Fallish Things

 The sunrise seemed too dark and maybe not promising of a good day.

 The sky did mostly clear and as you can see down our street that the sun is shinning. The clouds are moving to they east and rain may hit us tonight. 

 From the lowest part of my backyard I can see some trees of color. This one was just planted a couple of years ago and it has grown up so quickly. The red bud tree on the left foreground has lost most of its leaves and it looks more like a Halloween tree. 

 I have some flowers reblooming as if it is spring. The hibiscus keeps setting on new buds and this is what I see, one bloom every few days. 

 My one pink rose looks like it is failing but there are two buds that now blooming. I will have a lot of dead wood to take out on this rose bush.

 The leaves on the zinnias are now all failing. The gray looks more like a blight. It does add a new color to enhance the bright colors.

 I forced myself to go get more paper recycle bags this morning. I needed to empty the pile high stuff and I didn't have bags. I did get it all into two bags. I was the only customer at the Ace place for a while. I was going to only buy bags and then leave. It didn't work out as I looked over the plastic flower pots and I bought two for my coral-colored geraniums. I have no empty flower pots right now and I do like to carry over some of the hardy geraniums. I will dig cannas and geraniums when the next frost hits hard. I will sneak out the geraniums in the cold before the freeze. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Da Moon

 

 

 It was a struggle to get a shot of the moon as the haze was winning, defeating my camera. Finally the moon was up in the sky far enough that I could get a shot. I did get some blurred ones as I worked through the process. The one I am sharing really isn't a perfect focus as all the moisture is still in the air to shoot through. 

 It was cool out side while I wandered but it was just good to be outside. I took shots of some of the same things then worked hard to find new things to photograph. The newly purchased butterfly bush is small but is putting out good blooms. I know that it will get a whole lot bigger and will welcome its growth. 

 The zinnias still have some good blooms but  you can see here that the majority are frost damaged. 

 The colors of this section are so great even with some of the dead ones among the good ones.

 My one rose is putting out new blooms with its remaining buds opening. Our mild climate is creating a spring climate again for this period of time. 

 I walked up the front yard sidewalk to get the shot of the neighbors clump birch. It isn't such a bright yellow this season. Maybe it still will but it looks like the leaves are just turning brown and falling. 

Northern Iowa is getting rain today and we are just getting lots of clouds. Haven't seen the sun yet today. I don't have much yard work to do now as I got all of my bulbs and ponies planted in the past few days. I was hoping we could get some rain on my new plantings. I did water them in but more rain from the sky would be great. No more appointments for a while until Friday. The next week there will be a couple more. The medical field does keep my generation busy.

Thanks for stopping by this day.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

First Day of the Week

 

The sky is decorated with streaked clouds and the trails from the practicing Air Force jets from the area. Some mornings I do see them making them but not today, I slept in a little. 

 The image shows the story of a frost and yet cool sunny weather. The sun is reviving the morning glories after their few days of being damaged. The warm few days brought out new blooms on all of the morning glories and also the zinnias. 

 In certain areas one can't see the frosted zinnias as all the buds were not hurt from the cold. I have areas like this that show great color with lots of new blooms 

 Among the failing leaves are new pockets of fresh blooms. They do put out a great contrast of color to the gray foliage. I don't know why these three are all so close together but I am thinking that some of the branches that are laying on the ground are bunched together.

 

 

I thought I would have to remove them but I won't take anything down when I have blooms like this. 

 

 On the farm when I was young we would walk the corn rows to cut down burs and other large weeds. My dad hated to get the larger weeds stuck in his two row corn picker. We walked them early in the fall and I was always so happy to see the wild morning glories in the stalks of corn. I wanted to bring them back to plant and I would just pull the vines and place them in the ground. So I wasn't too smart then as I didn't know much about their seed pods. 

 

I cut down some more dried and dead stems this morning out in the cottage garden. I also planted some alium bulbs too. I had ordered a new white peony and they threw in some of the alium at a low price. I didn't enjoy planting them as I just kept thinking am I ever going to get done with this batch of bulbs. I will smile in the spring and think it was a great idea but I was forcing the job this morning. I guess I wasn't wearing my reading glasses so I could see what I was doing up close. 

My eyes are still struggling with each other but I can see so well. I have always worn glasses or contact lens most of my lifetime. So now things are revers and I can see forever but can't see up close. A near sighted person has to deal with that. I don't have to look for my glasses when I get up in the morning. Our weather was good today and we were cooler with the temps. It is nice to have a good day. Rain may be falling late in the evening. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Cookies

 

 

 

 Four different trees with two of them with the same color. The houses block the view of the yellow and red one. The brightest colored trees are just peaking through other less colorful trees.

 

We had a wonderful day with sunshine and warm temperatures. The gentile breeze made it seem like spring.  Lots of dog owners were out walking their dogs. Neighbors were out doing things.

 The neighbors up the street. two houses above, had a house full of girls. The mom and dad and one son stopped by to give us some Halloween cookies. The house full of teenage girls were making and frosting them. The three at our door were escaping it all for a moment. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Things To Do

 

Being up early allows me to see the sunrise. It is blocked by trees and houses but eventually it will rise above the suburbia skyline. 

