Middle of the Week

 The morning was partly cloudy but the southern winds did blow the clouds away. It wasn't too cold this morning as we were heading to 90 degrees F. by afternoon.. 

 The back corner that was created by the new fence is looking good. All the white peonies are on the ground from a rain last week. I will pick some and bring them in soon for a vase. 

 I didn't notice that the Siberian iris in the corner did not bloom. I found the bush next to it had overgrown on top of it. I clipped it all back to expose the iris to daylight. I dumped a bucket of water on it but I doubt that will make it now bloom.  I guess it is worth a try. More light and more moisture. 

 It should of had blooms like this one. Again, I have my doubts that it will now bloom but I can always experiment with nature.

 This old fashioned pink peony is now blooming. It is the last to open up among all of the collection. The colors were so great when the sun shone on it but I finished mowing and went back to get this shot and it was in shade.

 This purple salvia sage was looking so bad that I tried to dig it all out of my front garden. As you can see I didn't get all of the roots out as this came back strong. Digging it up actually made this bloom better with more flowers than ever before. 

 The coral bells flowers look great against the salvia sage. I inherited both of these flowers from the previous owner. 

 I bought a new grass trimmer this morning. My wife noticed I didn't come home happy. I couldn't buy the one that I wanted as they couldn't find the battery for it. I ended up buying a different brand that I really wasn't familiar with. I looked at four different brands and the one I had picked out was light weight. Through a bit of confusion I just said I will buy this one and need to get out of here. It weighed more. 

 The hardware has given me grief before even though I like most of the things I get there. They want me to be signed up for a discount program but if it is on sale then you don't get your discount for being a loyal customer. My discount coupons usually are not up to date and have expired. I have become less discontent with the trimmer and I did get my battery powered up. It does work. It has some strange feature that I will have to get use to and I sure hope it isn't too heavy as I use it. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Many Captures Today

 A couple hummers are back in the area. I did get some shots but I have to be quick with the camera. They drink a quick sip and off they go.

 

The red glass is a good draw for them to come to the feeder but they do wish that there were holes in the glass itself as the try to poke at it. 

 A new iris for me is this one. It is its first year to bloom. I have decided to move any iris that does not bloom. I figure that it is a bad location for it or I may have it buried to deep. I have a newplace to plant them as the tree I had removed left me with some big open space. 

 As the sun shone through the windows I looked over at the table and saw this iris being treated to special lighting. 

 This invasive flower was planted by the former owner. I don't really like it as it has spread into many areas where I would like it not to be. Between it and the lily of the valley, things are out of control. 

 I promised in the past blog that I would share this darker blue/purple Siberian iris. It is doing well here. I have another planting of it that the bushes seem to be blocking my view of it. I mowed the back yard today as it was growing so well. It was just five days ago that I mowed it and it really was in need to be done again. It was hot out there in the morning and I had to take a couple of breaks to get in out of the heat. I started with a long sleeved shirt and I shed that in lest than a few minutes. I had shorts and t-shirt for my wardrobe. I will mow the front yard tomorrow. 

 I was out bringing in the flag and I saw the white glow. I really didn't know what phase it is in as I haven't seen it for along time. The location view  of it is behind my front yard trees. As bright as it appeared I thought it my be full but is certainly beyond that.  I can walk out to the driveway and lean against the garage door to take the shot. I really need to be steadied more these days. 

We are at a high of 87 degrees F. and won't cool off much tonight. Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

 

Monday, Memorial Day

 The reflections of the sun on the camera created an imaginary planet in the sly. The clouds had specail textures this morning also. We did clear off in about an hour. 

 I worked outside this morning doing many different small jobs. I planted some iris in good soil and also got my protective screens up to keep the rabbits out of my tomato patch raised bed. I planted som of my carry over geraniums out in the front yard. I didn't have to buy them this year as there were two of the them of a good size that I could plant. The soil is getting dry again so I had to water everything with lots of water. 

 The pink rosebush is doing well. The problem is that there are so many spent blooms on it from the rains of a few weeks ago. 

