Monday

 It is a surprising flower as the plinn stems shoot up and them they start to open. The shapes and colors are so great to see. I saw a white one in the neighborhood today and I think I need to get one of them. 

My first sunflower bloom is out now. The have grown in height the past few weeks making them show off with their yellow blooms in the sky.

 This Asiatic lilly is getting to be full of color as they keep adding new blooms. 

My old cupola stands firm among all the foliage of the different plants. I would like to raise it up a little bit higher so it shows off the sides better. I see on the net that the Amish have cupolas for sale on the net for lots of money.  I built this one for my garden shed and kept it when it fell off the shed. Maybe I can just build it a box to sit on to make it taller. 

 

All of my eight of my roses need to be dead headed. The "William Baffin" rose isn't waiting on me and is setting up some new blooms. 

My wife is back today to have cataract surgery on her other eye. It is a three hour time frame to get the job done even though the actual lens replacement only takes about fifteen minutes. They is a lot of pre op procedures and recovery time to make things to be safe. I am back to the bookstore for coffee and a treat while blogging. I will maybe go look for some books while here today. They call me when she goes into recovery and I am only five minutes away from the surgery.  Della was so happy to see out of the one eye so clearly. Both of us have been so near sighted most of our life so to have normal sight is amazing. I have a new photo from the bookstore but google doesn't seem to want me to have it even though it is very clearly in my library. I guess I need to shut everything down and restart it all to allow it to happen.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday Stuff

 The new sparrow fledglings are numerous. It is fun tow watch them. They just sit as they don't really know what they are suppose to do. Sitting seems to be a good start as they are now away from the confinement of that nest. 

The new young morning doves do move around a little bit more. They walk around and just look at things. I guess they are learning to use their senses to find seed. 

I have really never grown hosta for their blooms. I guess they just come with the plant. I do know that we are getting some rain and I have not seem them put out so many stems of flowers for a long time.

. Some people dig their hosta regularly to keep them thinned out. I am an old man so it seems that is not so necessary. 

 

My begonia has over wintered more years that I remember. I do drop some new soil on it once in a while to get it some more energy. It likes this location as it does get rain falling through from the deck above and the shade of the trellis. 

I moved plants around in the bed yesterday and I got over heated. I had to fence everything in as the next bed has glads in it. My sweet little rabbit loves to eat the tops. So in the heat I drug out the four panels and put them in place. I can't believe that the zinnia plants that I moved and spaced around better, didn't wilt and die in the heat. I also can't believe that I didn't fall into this bed while working on it but I know my wife is watching so I can't fall. 

I learned today from my neighbor that bats are an endangered species in Iowa and we can't destroy them. Her roofer is coming back tomorrow to see where they messed up on their ridge venting system. Supposedly one is not to close off the gaps where bats come in and out to the attic until October as all young new bats will then be outside with the adults. They claim that they eventually go to the trees for a certain period of the year. It seems complicated for me. I will be checking my attic for bats but I don't have the same kind of venting system. People are still viewing her house which is for sale even though there are bats in her garage attic.

Thanks for stopping by today.

A Busy Hot Day....

 

 

 

Colors

 There were great colors in the sky last evening as we had a thunderstorm earlier. We didn't get much rain from it as the major part of the storm was at the north end of the city. The colors of the color wheel are all in this scene minus the green. 

It is interesting when one turns the camera in a different direction causing the clouds being  more pastel in color.

My newer rose that grows next to the front door steps has a good blend of pastel colors. It is doing its second blooming cycle now. 

 Another of my rose bushes is putting out the pastel yellow flowers. The bush puts out different colors of roses and it is rare to see all the same color in one area. 

I cleared out some iris in my circle raised bed. It is historic cemetery iris and it is so invasive. I wanted to have some space to put in a hardy geranium so I could have some more color in the flower bed. 

I have never noticed this before but the rhizomes of the old iris is smaller. I had been transplanting hybrid iris and their rhizomes are three times larger in size. When I would harvest this variety from a cemetery it would be one single piece the size of a very small potato. It is so hardy that in a couple of years you have lots of iris. I have placed parts of these shown above in three different locations so far. I have some more left to plant. Maybe I can do that tomorrow after I finish mowing my back yard. 

