An Outing

 

We took a break today and visited one of our bookstores. It was good weather and it was time for an adventure. Our coffee and scones tasted good and we searched through a lot of books and magazines. 

 

Back home the day lilies are opeing up new blooms each day. The red one that turns to brown as it ages has some really great color. 

 The   has a couple of more buds opened and there are a few buds that are maturing. The front circle garden is shaping up as the different flowers planted there are maturing and filling in the blank spaces. 

 I water the hanging basket in the circle garden daily as they don't really put real soil in those. It is easy for them to dry out in just one day and they look bad for the rest of the season. I planted some small canna tubes in that area and I thought they were not going to grow. I was wrong as I have four canna plants shooting up. I doubt they will get very big but they will add foliage to fill in the spaces. It was a variety pack and I see I have one purple leafed canna coming up among the green ones.

 The begonia that I carried over through the winter inside, is now showing off in the out of doors.  It never really stopped blooming inside during the winter but it is really doing better outside in daylight.

We didn't get free pie today with lunch as this is Tuesday. If we had come on Monday the crush burgers would have been only five dollars. It is the way it works. The place wasn't very crowded but was understaffed. We did enjoy eating out and it made the adventure complete.

Before we made it to the bookstore we stopped to get fish food at the pet store. We had a chance for a wonderful golden retriever come up to us and lean in for some petting. He had a four year old boy attached to him and the mom apologized. We said it was such a treat to pet such a nice, friendly dog. She had her hands full with a stroller and small baby, the little boy hanging onto the leash, and the dog going anywhere it wanted to go. It was fun to see all the dogs that were visiting with their owners today. 

Thanks for stopping by today.
 

Monday's Mentions

 that is sky blue and the clouds look so puffy against it. It was an interesting sky as the sky was coverend with them in all directions.

 My pink rose needs to be dead headed. I see the bush isn't waiting for me as it is putting out new buds in certain sections. 

 The bush is in the far corner and we enjoy it from our sun room. It shows off all summer. 

 

The daylily grows right next to the rose. They have similar colors and it fits there well. I like seeing all the buds on the plant which  promises to put out s o many blooms.

This is a smaller lily but has great color. It too has many buds on it giving us a long time of  daily blooms.  

 It is a newly hatched house finch. I have never seen them with so much red on them when they are so young. It is small compared to the adults that show up so that is why we know it is a young one,

I mowed the backyard today, two days too late. It is nice to have rain adn it is great to have green grass, I just can't keep up with it. I mowed the front yard on Friday and then this one three days later. I guess it is a good problem since we had drought for three years. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Selection of a Few

 

 

 

 

 

 

A scattering of shared visuals for Sunday. I have shared front yard and back yard too. It has sprinkled all day with a short cloudy break in the evening. We were not warm and it did get you wet going and leaving church today. I can start mowing again in the backyard as the grass loves the moisture. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Sunny Saturday

 

 

It is a different plant but I think it is the same variety. I don't understand why this plant bloomed so much later as it sits less than ten feet from the other larger plants. 

 The flowers are the same and the stem foliage also seems to be the same.  I guess the shade of the rhubarb leaves could have slowed it down. I did pull the rhubarb leaves to expose it to light. 

 One can now walk under the locust tree without getting hit in the face. I did the job yesterday and it looks really good now that it is done. 

 I reworked my zinnia patch last week by moving plants around. I spaced them out, large or small didn't matter to me. I watered them in after all of the moving and it also rained a half inch of rain. I didn't loose a single plant. 

 It will be a great bed of flowers and the butterflies will be happy. I guess the bees will like them too. I have another square of soil that has zinnias planted also but they are about week or so  later when planted. I watered both patches this morning hoping to get things growing faster. 

 I like the painted pot most. I know that it is old as I pulled it out of my mom's garage and she must have bought it painted a long time ago. The contrasting eras of pots shows here with the cheap plastic and the red terracotta pots joining it. The painted one really is a base of terracotta and paint really does adhere to it with whatever paint that was used. 

It is a sunny day with pleasent temps.  It is a good day for all the neighborhood kids to be out and about doing everything.  Pools, trampoline and elcetric bikes and scooters are the rage. Some are even playing catch. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

End of the Week

 

 

Showing the bird next to the feeder gives us a more realistic understanding of its size. I have yet to figure out how many of them are out there. The male hasn't returned for quite a long time. 

