Monday

He did find her out there.  I assume they are nesting somewhere in a bigger tree not in my yard.

Sunday Morning.....

With the male cow bird, I did always know its identity for quite a few years. It was just this spring that I learned about the looks of the female. The two showed up for a morning to feed to let me see the major differences and the similarities. and to get a photo shot.

I am hoping that this will be the last snow that we will have.  It was a couple of days ago and now it is all gone. My neighbor had built a couple of snowmen while out with his dog and they did hang around a little longer. The tomato garden needs to be spaded up a little now.

I have the starters growing in the sun room.  I need to go get a size larger pot for these to be transplanted. I maybe could sneak into some store that is open and get some pots.  I have a dust mask I guess I could wear.  They are so hard to breathe in so I would think they would help. I do have a couple of people in mind to share these plants.

As we live down the hill we get a wind that pushes the loose sales papers and I see a stray plastic bag. When garbage is done the dumpsters ares sloppy, especially on windy days. I will have to get a rake to get this down as it is too high for me to reach otherwise.

I mowed the front yard yesterday. It really should have been done the week before but snow was sitting on it.  Anyway, I had to relearn the new mower and how to start it.  I didn't have the side grass vent on so I was mulching thick green grass.  It didn't work well and then I remembered to go find the shoot to blow it to the side. I have people come and treat the yard and it really has paid off.  The previous owner self applied too little so I had a lot of bad looking grass.

While I was out taking photos of the flowering trees in front I turned as saw the vapor stream of the jet, plane, airforce craft. I hand not seen them for a while.

The blurry photo of the flowering tree show that the blooms are just not quite open. This is like a flowering pear but it has a different name.  The city required them to plant them but didn't tell them they could cut them down fifteen years later. Some on our block have removed them. Next door neighbor said they had a bad smell.  I have yet to experience that.

Watched church on television this morning and watched two doves sitting out on the side fence. The stayed most of the service bu then left close to the end.  I didn't get the photo.  We are wearing out with the lock down and yet the alternative is so much worse. The town near our old place is being told to shut down their Tyson plant as multiples have the  virus.  Because it is loaded with a lot of illegals working there, the company doesn't want to reveal the numbers of people who have it. It seems strange that the board of health hasn't come after them.  We now have a nursing home in a neighboring town that has reported plenty of cases.  The reports keep us from going out anywhere.  I hope everyone is staying safe for now.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sat Stuff.....

Safe after all of that weather.  I had a real droopy look on them after the ice storm but the warming helped bring them back,  I did lose one of the buds but there are still nine ready for blooming.

My row of peony bushes are coming up strong.  The voles did not get to their roots. I am going to need some clearing of grass from them. Lots of times when they get big they keep their own grass down. I have five of them in a row and I really don't know what colors that they are.  I am thinking that I hud dug old fashion peonies from the old place.  I wanted the historic ones from the property.

My photo archive on google is messing up right now. I will just share what I still have taking up space on my desktop.  This was a shot that was a littl low in the lens but it showed how droopy they all were after our first sleet storm, the one before our snow storm. The weather has been hard on the daffodils but they are still out there after the snow melted.

Yes, the two squirrels are still out there.  They don't come as often but they do like free food. I think there are other feeders out there that they visit and also the one neighbor has a large supply of cones on his one tree.  We still have our chipmunk out there.  I can only know if there are two if they both shoe up at the feeding dish Right now I think there is two as the one is busy filling up he jowls and take seed away to some nest.

The two flowering trees in front are almost ready to be in bloom. It was so cold when I took this shot and then we got the snow storm afterwards. I think we must have some heat to get them to open up and bloom.

My New Enland bluebells are showing their buds. They too need a couple of warm days to get them to bloom.

I walked the yard this morning and things are changing.  It seems to be slowed down but I am sure we will take off again.  I have a redbud tree that just won't open yet.  I have a lot of blooms on that tiny tree.

