoes away on Sunday as two people can only eat so many of them and we don’t can them. I plant them for the season to enjoy and also for the giving too.

I bought a new weed eater so that I won’t have to mess with these cords ever again.  It has a head on it for chopping out weeds and I don’t have to be plugged in when I do that.  It works well for chopping but there still a lot of work involved.  I made a dent in the whole of things this morning and I will just have to keep at it to get things cleaned up before it snows. It will help me to clear away peonies and weeds at the same time.  The new machine is a smaller version of the big gasoline powered that they sell and it seems to be big enough for an old guy to use.
Thanks for stopping by today.  Everyone stay safe and I hope all is well.

One out of Three Days.....

Neighbors share of tomatoes for the day.  I was out picking in order to give them away on Sunday.  I just put his up on the fence ledge and soon or later he sees them and takes them inside.

The larger tomato did a good job of producing.  The big boy that I planted did not do very well. I took threes bags of tomatoes with me on Sunday to give away.  We met with some missionary friends who were on furlough from Africa.  They were very pleased to get tomatoes.

Sunday afternoon the sun was setting behind my row of houses. The weather was hot and the sky really wasn’t too full of clouds.

I was out taking shots of the sedum and mumbling that I didn’t see the other variety.  Once I looked at the photo I could see that the one purple sedum is crowded out by the larger ones. I noticed that I miss blogging for two days.  I really don’t know how that happened. I have been slow to get photos taken and I guess I just forgot as I didn’t have any new, exciting things to share. My camera will fog over today as we are very hot and very humid.  I will shape up and get out there.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday’s Sharing......

The zinnias are sadly failing and they look pretty weary. They have put on a great show and I won’t take them down as long as there are a few good blooms.

The half red and half yellow zinnia is holding his own among the others. You can see some of the browning taking place on some of them.

Now that it isn’t growing under a stairs the fern is really looking good. I didn’t plant it there but it seems to be a good place for it. I don’t specifically remember the name but it has the word silver in it.

I did make it out to see the full moon in its full round stage. Many photographers went out and found water to reflect it from but I just leaned against the garbage wall and took a shot. I was glad to get it in focus.

We are ending up having a rainy day as it colder up over the noon hour and the rain keeps coming up and getting things wet off and on.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope everyone is doing well.

Friday’s Finds.......

I worked at the house today and drove away leaving a window open.  The house was hot and I though t I could let in some fresh air instead of turning on the air. I like the size of the porch that I built on the front of this house.  I look at all the new houses going up and they are saving money by building a narrow small stairs and narrow openings between the posts.  I can only imagine how they can get any furniture through those small porches.  They really should not cut costs when it comes to the size of an opening door to the house.

I am not seeing any migration coming through our area.  I hope that we do.  I saw one monarch flying around at the old place. It was cool this morning while I mowed the grass.  A parka was good to have to keep that 62 degree F. from making one to feel cold.  I hope everyone is having a good day.  Thanks for stopping in at this blog.

Too hazy last night for a good shot of the full moon.  Maybe tonight it will happen.

Thursday’s Things......

Our minds are so specific about things and we do see that the shape is not quite totally round.  My mind keeps wanting to fill it in.  Friday is the day for the full moon but I  may have clouds on that night.  The conditions for this shot were perfect unlike the last shot of the moon that I took days ago.  I don’t understand what the lines are all about as you view the bottom of that globe.

More pavers for my future patio area. They will be placed in a checkerboard pattern of red pavers with these brown pavers. They are so heavy that I am able to only carry two of them at a time in the wheel barrow to carry them down the hill. I bought them at two different times so that I could walk after doing that kind work.

The trial process. placing them just to see if it is going to look good, is going on now.  I am happy with it but now I need to buy sand with limestone in it to lay a sand base. The whole grass area is four inches lower the the concert slab that it is sitting next to and level with for easy walking.
I bought eight the first time when I was developing the design.  I went back and bought five more thinking I would fill in the blank spaces with gravel.  Then I went back one more time to buy eleven brown ones and two more red ones. I can always buy more next spring if I think I want to cover more area under the deck.

I have an artist that is using the new sunroom now. She was hesitant to work out there at first but the  lighting is perfect for here while she paints. The whole area out there is just a special atmosphere that makes it feel pleasant and peaceful.

I have vines everywhere this year.  I like them but I can see that I may have to thin them out a bit when they overtake flowers that I want to see.

Thanks for checking in today.