 

The William Baffin rose is starting to put out lots of blooms. The color and blooms on the climber are so striking. 

 

This is an unsual iris that I have had for a couple of years. It has an unusual name like , strawberry jam, and this year is only put out one stems of buds. I will move it to a new location and get is into some good soil. It is crowded by grass and phlox right now. It is so interesting that they can cross breed a plant like this to look like this.

 This beauty has finally bloomed. I got the start from Sally so it's my Sally iris. The color of it varies with the lighting and it does have a deep rich color than one you see in this photo. 

This light blue Siberian iris is the featured one for the day. I will share the darker purple one tomorrow.  I got this start from my neighbor from across the street when I lived at the old place. I moved a lot of plants from that house to our new one and this is one of them. 

We have had a quiet day this Memorial Day. We did the one visit to the cemetery in southern Iowa and that will be all we will visit this year. I was way overdue and changing out the flowers in my parents vases. The area my parents are buried is filling up. The small trees in the area have all grown up to be large trees. It makes it look so different.  I didn't know nor remember the ones buried to my parents. It was not a familiar family name to me and I thought I knew everyone in the small town of Murray.We were there before they got the flags put up in the cemetery.  

I made a dash to pick up some essential groceries this afternoon.  It was 85 degrees F. and people were dressed for the weather. There were not a lot of people at the big store and that was fine with me. I acyually got every thing on the list but a whole lot more other things. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunday Afternoon Stuff

 As the season is in full bloom I cut some peonies to bring in for bouquets. The white ones are all on the ground as the rains weighed the branches down and they will not raise up again. 

 I still have rabbits in the backyard. I will have to fence in my raised bed as I have glads planted in there with the tomato plants. The rabbits love the leaves of glads and make quick work of them once the start to sprout. My fence barriers will keep them out of the area. The rabbits don't bother the tomatoes and the zinnias. 

 While at the cemetery I collected rhizomes of the iris on my Uncle Leo's grave site. The whole growth of the iris was overcrowded even thought they were blooming well. I could see the cemetery had cut back some of it as they seem to want to discourage plants in the area. It used to grow on top of all of the Aunt and Uncles graves and now it has been limited to just the one side. I also collected one small rhizome fr om an old fashion iris there that was of two tones of white. I will have to treat that start special for a couple of years to get a stand of leaves and blooms from it. 

 I brought in some clippings of two cemetery iris so we could enjoy them inside. The one on the right has multiplied a lot and I have it growing in three different spots. 

 We see baby birds being fed my their parents, especially the robins. We really haven't seen the sparrows doing that until yesterday. 

 It is a blurred shot but you can see the adult feeding the big baby chick a seed. The stayed there for a long time as the adult kept picking up seed and feeding it.

 A humming bird was buzzing my colorful spinner yesterday. I got the feeder up in about an hour later and there was a bird. I took a zoomed shot through a window so the quality of the shot is poor, but it is my first shot for the season. The female seems a little bashful and doesn't stay long to eat. If there is one I am sure more to be out there. 

 We attended the young mans grad party yesterday. We worked with his father in the Asian Ministry for twenty years and during that time Andrew was born and grew up. He is a great young man who actually went with us to Israel back in 2019. He was a young boy with his father being one of the tour guides.  The food was amazing as there were many things to eat. I am sure the 18 year old boy wanted there to be pizza. His father made Cambodian food with egg rolls and rice dishes. Then there was a table of dozens of different kinds of cookies. It was good to be able to see him and send him off to ISU to study in the fall. I sampled one of the cookies just because. It was a Chicago inspired cookie with a salt and sugar combo theme. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Saturday's Stuff

 While at the cemetery on Thursday I got to see the abundant growth of this iris on my Uncle Leo's grave site. It was in full bloom and could be seen fro a long distance. This was his favorite iris that he grew in Oregon and his daughter dug it and moved it to her Chicago home. Eventually the iris was moved to St.Louis, Missouri at here home now. His daughter, my cousin Sharon, planted it on the grave when Leo passed probably ten years ago. She has encouraged me to take samples of rhizomes a couple of different times, so I did take some more. I planned to start a new garden area for iris and that will be the first thing I will plant there. 