 The sun eventually lights up the front of the house and one can see the colors and all those different textures. The yucca is really happier with all the rainfall that we have had. 

 The late blooming cannas are looking great. The spots of color are now showing after the flower really opens. I have three stalks of these.

 I pulled these mums out of the front garden because they were just coming up everywhere. I wanted them out of there. I never expected that they would rebound from the move but here they are squeezed in behind my new iris bed. 

 I ordered some new plants from a company that is based in Holland. I forget that it takes many weeks for the order to get here. I ordered a white peony for our friends as I could not figure out how to find my white one in my peony row to share. I also ordered a set of two that are pink and white for me.  I need to plant them this morning. As a bonus they threw in a bag of alium that I need to plant. I picked up tulips while shopping for birdseed the other day and bought all of those tulip bulbs. So, I forgot that I had ordered a bunch of parrot tulip bulbs from the Holland company. I now have to find a place to plant another dozen of tulips. It is so good to get things in the ground in the fall know that it will pay off in the spring.

 This peony was moved there years ago and grew under a tree. Now that the tree was cut down the peony is taking off. Removing that tree was a good thing as I now great new places to plant flowers and the crab apple tree. 

I need to plant things and also want to mow a small part of my yard. I am five days out from my last cataract surgery. I can't work at full pace but I can do a few things and do more on Monday. We are going to start cooling off to our average temps but I don't mind getting ot layeers with a parka to work in the yard. I will have a few days to work next week before I go in for another medical test on Friday.  Hopefully I can have all of the planting done by then. My eyes are doing better now and I still have the sensation that I need to take out my contact lenses before I go to bed. I haven't worn contacts for years but old habits don't die. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Big Blue Tree

 It is another clear morning here. It looks great and feels great too. I walked the property today with clippers in hand. I took down some more branches of sunflowers and also tomato vines. My instructions from the doctors office is no heavy living nor leaning down. I am approaching all of the jobs with minimal movement and piling things to be moved later.  I did find one more iris growing in the wet bog area. I got a spade and flipped it out of there. I was so wet that the soil was tight like it was a clay ball. I moved the iris over to the new planting zones and placed pellets of grub killer on it before I planted it. I am hoping it still has some time to root down but if I hadn't moved it the rhizome would have rotted. 

 The ones that I planted a month or so ago are looking so good now. I will have to selectively thin out the bed after a couple of years as I do have things planted too close. I have new peonies coming today. I ordered them a long time ago and they finally made it through all of the stops in the country before arriving here. I have other things that I ordered that I will share later. No, I didn't buy any more iris. I know that I am getting too interested about them. 

 

My three yellow cannas are looking good. They are sure late blooming and maybe they can get into full bloom before the first hard freeze. 

 

 

I collected seeds from my two different colors of morning glories. I have too many seeds but one just has to fill the jar. They will dry out more and black seeds will drop to the bottom of the jar.

 I hate to destroy flowers but I have been clipping out the morning glories from the dead sunflowers. The glories did take a break from blooming for a couple of days after our mild first frost. Now they are blooming greatly again,

 I am happy with the new lens in my two eyes. I am still adjusting to them as they mildly are competing. They seem to work just right at some times and other tines I have blurry problems as they adjust. I have lots of questions for the eye doctor when I visit him in a week or so. I do think I have to get use to sunglasses for everything outside. I wore my straw hat this morning as I was too lazy to go get the sunglasses. That did help some. Reading glasses are giving me a whole new world while working on the lap top.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Thursday

 A clear sky on a Thursday morning and it is going to warm up again today. It is so nice to be outside on days like this.

 

Yesterday, while I was wandering around in the garden, I looked over and there was a monarch almost eye level on a zinnia. The migration was over a few weeks ago but I have heard on the net that there are a few stragglers out there. I was quick to dig out my phone and open it up for a couple of quick shots. I did scare it away but I do have visual proof that I saw it. It wasn't all beat up like some of the are and it fluttered around in a very carefree way.

Most all of the zinnias did get hit with the frost. There are a few lone survivors out there and I do take shots of them when I see them. 

This is one that didn't feel the cold touch of Jack Frost. I will wait to harvest seed before I start to take them down. I need more recycle bags for all of the dead stems and leaves. I can get rid of my many bags of yard trash in November. 

My one canna had beautiful colors with its leaves. The flowers were red. I had two of thse out of the dozen that I got in the bag. 

I am still on light work detail as I am only four days away from my last cataract surgery. I see many things that I need to do but I will be careful. I think maybe by Saturday I can mow grass and mulch leaves. I hope are great warm weather holds out for me. I have reading glasses now that let me see what I am doing on the computer. I have been limited in view for a year or sol when it came to blogging but now I can just sit and type and a normal distance. I can tell that the eyes are not in so much competition now and yet I do get sum blur once in a while as I learn to focus. I have an appointment to have them checked and evaluated to see if I need special glasses. My left eye isn't quite up to par. I have two other appointments in the next few weeks for a couple of different things. I have to keep things on the calendar to stay on top of things.

Thanks for checking in today.