Monday's Mentions

 

 

 

 It was a busy Monday with a doctor visit and then mowing my backyard. I had leaves to mulch and the tree has finished dropping leaves. I will return to finish mowing parts of the backyard and also start cutting out my zinnias. We have two good days to come before it gets windy and wet. I will stayon the task and get as much outside work done. We still need one more hard freeze so I can dig cannas and trim off hostas. 

Visited my neighbors this evening while getting my mail. It was getting dark and the whole family of four were out putting up their Christmas lights display. Lots of lights and inflatable things made it really colorful. I don't know if I will decorate outside this year. I wish I had an evergreen tree in the front yard but I don't. Lights on a buring bush doesn't quite cut it. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunday

 The norther flicker showed up for only a couple of minutes. He was gone just two seconds after I recklessly took a shot. The head would of been in the light but I couldn't wait for him to turn his head. I find the spots on this bird to be so unusual. 

 The freeze finished almost every single bloom. The colors are still good to see as it starts to wither up and die.

 This stray stem that grew threw the webbing didn't seem to get frosted. Most of them did. I can not start cut out big sections of them, bag the stems and dead leaves, and pull the roots getting the area ready for spring. 

 The red tropical has been brought inside as the sun room doesn't get heated at night. We have nine red blooms on this plant right now. Some people didn't think it would last us very long.

 I placed the green tomatoes in the depression glass bowl. They are taking a long time to turn but some of them have ripened. I am sure they won't taste so good but I can cut them up to put in spaghetti sauce. I am old enough now to not know where I got the bowl. My grandmother or my mom had it and I rescued it,

 The neighbor's maple tree was more colorful. I am not sure why it lost its red but I suppose they are at the stage of dropping and turning brown. They get a huge pile of leaves beneath this tree. I have some more to mulch but will get to it on Tuesday. I have an endo doctor visit tomorrow morning. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Saturday

 It is 31 degrees F. and the sky is red. We did warm up a but it was cold when I was working outside.

 

 

My painted table was dry this morning.  I had to do some shifting to get it from the storeroom to the main room. I moved it to the new place nine years ago and I finally got it finished into a  good condition for use. The drawer in the table of the school house desk was built deep so I can stow a lot of things in it. My goal is to use it as an aquarium stand for two aquariums. I want to move the tanks out of the window so I can put plants in the double window where they are now sitting. 

 Moving the ones in the window will not be an easy task. Fish have to be netted and moved out and all the water has to be bailed out. It will probably be a four day task as water needs to be removed and then water then has to be carried to fill them up again. It is a good physical workout for me. Plants will really like being in those two windows and I do need to shift lots of them from upstairs and from the other rooms. I dug up three geraniums this morning and put them all into one large pot. I like seeing them bloom in the winter. 

 The freeze didn't kill them and it was time to bring them in from the cold. I also had a white one along with the two pinkish ones. 

 My zinnias did get their final hit last night so I will be cutting down the whole patch soon next week. We are suppose to warm up a little the first three days of the week so I can get that done. I planted five roots of columbine this morning in cold, wet soil. I hope the sun does shine for a few days to get them established.  I have another set of five to plant in another location but will wait until next week. 

Winter isn't here but the cold makes me retreat and avoid it now. I guess I will get use to it and I will dress warmer as I do like to be outside. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Friday's Finds to Share

 Our neighbors' view blends with our trees, so I call all of it our forest. The maple tree lost a major section last year and it has rebound and filled in its blanks space. One other neighbor in far distant has the same tree.

 Our other direction has this view. I enjoy seeing the weeping willow in the background. The tree on the right looked brown but did change into red which was a great to see. 

 The bush looks dead except for these three buds. I may be able to get a shot of one or all of them in bloom even though they are back in the crowd of bare branches.

 Others have burning bushes looking very red. Our two bushes are just now starting to show some red. The whole long row of burning bushes in front of our pizza place are all turned to red now. It may be that growing in full sun makes the difference.

 We have had a lot of rain. The basin was left out by me to get it to being rinsed out. I use the basin for various jobs with gardening. I carry dirt, collected iris roots, and sometimes take a batch of water to the job I was working on. We had over two inches of rain plus there probably was rain in it from past sprinkles.

 Who's your father?  I smile every time I look into the guppies in the tank. I bought two male yellow guppies a month ago and you can see the offspring. Most live birthed guppies are grey but look at the yellow ones all over the tank. 

 I am not a professional guppy breeder but I did get the results that I wanted by buying the two males. The variety is a pretty yellow but so seem to be smaller that the other guppy varieties. The males are smaller than the females.

It was cold this morning but it has warmed up now. I went outside after working on my new project. The new project consists of getting an old school house table out of my rubble and painting it white. When the old school building was being torn down I asked janitor Ron if I could have that table/desk from the furnace room. It looks like the teacher desk that used to be in one room school houses.

 Thanks for stopping by today.

Cottonwood Tree

 It is two blocks down the hill and it has changed to yellow. The cottonwood has a light gray bark that looks like a white birch but it is not.

 It is a distorted shot but I can like the look. I made it to the dumping area to get rid of my twenty recycle bags of leaves and sticks. It was damp out but it wasn't raining. These are not all of my bags but some of them are mine. I actually tossed a few of mine over the pile and they ended up behind the pile. It is nice to get them out of the back of my truck. Any more that I get filled in the future can be taken up again or I may throw some of them in the garbage. I have mostly zinnias left to dispose of and that will happen when it warms up next week.

 The oxalis was brought inside from the outdoors. It acts like it still wants that amount of light. It is healthy but one sided in the pot. 

 

 

We were cold all day today. I had to bundle up to drop off my recycle bags. I didn't venture outside. It sounds like we will have the same kind of day. Frosts are being predicted soon. It is bound to happen and I still have two large pots of agapanthus yet to bring in. I can get on it in the morning.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Middle of the Week

 The rose is doing late blooms and it is hanging low in the cold damp weather. We are not getting rain today but the wind and 50 degree F. temps make it miserable.

 I took a short walk around the back yard and a couple of morning glories were showing their colors. I broke of a sunflower stem in the area and the clearing of the raised bed continues. 

 While messing in the raised bed area I found two more small tomatoes. I gave some of the green ones to friends of ours and she made fried green tomatoes. 

 It is a new bloom that is small. The more the zinnias die back the more for sure that I will clear them. I would like to have a warm day again sometime this fall for the clearing of that patch. It is still too wet for me to mulch leaves.

We went to Pizza Ranch for supper yesterday. It is always and adventure. We went early and so did a lot of others who wanted to eat out in the rain. It was packed with all ages of people and everyone was busy heading back and forth to the buffets. Lots of young kids are screaming as they are tired for the day. Older people were getting together as friends or some were families. With all the activity it was nice to go home to a quiet house.  Tonight we will stay hone and have maid rites and salads from the store.  It really is too cold to get tonight.

Thanks for checking in today.  

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

 

 

 

 I use to kill off jade plants but I have three large ones now. I guess I quit fussing over them and watered them a lot less. I grew this one myself from a start off of a broken branch of another one.

We have had rain all day and it looks like tomorrow will be the same. I went to an optometrist today getting my new lens checked out and all is well. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to see how everything is doing will my left eye. Nothing earth shattering but there is a damaged area in my left eye. The next visit will give them a chance to check me for the strength that I need for reading glasses. The cheap readers that I bought over the counter are not strong enough but they are very helpful. I like having all new eyesight and the two eyes will finally adapt to each other.

Thanks for checking in today.