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.  

 

Anniversary Day

 It is the fiirst daylily of the summer. I really hadn't noticed that it had fully devleoped buds. I walked by while going to mow the backyard and there it was. It is one of my favorites and yet they all are my favorites.

  The other surprise is the opening of the cone flowers. I knew they were budding and the plants looked really healthy this year.

 The drought is over and the blooms are back to being large, their normal size. I have cone flowers also at the backyard garden. 

 Yesterday we went to an old church in downtown Des Moines for a funeral. The building is a couple of blogs long when I share the photos so I will do that later. 

 Today we celebrated 42 years of marriage. We went to the big mall this afternoon and visited a bookstore. Afterwards we went to The Cheesecake Factory for very fine meals. I will share photos of that place later but my wife did bring home a piece of cheesecake that was covered with peanut butter, caramel and hot fudge toppings. I will get a couple of bites from it and take some insulin to cover the sugar rush to my bloodstream. We did have a good time visiting the mall. It is like our Mall of America with hundreds of stores and high end restaurants. Tomorrow we return to a normal life again.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Checking in Today

 

Too busy to write much but it has been a good day. Cheeto is now with his new partner. The spotty rains kept things wet this morning but it did cool off for the day. 

Saturday Stuff

 The rose has recovered and is putting out many blooms.  It is half the size that it was but looks great.

 

 I had to stake and tie up all of the stems of the regal lilies. The rain doesn't seem to phase the blooms but it helps to weigh them down to the ground.

 I also had to rework the ties on the hydrangea so it doesn's look like it is tied up. The blooms are so white.

 

 I heard the cardinal making calls this morning. I looked all over and finally found him on top of the neighbor's maple tree. He always sits at the very top of a tree. Phone cameras really can't get me a good shot but you can see the red bird up there. He was doing a different call than what I am familiar with. 

 I finished mowing the backyard this morning. I got done before it started raining. I had done part of the yard yesterday and just got too hot to finish it. I need to use the grass trimmer but that will  just have to wait. I spent time straightening up flowers and pulled  some water grasses. It was a pleasant day today and the winds kept us comfortable.  I did get some more work done but just didn't get all done that I wanted to do. 

 

The new male zebra finch has settled in quite well. The female is definitely glad that I got him. They will share space soon as I will let him into the big cage with her tomorrow. He has normal movements now and likes where he is. It is fun to see that he is keeping track of her. I had bought the female with another bird about a year ago. The other bird was first miss-identified by the store and secondly it had a strange illness where it just kept laying eggs everyday. It causes them to die as the energy needed to do that wears out the bird. So the new male is definitely a male with all of his markings and orange beak. He crows like a rooster and does just chat with us when we look in on him. He will be fun to see pairing up with the female which has been alone for so long. 
 

Cheeto

 I was surprised to see my phlox are starting to bloom. I really hadn't remember when they started to bloom but all the moisture had to help speed it up.

 

 The sunflower is growing by leaps and bounds. It will have to have a steel post next to it to keep it from falling diagonally.

 The morning glories are up and ready to vine. It didn't take long for them to germinate. I have this plant memorized as they come up volunteer all over my tomato patch. I pull them to slow them down a bit..

 It is a poor photo but it tells a story. I finally found a male zebra finch to keep my female finch company. They are not together yet as he is in his own cage. I wanted to introduce him to her cage with caution. My wife and I have kept an eye on them and they are already sitting across from each other. The type of bird does like to be in flocks so I am sure I can turn him in there soon. I bet they sleep light that tonight. The store named him Cheeto as he has a rescue story that I will share about him later. I will get a better photo of him soon.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Thursday's Things

 The first regale lily bloom of the season. I have so many buds so I will be taking lots of shots of this flower. You can see that it doesn't stop raining so I just took a quick picture in the rain. 

 The buds seem to develop on the sly and then suddenly they are larger and blooming.My one grandmother had these and counted the buds out each year to share the info with everyone.

 

After he has been to the feeder I need to refill it. It doesn't show up so often but I bet it is feeding young ones. 

It is raining a lot for the last two days. I should not have needed to water the tomatoes but then I remember my dad always fertilized his plants. I mixed up a batch and gave them some good treated water. I won't say the brand name but he always swore by the one brand and so I do it every year to remind me of dad. 
He has been gone 26 years now. 

We had a bad thunderstorm last night and many places in Iowa had major damage. The few tornadoes did there thing also hitting some towns. Today it just keeps raining, It is heavy at times and at other times it just sprinkles. I had to change my clothes after working out and about today. I need to mow grass but that isn't going to happen.  My repaired drain pipe from my eaves troughs worked well as I could peer out and see water gushing through it and out onto the yard. I didn't have to climb up and clean it out as the rain just flushed everything out. 

Thanks for stopping by today.