 My row of peonies are blooming well. The red peony is so good at not reacting to the rains, Most of the other colors lay down on the grown when it rains. 

 

This is the last bloom of this variety of iris. It only had one stem of blooms this year. I may just move it to encourage better growth. 

 At the Murray, Iowa cemetery is a Freedom Rock. Ray Sorenson painted a big rock along a gravel road in Menlo, Iowa yearly. That was so popular that eventually he was commissioned to paint Freedom Rocks all over the state of Iowa. There is a different one in every one of our 99 counties. 

 The rocks he paints always includes a draped American flag on it. This side of the rock depicts military men who were killed during WW II. The man named George Horton was killed in Normandy. He is buried in France and I consider him to be a step-first cousin. I was a part of his family because my grandmother remarried into the family. John and Iva Horton, his parents were like grandparents to me as the lived close to us on the farm and we visited them often. My first cousin Joan was a cousin, on her dad's side of the family, to the Matthew Daniel painted on the rock. He was killed at the Pearl Harbor bombing. The artist ran for House of Representatives in Iowa and was elected. So between sessions he is out there painting rocks for people now in all of our surrounding states. His kids are old enough to help to do base coats of paint. 

 My tomatoes are doing well in spite of the cold. The birds are loving the open ground and are out there rolling in the dirt. We have dozens of newly hatched sparrows as well as new mourning doves. I just hung my hummingbird feeder this afternoon. One came up to check out the colorful spinner so I knew one was out there. I used up the last of our sugar sack making their sugar water. We don't use sugar for anything except for them. Diabetics don't sugar things and my wife never was keen on sugar anything anyway. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Late Friday Night

 

I mowed the entire yard today. I haven't done that for years. I was layered up as it was cold and I still got the chills for a few hours afterwards. Tomorrow is to be warmer. We are going to a high school graduation party for a special guy which will be in a park. It is suppose to be plenty warm for that event. 

thanks for checking in today. 

A Cold Day

 Chives are a flower for me and yet we do use them for our baked potato. I am sure that chopped chives could work in a lot of dishes. 

 My coral honeysuckle is in full bloom this year. It suffered so much during the three years of drought. I didn't cut it down and my patience with it did pay off. A former owner planted this and I had to research it find the name.

 

 My knock out roses are starting to bloom. I had to cut back so much deadwood this spring that I didn't think they would look good ever.

 

 

 My William Baffin rose is growing large. I know that it is a climber but I have never seen this one grow so tall. I don't know if the branches will eventually lean down from the weight of the blooms or if I will have to cut it back. The blooms above are looking really good. 

 I planted the tomatoes a few days ago on a very cold, wet morning. They don't seem to be bothered that much from the cold. I bought them in an outdoor area store so I guess I didn't think they would be any colder here as they were a couple of miles away from here. I only have four plants this year. I didn't buy any that had multiple plants in the container as I didn't need seven plants like last year. The soil was in great shape and I had mulched it last fall with locust tree leaves and a new bag of commercial soil on top to get it ready for the season.

We took a journey down to the cemetery in Murray, Iowa. It was very cold and windy but I wanted to get things done. My parents, brother and sister graves are there. Dozens of relatives are buried there include the closer ones of uncle and aunts. My grandpa Burgus had thirteen in his family so there are scatterings of all those once removed relatives all over the cemetery.  Being the only sibling living in the state, it was my job to change the vases of flowers on my parents grave stone. The fake flowers were long overdue in being changed.  A group of a  high school class was there at the cemetery doing volunteer work on the area. Some of them earlier in the year cleaned old worn stones. I guess today they were there to pick up anything that need to be trimmed. We have a large painted rock at the entrance of the cemetery where many students were cleaning. The Freedom Rock project by one man is an amazing thing and Murray was the one spot that was chosen for the county. I will share photos on another blog. Freedom rocks are all over the state and now are in neighboring states. The artist is now a member of our House of Representatives. 

Thanks for stopping by today.