The town near our home in Woodward now is reporting that the Tyson plant has the virus. They claim it is a secret has to how many are infected.  That town is a sanctuary city and I guess they think they can protect their identity.  I worry about going to the house to work on it. I am being so good at staying safe and I guess going to work on the house is not a wise thing.  Our town has the historic hospital too that houses many residence with disabilities.  They will probably keep the conditions there secret also. I will have to decide as it gets warmer as I will have to mow the yard.  Our state numbers keep getting worse.  I am hoping a slow down will happen soon.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Take care everyone.

Friday with Snow.....

After the snow we now have sunshine. It is melting away in good time. We were predicted to have it but it really is still a shock as to how much it was.

I don't know the measurement but it was a fluffy snow.

The birds come out of the blue spruce and large globs of snow keeps falling off the tree. This kind of snow actually looks better on the blue spruce than the finer grained snow.

Looking out front and everthing is coated.  I was going to share the blossoms on the  pear trees in front but they are all coated with snow.  Those photos can wait until tomorrow. The small burning bush is really coated this morning down there on the corner next to the sidewalk and driveway.

I found this bird on the internet and Far Side also knew that it was a female cow bird.  The cow bird is the species that lays its eggs into other birds nest that are open while the owner of the bird is away.  The owner of the nest usually sits on the egg for them and the larger baby bird shoves out the other specie's baby birds. The one new baby cowbird gets a lot of attention until it is ready to leave the nest.

It is a new trampoline in one of our neighbor's back yards.  These two are the new owners and we have fun watching them bounce. The one isn't 3 or more years and the other is probably almost 5 years old.  I have better photos but I didn't intend to get pictures of their faces.  To the opposite direction of them is another tram. that has maybe five kids who all want to get on at the same time.  A set of twins is in that group. t. It is fun to watch the  little ones pull themselves up to get on to the thing.  Sometimes an older sister will help boost their little brother or sister.

The photo here is the one from our old place.  The neighbor lady is always taking photos of all our trees.  She also feeds a couple of stray cats on our porch steps.



It is another day,  another weather report.  We start to take our friend to the hospital for treatments starting on Monday.  We won't be getting out until then. I hope all are staying safe. Thanks for stopping in......

Thursday's Things....

The clouds are churning as we are going to receive snow this evening again. Further south they are going to get hit hard with a lot of measurable snow. It has been a wild month in too many ways.

The neighbors tulips took a hit a couple of days ago.  I was surprised to see them all back up standing tall again.

The snow really wasn't the problem but the severe cold was hard on things. I haven't mowed yet so the grape hyacinths in the grass are still there.

The snow mingled in with the tulips a couple of days ago making it still a great photo. I didn't have to shovel so that was good.

The burning bush of a  few days ago collected snow on its leaves making it look like a spring white flower. I seem to have lost so me of my photos and also got distracted because of things going on in our lives.  I have a whole batch of really sad daffodils but they are not downloaded I guess.

My grass does really need to be mowed but I don't mow will wearing a winter coat.  Maybe Saturday it will have warmed up enough to do the job.
I ventured out to buy groceries this morning.  It is a strange experience any more with people staying distances and arrows to follow to go down the rows. I get a lot more exercise if I obey the arrows as I have to go over a couple rows over to come back to hit the item that I want. At the bakery area they have made an error with their arrows.  If I end up on the west end to the area, all arrows go in the opposite direction. If I obey the arrows I would have to all the way around a major cheese and slice meat area to get myself to go in the correct flow. Some shoppers are just ignoring them.

I can't seem to identify this bird. If it were a female goldfinch it would still have a pattern on its chess. I will look it up for tomorrows blog but if anyone can help an old man out today that would be appreciated.

We were with our friend yesterday outside the hospitals doors.  We weren't allowed inside. She will be returning weekly now for chemo treatments to try to halt things.  She has survived breast cancer but this one didn't get identified very quickly. The friend herself as we too thought that this was a diagnose that was put off way too long.  Malpractice because of her age was a definite thing.  We are hoping that there will be some rescue to her lifespan and things can be straightened out.

Our region of our state has been improving for the virus but one part of our state is on strict shutdown.  Meat packing plants and nursing homes are hit hard and they were slow to identify the situations. We will just trudge on.  We will be out once a week for our friend as that is a given.  We don't make plans for anything else though.    Thanks for stopping by today.

