Moneday's Mentions

 The start of the morning could have been colorful but I didn't get up so early this morning. The clouds did give me a great show.

 I mowed the front yard this morning, It was warm and almost hot. I didn't know how hot it was until I quit and walked inside. The grass is going dormant again and may just stay that way as the fall weather hits. I did some more work on my back patio area moving some pavers to new locations. I cut out some unwanted trees and I did have a long conversation with my neighbor. He came sauntering over and I just shut off the mower and we talked. We had not had a good visit for a long time as we just didn't happen to be outside at the same time. I see him mowing his yard and vice versa but we don't cross paths in the front yard.  It still is a good thing as we just  respect each others space and no one bothers each othelr. 

 I took a shot of the moon last night. After all the eclipse thing happened this seems a little boring, I don't like how the moon changes like seen here and it looks like someone is chewing off on a cookie. 

 I recently discovered a song on the net called "Memories". The song mentions that "memories bring back memories bring back you". The song is more about people meeting back together again and recall all the has happened in life. Also some people are just gone and all that is left is memories.  The plate is one of the things that is old, not valuable , but has a long history.  It came from a Minnesota cabin that was used by renters in the summer who would come to fish and cook up their catches. The plates I have now, even though  the cabin has been long torn down and replaced by a new one. I owned that cabin for a few years and then sold it. 

The plate reminds me of fish dinners, trips to the local town to get ice cream treats, our boys being young and running wild all over the place day and night. The boys lived on the lake shore and played games, or rode their bikes. My wife and I set up studios in the front windows of the cabin and painted all  during our stay at the cabin. The plate is a stretch in design of the blue willow and I am sure the set was bought at the dime store in town when the resort was first established along the lake. When the resort was sold out, there ended up fourteen individual cabin owners.    Whenever I pick the plates for supper I smile and say Sunny Shores Resort summers.

Memories bring back memories bring back you......Thanks for stopping by today.  

Shool Daze

 The sun struggles to shine through will all our clouds. We still have the promise of a hot day,

 The guppies are thriving in my waterlily pot. They do act like tamed fish in the aquarium as they beg for food whenever they see my shape. 

 I had to move my begonia onto the table. It is getting to the point that I am going to have to cut it back or start new pots of it as it is now a hanging plant shape.  When I take it into the house in the winter it could just get a hair cut. 

 I see mostly bumble bees this summer. There are a few honeybees but more of the others. 

I haven't shared photos of the grand kids for a year. They are back in school after a very busy summer.  I know for sure that the boys ride their bikes to school but I don't know if Ella does. She can ride a bike and probably could even with wearing a skirt. She has had to keep up with the boys and takes care of herself quite well when she is around them. 

 

 My newest project was quit a folly. I didn't need to add three more pavers to the six that were already there. I sat there on the patio and thought it just would be better. It was a lot of digging and lifting and I am glad the job is done.  I inherited the stepping stones from the previous owner and I had to do some moving of them also. I had to dig new holes for them and shifted them to make it look natural and not haphazard. The grass will grow in fast enough once I get the seed scattered. 

 

Thanks for checking in today.  

My Saturday Stuff

 I have a lot  of painted ladies in my garden this summer. More than any other kind of butterfly. I see reports that the monarch is starting to migrate south but we haven't seen anything like that yet. 

 This rose bush has set on new buds all over and it has so many great flowers to see. We go from cold temps to hot temps so it is hard to know what it is doing to the flowers. The word that is out that the weather has messed with our apple orchards and the apples are maturing far earlier than usual. I am frustrated as the tomatoes also are not ripening anymore. We will have three days of heat and I will see what that does to them. 

 I finally found places to plant these iris. We had a rain this morning and afterwards I did find places to squeeze them in the two new iris beds. I dug a new hole and place for the healthier looking iris, It is the black iris, dark purple. I dug a big deep hole and put in fresh new dirt and watered them in to revive them. The rhizomes had been dug up about five days ago and I just now got them planted. 

 

The zinnia always has such great color. All the texture and different shapes makes it a great flower in the garden and as a cut flower.

