Sunday Afternoon......

 

 A bumblebee sat for a long time on the marigold.  He was a little bothered that I took his photo but then he just came back after swirling.

The light blue phlox has many spent blooms and then it bloomed some more after our one rain. It is interesting that it revived after the long dry spell.

a more focused bee that is sipping nectar. The sedum is looking good. The color is pink and the plant is a new one from a spring planting. 

More clematis blooms on the late bloomer.  The plant is now pretty much established now and it is its second year planted there. 

we had bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for lunch today. We cut up one of these larger ones and had two slices left over for eating. We have a good harvest even though it started late. I have on voluteer tomato that is still full of green tomatoes so our season may go into the late fall. 

Sometimes I have to buy one of those bunches at the grocery store. The variety is different than zinnias and marigolds.

Talked to our oldest son and he and his wife are surviving the times with their three kids.  We have a second grader in school this year.  Our middle guy is going to be starting kindergarten this next year. Wow how the time fly. Our daughter-in-law is going to be put on a week of work and then a week off. It makes it hard to hire a setter every other week as they need a more steady income. They will work it out but times are so complicated right now.

The day has warmed up some and we had to turn the air on for this afternoon.  It is good to have a less busy day once a week.  One can appreciate the grass that was mowed and the flowers weeded and the tomatoes to eat.  I need to rest my back too so that I can be ready for Monday.  I hope everyone is well.

Sat....

 My hostas are suffering from the drought. The privet seems not bothered because it is siting right next to the drain pipe from the roof.

 

The yellow rose is blooming again. There are not as many but some is better than nothing. It has a few more buds ready to open.
 

 My other sedum that is covering up one of the utility boxes. The color is the same as the one in the front of the house.

I worked in the garden this morning. I clipped back the asparagus and put them in a sack. I then placed two bags of mulch to help stop some grass that is creeping into the flowers.  I think that I will buy more and keep packing it in to stop the water grass. We did warm up today but I had to wear a coat in the morning.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday....

 Even though we got a good rain for five days, we are still in a drought. The yuccas love it and they have gorown large in these past two years. It would nice if they would bloom next spring but I don't thinke they are mature enough for that.

I had to reset my brick legs as they had settled into the soil crooked. The slab is from the old foundation of my old house up north. The slab is flagstone and probably was originally a part of the foundation of the house before they put in a glazed red brick basement. The bricks were salvaged from the old mining town of Moran south of us. I picked them up before they came in and destroyed a row of houses to make the west lane of highway 141. All bricks at that time were made and fired in local brick facotries. Adel, Iowa still has a modern brick factory that ships bricks all over the United States.

The bricks are an old fashion shape and size. I like that color. I kept diigging up bricks on the two lots of the old place.

A spontaneous shot of the tomato collection.  The wired in a wad is compliments of me. leaving it there from taking down a trellis. We are getting growths on our tomatoes so we are about through picking any. I do have a volunteer plant that has a lot of green tomatoes not yet ripened. 

Yes I could remove the post as it isn't holding up the volunteer tomato anymore. I took down some of the fence and it makes the flower garden look better. 

Hiding  in the jungle is this volunteer morning glory looks great. The day stayed cool so the blooms hung around for most of the day. 

We are safe in most instances but I still go to the grocery store of a large populated city.  Our schools have 13,000 students in total and they are back in school. That number of students have 300 or more students in quarantine  because of their exposure to the ones who actually have the covid.  Getting them back in school has been good as they were able to identify the sick ones. A large number of teachers are also at home because they were exposed to the sick one. Our neighbors are older but we do have young families among us.  I now know that I still need to be careful and we can't be tempted to go any where else but for groceries. When we are isolated it is hard to believe the disease is among us. 

 

An animal carried the tomato over to eat it. I am not certain what squirrel of chipmunk that is eating it. I mowed the yard today and saw that laying over there this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by today. Everyone take care and be safe.

The Last of the Season

 

 

 

One hard freeze and it will all be brown and dead. I figure we need to see them that much more as it took so long for them to start blooming. 

I am on my way to the old place to work on the yard.  It was 51 degrees F. overnight and our high will be 71 degrees F. I will be wearying long sleeves and a coat this morning.  Every one take care. Thanks.......

Fall is Coming....

 

 

 

We are having a mild day today. I spent a lot of time buying groceries. today. It is frustrating to have the store being under supplied. Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday's Things.....

I was grateful to have a couple of monarchs in my back yard. A friend of my says they are migrating through her yard in a city near us. They feed ib a zunnia by leaving there wings closed. If I ever catch them on sedum the do open their wings

 

 

Our sunset last night was diffused with smoke. You can smell it and the whole day has been a filtered day. It is sad that the whole coast is burning. It is explained than some trees are so packed tightly together that it is a quick fire. 

My red clematis also is now blooming . The photo is not in perfect focus but the clematis is in big contrast to the white one I have in size and color.

 

My neighbor lady to the north says we didn't get so much rain.  I guess it was spotty and we were in a bad spot. I did sprinkle and rain for about five days. My yard was quick to dry out now and I will mow tomorrow.  I was at the old place today to meet the man who does the measuring for windows. I tried to go early and get some work done but that didn't happen.  Some people really lonely and I spent time listening with a neighbor. guy. I think that sometimes that is better just to give people your time when you can tell they are so needy. 

 

 

The phlox is still in a late bloom stage. They have been out for a long time this year.  Thank you for stopping by today.

 The asparagus has over grown in the blue gasing ball location. On a good day I will clear it all out of there. 

The red rose that was moved into the same area is still putting out blooms. Knock out roses are really tough and this one has made some good growth this summer. I babied it with lots of water during the drought. 

I worked at the old place today. The storm caused my yard to be torn up by machines used to carry out the trees that had been cut down. I will need to spen a couple of more days on that job of filling the ruts that they made in the front and back yard. I am having to find spots of soil that I can steal from to carry it to fill in all the holes. What I did today didn't look so good but I did get some grass seeds on it to get it grassed in again. 

 

I had to reconnect a couple of heat vents today. The natural gas company was at the house a week ago and they had to disconnect the heat tubes that were extending into the gallery crawl space. The guy was a nice guy he said they don't do that work once they have disconnected it. I had to go buy some plastic tension straps to hold it all back together. and it is all back together.  Tomorrow I have to meet with the window people to get the two old windows measured for new replacement.  

I was glad that I kept track of the clematis as I could have missed it blooming.  I have a red one that did not bloom. It is a typical warm Iowa day today and it is pleasant. We did turn on our air conditioning this afternoon.  Thanks for all that have stopped by today.