 Another male bird that hasn't been around for a while is this guy. He must have lots of feeders to  visit so he doesn't show up so much. The wind was fluffing some of his side feathers. 

 My new hanging plant that is in my circle shows up with lots of color. We had a storm the other night and I slipped out and brought it in to protect it from wind and hail. 

 It was a late season sale that I just couldn't turn down. The grocery store was clever to put it right outside the doors so they can get rid of a lot of them. 

 My seed hardy geraniums are settling in and they are starting to rebud. I am happy to see the circle garden taking shape. I cleared a lot of sage salvia and one can now see that big rock again in the middle of the planter. The geraniums look a little beat up as the adjust to the outside weather. 

 The plants are not very thick but they are blooming. That's a good thing. I lost my white coneflowers are just gone. 

 One of my anniversary cards looked like a koi pond with two lily blooms. The three dimensional cards are so wonderful as they open up to beautiful flowers. 

I had a doctor's appointment today and then came home to mow the front yard. I also got some branches trimmed back on my locust tree as it was hanging down too much.  As I mowed under it I kept getting my straw hat flipped off onto the ground.  I cut them off and that took weight off of some of the branches so they would raise up. I had a full bag and a half  that was full of the cut up scraps. Ir looked like someone had a haircut when you looked at the pieces on the ground. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursdays Drop

 My backyard view looks better when I am sitting down to rest.  I just finished doing grass trimming everywhere and raking up the spoils. I was working in full sun and I got too hot. The view of all of the greens while sitting in the shade on the patio is refreshing. My pool had 2 goldfish in it but I moved them out to a different spot. I now have a waterlily in the water feature and the goldfish would have devoured the leaves of the lily. They like their greens.

 

My second day lily to bloom is this one. It has lots of buds on it, so it will put on a continuous show for a long time. It sits next to my pink rose bush. The bush has to be completely dead headed with hundreds of the spent flowers needing to be removed. I like to get them off as the bush will rebud soon and I don't want to fight cutting old and new buds at tah same time. 

 I take a photo a day of thei one as it is so stunning with that bright color. I moved this down from the old place and it has really liked where I planted it. It is in the front yard so it can show of for everybody to see.

 

I have always wanted a Japanese maple and this one really is a pleasure to see. I keep watering it every other day so I can be sure it lives. Our crab apple tree looks really good. That one is more protected where it is planted but it gets dry there more. I water it the same except sometime I give it larger amounts. It has a fence next to it and a neighbors evergreen tree behind it. 

 My one grandmother would count all of these. I haven't done so yet. I think I can get more work done in the front and back yards than stand and count them. If a grand kid lived closer I would put them to work on that job. 

My bird photo for the day is this one of the two new fledged mourning doves. They just sit there and wait to see what happens next as they get use to not being in a nest. We are having lots of mourning doves hatched this year as their must be a lot of pairs out there nesting. One of my neighbors doesn't like them but I think they as such a great bird. Seeing the tomato in the shot reminds me that I may need to fertilize them again soon. I water them in spite of the rainfall that we get. All four of them have tomatoes on them. Small but promising for sure. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 
 

Rain in the Morning

 The day has started off with rain clouds leading us into rain and light hail. We were at the bottom of the storm as people north of us had 94 mph winds causing lots of damage to everything. 

 We really aren't predicted to have anything more than this for most of the day. I can do a littlle bit of yard work when it dries out a bit. 

 

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary. The company will build inside a three story building a marvelous Spanish style grand room with Egyptian columns for decoration as well as covering up support poles. There is Spanish grill work in the windows. 

 

My view was of this wonderful  pillar with Egyptian decoration. The lotus leaves are at the top and the creation of the stone look is great. 

 Different areas are tuned into courtyards with hanging glass lamps creating great atmosphere. The ends of the partitions between booths have lighted torches that remind me of Star Wars design. The meals are always very large and you get to bring home a lot of more food for the next dinner. My wife gets to eat their cheesecake which are beyond wonderful and she brought that home for today. 

 After it stopped raining I worked in the garden this morning. I had a patch of zinnias that needed to be thinned or replanted to make good spacing. The bulk of them are doing so well that I should have a few blooms soon while other plants have a lot of growing to do to catch up. 

Thanks for stopping by today.