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. 

Mentions for Monday

 

 

The neighbor's maple is losing leaves rapidly now. The wind helps to send some over to our yard. The red leaves in the yard shine out among the green grass.

 The leave could be from this tree but there is a whole yard between us and our yard. Rich planted that middle tree a few years ago and we have watched it mature into the beautiful tree. The one on the right actually is an older tree and has reached its mature size. I am happy to see the weeping will in the next yard over but one has to stand at just a certain height of the deck stairs to even see it. 

 As I walked the yards today I can see the morning glory is doing well. I do keep taking away all the many vines that were all over the sunflowers. 

 The butterfly bush has continued to bloom even though the growth of the shrub itself hasnot grown much. I watered it this morning as well the two new trees that I planted earlier. We have had a lot of rain but I know deep watering doesn't happen with a half inch of rain.

My indoor birdhouse is just for show and not for birds. I used scrap wood to create it one story at a time. I built the top first and then added the bottom of it to create a pedestal with decorative detail. The house has never been outside and I have found its perfect nook to sit in. Plants use to be in the nook but it really isn't a good place with it have blocked light. 

It rains and then drizzles. We are suppose to get this weather for the entire day. I think I am seeing that the week looks wet also. We will store up all of that moisture. The farmers hurried to harvest corn but now they are back to waiting for the ground to dry out. Our test cornfields near us where the corn breeders are have their  corn picked. It was like it was just overnight as I have been watching it for a couple of weeks wondering why they had not gotten it done.

Thanks for checking in today. Yes I used to be a southern Iowa farm boy and I still keep an eye on things even though I am not involved.
 

Saturday

 I have no understanding of how to grow orchids. Normally I cut off the spent stems that held flowers. Now I see my old stem of the past, that I didn't remove has grown new buds on that past stem. I water the plant very small amounts and just ignore it. I did notice that the leaves were looking larger and when I turned it around I saw this first bloom The buds were just small bits but now have formed into buds that will bloom.

 

 

I did notice that I had spikes with buds on this calla lily. I have had a hard time getting focused views of them with the camera. This morning I was successful with the one out of two shots.

 I took a walk around the field this morning between the rains. We are getting rain all day for sure but there will be breaks in them. The vines are seeing changes as the shorter days are here. The rain does keep them up and going on this variety of morning glories. My pink/magenta glory has failing buds but no blooms now at this tie of the year.

 

The knock out roses are still bloom in the cooler weather. The front of the house gets almost full sun and it helps them to strive.

 This is the rose that died down and came back new after most of it being dead wood. It is looking good and the buds do keep opening up. The backyard is more protected with the new fence behind it.

 Red is still my favorite color and when I see the zinnias in that color I just have to keep taking visuals of it. I did notice this morning that I could start collecting seeds of the earlier blooms and I can soon start cutting them all down. 

I missed blogging yesterday as I had a doctor's test yesterday. It set me back for the whole day so I just didn't get on the computer. It is a good day for rest for me today and I did still go out an walk anyway. I will  be back to normal tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by today.