 I move them in and out of the sun room to give them good light during the day. The plant behind them here has five new blooms, leaf-like shapes, on it. It is a tropical and we keep it watered often,

No big plans for the day. We get projects done in the morning and then rest for the last half of the day. Supper is thawing and we do have sweet corn to add to our meal. that is good stuff. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 
 

 

Friday's Mentions

 The blood moon was a great show last night. We did not have a full eclipse in our part of the world but we still enjoyed seeing its development. 

 The project for the day was add three more pavers to make it larger. I had to move stepping stones around which was back breaking work. I will not do any of this kind of work for a while. I will mow grass everywhere.

 Our night view of our neighbor's back yard, is all those lights positioned on the top of each of his fence posts.

 My single bloom on the moss rose for today. It does remind one of a rose bloom, sort of. 

We are headed for very hot weather for the next three or four days. It is such ever changing weather this summer.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursday's Things

 A genetic branch off of the normal. It would be a good zinnia if it were sold in a package but I bet that it isn't. 

 The moss rose came up on its own but it took it all summer to look like this. I don't have hopes for it to ever be a good looking specimen. My neighbor has some growing and I see it through the fence. Her's is  so large and has spread out all over. 

 I bought three more of these for my back patio. I won't share much about it as the finished job will explain what I am doing with it. They are heavy pieces of concrete and I did get the in the car by myself. Only one wounded knew from it all but they three are now taken down the hill ready for their placement. I bought all red this time as I have found that my yellow and red ones have all faded now to the same color. Tomorrow the spade will be used to bury them. 

 I still have some rescued iris sitting in tines ready for me to plant. I saw a guy along the street east of us and his iris have been replanted very close together. I may find some blankspaces to put them in of my two new iris beds. I don't remember if I showed you the new, second iris bed that I finished. 

 It has warmed up to the low 80s today. It is good as we are going to get a lot hotter in a couple of days. I worked outside this morning with a long sleeved shirt but I took it off after a couple of h ours. Our grass is turning yellow again as we are moving into the fall. My neighbor mowed his back yard today but I think I will just wait a few more days. The mowing will slow down soon. 

I discovered that both of my humming bird feeders were dry. We had to stop and get sugar as we were out. My wife never was one to use sugar on most things and I don't get to have it at all.  So all sugar that is purchased is for the birds. Once I filled them, they were all back having their sugar water again. I read a few days ago that the goldfinch birds nest later than most kinds of birds . Their cycle for seed is from the fall seeds and it works better for the species to not nest so soon. I haven't seen any around lately but when they do have hatched birds they will be busy at my sunflowers pulling seeds. 

I spread grub killer today on all of my iris. We get them here in Iowa every season. They love to get into the rhizomes and eat them out leaving only the shell.  I put the preventition down today and will water it in tomorrow to get it activated.

Tomorrow is another day. Thanks for stopping by today.  

Middle of the Week

 Being able to bring in bouquets is so great. I get so busy that I sometimes forget that I have a garden full of zinnias. 

 My old begonia plant has just become huge. It is misshapen but I just turn it towards the good side. I have held this plant over durning the winter for a couple of years. 

 I have a mess in my back corner where the new fence went in that connected to an old fence. I can't really get back to work on it when the peonies are all full grown. I cut back one of my red peonies this monring and ventured into the area. I had some seeding asparagus that I had to cut back. I made it to the back side of the garden area and found the day lily that needed to be moved. It was in really dry soil and it took a while to dig it out. The clump was big and I decided to cut it in half and now have two lily plants that will put out pure yellow blooms next spring. I had to dig out two spots in the lily of the valley plants and put them there. The lily of the valley is getting to be too invasive so I was glad to dig some of them out of there.

It was hot and humid this morning so I had to take a few breaks. I keep finding new things to do. I will just priorities things and do them a day at a time. I still have two different kinds of iris that I need to get back into the ground. They were rescued iris that were growing in bad places.  I think one more garden area is going to be developed. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Singles

 

 

 

 

 I worked in the yard again today finding iris that needed to be rescued. Some were planted in wet zones and the rhizomes were starting to rot. Others were hiding in the weeds and needed to be moved from the area. I have some now to replant but I am not sure where that will be. The weather was pleasant today and we are headed for hotter weather soon. Thanks for stopping in today.