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. 

Middle of the Week's Worth

 The lily of the valley is hiding the sculpture. Sometimes I cut it back so the guy isn't so crowded. For now it looks like he is in the deep forest.

 

I use to call this a flag iris. It might be but I find it on the internet labeled a Siberian Iris. Either way it is starting to put out lots of bloom.

I traded the purple one with the neighbor for some of this lighter blue iris. I like both of them and I am glad it is so hardy. It isn't quite unfurled yet as the temps are so cold. 

I bought this iris to resemble the one that I use to have. It was a cemetery iris but this one is sold commercially. It is called bumble bee.

 This was an iris that I got from a grab bag my neighbor had put out on the curb. It is a hybrid one with great colors.

 Our blue spruce has grown to be so big since we bought this place eight years ago. It seems to be trying to outgrow the maple tree that was planted next to it. I call them Arlyn's tree as he is the one that planted them. 

I cleared an area in the garden where I plant zinnias. I dug around to loosen up the wet soil and scattered many zinnia seeds. I followed directions on one of my packs and sprayed them with water to settle the seed in. Actually we have had so much rain it seemed strange to add more water on the area. I dumped another inch of water from my rain gauge this morning. We bought flowers today for the visit to the Murray Cemetery tomorrow. I buy lots of loose fake flowers and assemble them into my own bouquets.   It takes an hour to drive down there to southern Iowa and it should take our morning to get that task done. I think we should stop in Des Moines on the way back and eat out. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Grosbeak

 

She showed up at the feeder Sunday evening. I didn't know what I was seeing. I looked through many bird books and finally found here. She is a Rube Breasted Female Grosbeak. I am sure she is migrating north as they are not a common bird in our area. The male has a big red patch of feathers on its chest but she has just a pink cast. I have seen grosbeak at feeders at rest areas along I-35 in Minnesota. Their are yellow ones also. 

 I finished my bench. It is made from raw two by fours and one by fours. I water sealed it yesterday. I got my tote cart and rolled it up my hill. I moved it through the garage and brought it up the three steps from the garage into the kitchen. It was easier to do it that way than tote it up the thirteen steps to the deck from the back yard. 

It was a fun project. I followed the dimensions from the internet story. Its given measurements were in centimeters so I used that kind of ruler. It was easier than making the conversions. 

 Our daily rains are great but my peonies don't look good because of it. Drought is worse than too many rains.

 The red peony was given to me from a start my mom had years ago. She had dug some from her mom's house in Murray, Iowa, That had to be in the early 70's. I like having plants with history.

This one has history too as I dug one small rhizome of this from the top of the hill of Murray Cemetery. It has spread readily at my old place and has done very well in my new place too.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday's Mentions

 It is a hazy day with lots of humidity in the air. We will receive more rain tonight. We had three fourths of an inch of rain last night and numerous tornadoes were spotted in out state in the late evening.

 The rain does put some of the peonies on the ground. This old fashion one came from the old place. 

 

 I was happy to see that I still had this iris alive. I thought it was one of the ones that had rotted in the area. It is my Uncle Leo's favorite iris. My cousin brought the iris with her from Oregon where he lived and planted it in Chicago. When he died from Lou Gerhig's, ALS, disease she planted it on his grave. The grave is one row from my parent's grave so I did harvest some of it. The iris covers the entire grave area of my Uncle and Aunt who are buried there. It was allowed to become overgrown. 

 It is a new iris for me. It didn't bloom last  year but it is a true blue iris that I like a lot.

 It is in the same area of the blue iris is this pink rose bush. It will bloom all summer if I keep it dead headed. 

 I got a water treatment applied to my new bench today. It has  been fun building it. It has a lot of flaws as it is made from two by fours and one by fours. The gluing and use of long screws has secured it solidly. 

 

 I am fascinated with the designs that the pieces make. As I coated the treatment on it I kept my eyes open to favorite design compositions. I have more that I will share tomorrow. The bench can be seen in its full view as I can carry it upstairs to be put on the deck tomorrow. It has to dry out, or soak in for a day. 

 While out there I also brought out some of the plants that had wintered over inside. They will need to adjust to the outside and maybe will normalize their behaviors instead of stretching for light. I do have a new project develop as the board that they are sitting on has started to rot. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunday's Shots

 

 

 

 

 Storms are all around us but we seem to be missing the severe stuff. A gentle sprinkle in the night gave us a trace of rain. Storms may hit this evening. We are in heat and heavy humidity with gusty winds. It is summer and things like this happen. 

Thanks for checking in today.  

Saturday's Stuff

 The peony season  has started. The half of inch of rain did put some of the blooms on the ground as usual. I am hoping the majoring of the bushes do stay somewhat upright. 

 My new fence created a warm place for plants so that corner is the first place for them to bloom. I will try to keep a bouquet in the house so we can see them up close.

 This cemetery iris is enjoying the warmer climate in the corner also. They are doing well inspite of the workmen walking all over them when the fence was installed. 

 Another cemetery iris is in bloom right now. It is one of my favorite of the small iris. The subtle lines of veins on the falls are so great to see. I am thinking all of my iris are getting crowded and the don't seem to be as  many stems this year. I may need to reevaluate the places that I am growing them.

 The young mourning doves are showing up at the deck rails. I researched the species last year and it said that they can put out three or more hatchings in a summer. 

 It was hot again today. We hit 81 degrees F. in the afternoon. I finished my mowing this morning both front and back yard. I wore short sleeved T-shirt and shorts to adjust to our hotter temps. I had to take a break in the middle of the job. It was nice to get it all done. I could hear mowers all over the neighborhood while I was working.  We had a half inch of rain in the middle of the night and we needed the moisture. I hope we get more in the next few days. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Finals on Friday

 The earth keeps tilting. The sun rises above the horizon behind the big tree. That means the sun can actually be up a half hour before I can see it. 

 

 The sun and temperatures are such that I had to quit mowing. It was too much for me in out backyard to stay out there.

 It was so hot that the one last baby robin had its head sticking up out of the nest to cool off. I was going to take down the nest thinking they were all gone. When I got my mini step ladder I could see it still in the nest all alone. I was using that door today and it didn't seem to bother it. My wife saw one of the parents pulling a worm up out of the grass to feed it.

 

A newer and different color of iris is out open today. It is so light that I had a hard time getting it in focus.  The first shot was blurred but this one seems to be good. I only have one stem of this variety as it is a new plant.

 

My old fashion traditional iris has so many blooms on it that the weight  pulls the stems down. I had to stake a couple of them this morning. 

 The white iris is doing so well out in the front of the house. I remember getting this iris from my neighbor Judy many years ago. She had me clear and thin out her iris bed and I brought this home with me not knowing what kind that is was.

I had more projects to do this morning that ai had time to get to. I finished using my new spreader on the front yard. I sanded on my bench some hoping to get a finish on it but that didn't happen. I partially mowed some of my yard and I scatter new grass seed in a couple of areas where it was needed. I have cople of different things to plant that I bought when off on a lumberyard run. I hope to get a lot more done tomorrow, Thanks for stopping by today.   Oh yest, we are upt to 87 degrees F. right now in the afternoon. Rain that we need isn't going to happen.