I mowed my front yard this morning before it got too hot. I did mow some of the backyard this morning too so it will be easier for me to finish tomorrow.  It did warm up to 87 degrees F. this afternoon. I started the morning with a parka on to cut the chill of 67 degrees F.  It is officially summer now so it can be hot all of the time. 

Our city is stretched out for almost 71,000 people now and when rainfall is recorded it is the north end of town that got 2.6 inches of rain. I had only a fourth of an inch in my gauge down here at the far southwest end of town. I just found out that our city is 29 square miles in size. I also found out we have a section of our city that extends all the way down to the Interstate 35/80 on the southeast. We do live in the farther most corner of it on the southwest corner of the city. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bats in the Belfry.....Not.

 

 Peruvian lilies seem to be always include in bouquets. The are really special and make things filled in more with its multiple flowers on one stem. 

My wife noticed today that the rose actually has a good scent. That is unusual with mots roses that one buys anymore.  This is a different color than is used in a bouquet but it makes everything look great. 

My outdoor flowers are basically Asiatic lilies and day lilies. This is one of my favorites that I moved from our old house.  It has bloomed every year of the eight years since we have been at our new place. 

My indoor flowers include this oxalis. It is doing well now that I got back on to a watering schedule. St. Francis of Assisi seems to enjoy his flowers behind him and the animals that he has in hand. 

I mowed my neighbors lady's yard this morning and got to stop and talk to dog walkers as they passed by. I just shut my mower down so they can walk their dog without me scaring them. The one couple had a pair of yorkies who were getting too hot from our hot temps. They lay on the sidewalk to cool down. Another lady with here poodle mix came by and we had a good talk. She has a son who plays football for the ISU team. We had a good discussion about the house for sale that has been diagnosed with bats in the attic of the garage. The realtor says she can find a person to get rid of them. She lost one of her sales because of it but another buyer still wants the house. The house was built in 2002 so there must be a builders flaw somewhere to give the bats access to the three car garage attic. All of us in the row will now be looking in our attics to see if we have them too. 

It rained for most of the afternoon today. It is fun to hear all the sounds of rain as we had been in a drought for so long. I had two and a half inches the past two days and who knows what I have now. I will look in the morning at my guauge. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Lilies and Stuff....

 

 

 

 

 

 Two and a half inches of rain is great. Everything is looking so  much better. I dug holes to plant my iris and the soil was saturated. I should have waited but I had the time to get it done this morning and it wasn't raining anymore. We heated up again today and it was not comfortable when I was out this afternoon. I picked up new hearing devices and some stray groceries that were needed. It was good to get home and cool down.  I have the front yard to mow tomorrow and I will have to get out early to do it. 

Thanks for checking in today.

Tuesday, a Rainy Day

 Another day lily is now blooming. I never know which one is next.  I have to keep checking them as they are all budding right now. I have two of these, the same, and they bloom at different times because of their location. This one gets more light as the other is in the shade of the deck. 

My wife is recovering from cataract surgery today so I  venture out at short moments to work outside. I need to keep checking on her. She is doing very well as time is the  best healer for that kind of surgery. I kept getting rained out as I would start a project out there and then have to quit because of the rain. I need to move some overcrowded iris and I did get some of them dug. I will try to replant them tomorrow as I was getting too wet. Our state is finally getting caught up with much needed moisture.  Some of the counties to the south of us got five inches of rain. We have two inches so far. 

One of my favorite lilies, that I moved here from out old place, is this one. I bought it at an arboretum north of where we lived. It was a State one and they would have sales at a certain time of the bloom times and one could pick up a larger variety of them. I bought a second one that was a "take a chance" item. One didn't know what color it was until you got it to bloom the next season. It is a lighter colored version of this one. 

I went to the bookstore yesterday to blog while my wife was having here eye surgery. It is a lot of fun to sit on the computer and sip their Starsbuck coffee. We need to go there when everyone gets done with their eye surgeries. 

The views of my neighbor's pools were discussed by future buyers of the neighbor's house. Her living room windows and sun room windows looks directly down on the two of them. Some of the buyers said it was too much of a negative to consider buying the house. The problem is that we are built on a hill one story above their backyards so we get to see all of their good and bad clutter. The one directly below us has owners that do not have a pool and they keep things tied down or put away most of the time.

Thanks for stopping by today.