My Wife's Birthday....

It is back. We were warned. We will just live with it. I have had some plants of spring that show damage.  I am not happy about that.

The snow helps to bring the birds in to the feeders.  It doesn't hurt that I just filled the feeders yesterday. I see a cow bird is out there trying to eat with all the others.

Our first view when we open the curtains is the two rows of houses on the next street. The child's play house also shows us the weather. The screens on the sun room gives me a muted filter when I shoot pictures through it.

It is my wife's birthday today.  She says she was born during a snow storm. The cake is a two layer white cake with the white supreme frosting. The lid of the carrier hits the top of the cake and the frosting sticks to it. I even separated the yolks from the egg white to get the perfect white cake. I had not done that for years. I almost was not successful but there was only just a bit of yolk in the mix.  I am ordering from our favorite Italian place supper.  We will check the menu on the net, call it in, and I will go pick it up for supper.  I ordered a gift on Wayfare and they do say it will be delivered today. For a while they said it wouldn't be here until Thursday.

We are taking our friend to see her doctor this afternoon.  I am sure we won't even make it into the foyer. It will be easy for her to get right on the elevator and go up one floor. It isn't going to be a fun visit for her as they will now discuss the options for cancer treatment.  It would be so much nicer if we could go with her.

Our virus numbers shot up yesterday when they finally released all of the people with the virus that worked at the one packing plant in south east Iowa. We are in a zone that is one number away from being in total lock down. Two of our nursing homes and long care treatment centers also are sharing their numbers. They are not good. Our county is still in third place in the numbers game but that isn't much to brag about. I am glad we are getting our friend to the doctor today before the reports come out today.  I do need to get groceries tomorrow or Friday.

Thanks for stopping by today.  In what sanity that I still have I am getting some words put together that may or may not make sense. Everyone take care.

Tuesday.....

So I used up all my photos on Monday's blog so I am scraping to the bottom of the barrel to find things for today.  I go into this "show and tell" mode and just won't quit.

I have been watching the  painting being done for the past few weeks. My wife works with precision and when she is in her final days of painting the details all show up perfectly.

The Wailing Wall has many different names and has a lot of history.  The Romans first built the bottom of the wall. It is incorporated into the stone of Mount Moriah there in Jerusalem, Israel. The oldest history of the area is the top of the mountain where God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac. As he started to to obey God stopped him and a ram showed up to be used in his place. The rest of the wall was built by Jews kings to support the large surface called the Temple Mount.

The Jewish people eventually were sent from Egypt to live there around 2,500 years ago.  When the Jews lived there King Herod built the temple mount using the stones of the Romans as the base and the wall was raised up to create the Temple Mount.  On the mount a temple was built and it stood on top of the stone peak that Abraham had use for his altar to sacrifice his ram.

When the Jewish people were completely killed or driven out by a Roman king more than 2,00 years, the Jewish people had not seen this wall until 1967 during the Six Day War. As the soldiers returned to Jerusalem they asked enemy soldiers where they could go to find the wall. To the  Jews, it is the history of their relationship to God as the wall represents his presence and the largeness  of God.

To Christians, it represents the history of the Temple in which God came down to talk to man through the Ark. His Ark sat on top of the top of Mt. Moriah. Today the Mount is shared. The Jordanian Muslims claim the territory and guard it with soldiers. The soldiers of Israel guard the East gate. The whole area is less restricted as we were allowed to be on theTemple Mount on the day we visited. Don't get me wrong, any single incident could bring armed Jordanian soldiers coming running in mass to clear the area.

The age of the Temple mount  is shown by the south view of the wall that surrounds the whole area.. These steps are the ones in which Jesus as a boy sat while his parents were looking for him.

Our day looks like this as the clouds keep moving and changing. We are still cold and I see we are above freezing now as the birdbath is melting.

Our numbers for the virus has taken a bad turn. We had two different packing plants come forward with infections and another nursing home is now reporting many infections. The meat packing plants are closing down for a while. We will be looking bad for numbers for the next few days as the are tallying them differently. 

Thanks for stopping by today. Stay safe and be careful.