Things for Thursday

 The earth tilting causes my view of the sun to be between the trees. We do tip a lot when you consider where that sun started at the far right of the horizon.

 By walking to the far end of the deck I can get a better show of the clouds with color glow of the sun.

This is a knock out rose with its two different colors of blooms. The older blooms fade out cause the bush to look like it is multi-color bush.

 The young male house finch has such great line details. It is more red in the early spring/summer season and the red fades or grays in the fall. 

 The volunteer sunflower stays in the garden. I have a second one that I will try to move away from the far edge.  Maybe I can make it look like I planned the planting of them.

 The coral bells are looking boo right now. They are hard to photograph but full sun made it happen better. The salvia sage that I tried to rid from the area is looking good for the first time since I lived here. It was blooming at just the top of the stems a few inches and not with the whole spikes covered with flowers. 

 I had a hard time getting my car appointment but it did finally happen. It happened this morning with a lot of confusion. I did get all the things done that needed to be but I was exhausted from all that happened. They shuttled me home because some of things that needed to be done would take a long time. Actually it didn't take them a long time so I would have been better off just sitting in the lounge area and waiting for them. The shuttle driver and I had good conversations. 

It has warmed up and we have heavy humidity.  I won't be working outside anytime this afternoon.  Thanks for stopping by today. 

Bird and Bloom

 

 

Tuesday's on Wednesday

 While working in the garden the Siberian iris keeps me encouraged as I clear out the iris from the area. 

 The work zone looks like this from afar. I took the shot while sitting in the shade, taking a breather, resting form working in the sun. The hat fell off and I just walked away from it. The last of the iris have been dug and you can see the ones laying there waiting for me to return with clippers to trim off the foliage and clean up the rhizomes from dirt, weeds, and grass.I did need to rest after digging the large old fashion iris. It had huge rhizomes on it and took some pulling and prying to get it out of the ground. 

 My brother and sister-in-law gave me this cart years ago. Both of them are now gone but I did keep this around for small jobs. I think of them and how they gifted me with garden stuff or Christmas ornaments for the family gift exchanges. I filled it with rhizomes to get them moved and the trash from the area is now in the cart ready for recycle bags.

 One of the major back breakers was the volunteer tree as they sneak in on the side of the garden space. It is usually growing among the flowers and all you can do is keep trimming it off as it is rooted in so far you can't pull it. I will dig up the enitre garden space now and try to clear out unwanted grass and weeds. 

 I am glad to see this rose rebound from all the dead canes that it had. I thought I lost the whole thing from a tough winter of hot and cold temps. 

 The roses start off white and change to a lighter pink as it ages. The name of the rose is like Carnival or something like that. 

 He is there for a fleeting moment so any shot that I can get of him is good for me. He likes the seed that I bought especially for him. 

 I know the gardeners out there will be frowning at this but I replanted all the iris here. They are too close and yet if the varieties are planted together it will work. It really is a temporary fix as I needed to get them out of the one location and I just wanted to get them back in the ground.

My new thing seems to be that I write a blog and then don't get it finished ,nor does it get posted. I opened up to blog this morning and there it was, Tuesday's, unfinished and waiting. I will just post this today and if anything outstanding comes up I will post again for today.  

Hot and Humid

 The haze was real and I didn't try to filter it out of the shot. The humidity was high from the very start of the day and the camera did pick it up.

 The clouds looked strange with our heavy air. The heat was high for most of the day. I didn't have to worry about it being too cool first thing in the morning while working outside. 

 The grackle likes the cardinal seed and stayed for a longtime. I like how the head feathers can reflect blue and also green. 

 They are such a streamlined shaped bird. I did read that they are of the black bird family.

 A young house finch sits on the pole. Every once in a while he preens his new feathers trying to get them all straightened. 

 I started a big project of moving some iris out of my one garden area. I don't know why I ever planted but the job got to be too much for me today. I had to quit as I just go too hot working out there in the heat and humidity. 

 A few Siberian iris that sits near the area is still partially in bloom. The dark purple one is totally gone now. I will return tomorrow and finish digging up the last of the iris and get them replanted, The one area where I dug today was in soil that was so hard packed that it was difficult to get a spade down into it. I will dig the whole area up when the ires are gone and get that soil back into shape. 

Thanks for checking in today.  

 

Summer Warmth

 Yellow primrose has a foliage that makes you first thing it is a weed. I let it grow knowing that it will eventually put out great yellow flowers.

I have to look it up each year to prove to myself that they are not buttercups. The number of peatals of the flowers make it a primrose. 

 I consider this one of the old fashioned peonies, ones that I would see at the old farmsteads when I was a kid in southern Iowa. We had one row of them at the top of the his of our farm which were planted by previous owners. Nurseries really didn't exist in numerous places like today and I am sure the farm wife got them from another neighbor's home. The original owners of our farm had two orchards planted and old fashion flowers that would be see along the fronts of farmhouses. 

 I first bought a "William Baffin" rose in Grand Marais, Minnesota. I brought it back to my older home place as I thought it would surely survive our Iowa winters. When I moved to the new place, I found it by accident at our local nursery. It is a climber and the tall branches do eventually sag down. It is having a good year as the recent rains made it bloom better. The people who put the fence in wanted to put the gate at the corner of the house but I didn't want ti to be crowded out and not in view from the back yard. 

 This shot shows how great the view is of all the multiple rose is. It makes it almost impossible to dead head the rose with their being so many but I do try to get some so I can get the rebloom.

 My front yard looks great. I have had to mow every four days to keep up with its growth. The locust tree, which I did not plant, has proved to be a showpiece of our front yard. I like how the branches sag down as if it is like a southern plantation. The leaves are more moss like that a regular tree. Some people would trim it up but I don't want a lollipop tree. I will trim back selectively some when it gets so  I can't pass under them when mowing. 

We are home from church and it is a quiet afternoon. It is warm to almost hot. People are swimming in their pools and the birds are busy feeding at the trays. It is summer now for sure. Thanks for checking in today.

Backyard Blooms

 

I worked in the backyard mowing the grass. I had to use the bag on the mower to get up some of the major areas that had buildup of cut grass from the last time I mowed four days ago. I mulched my tomatoes already because of it and I had other areas I could use it to kill out weeds. 

 The cardinal was friendly today and kept flying around looking for things to eat while I was out there.. He usually isn't that friendly.

 My old fashion iris is still blooming. I like how hardy it is and the blooms just keep coming. The smaller size really does remind me of the cemetery iris of the past. 

 The old fashion rose is putting out there cabbage shaped bloom back in my back yard. 

 The last of my black iris is now gone. It had a long good run but iris never last long enough.

 My white cemetery iris is almost done with its last blooms fading. I saw this plant at the cemetery the other day when we visited there.

We have had cloudy weather for the most part. It sprinkled on me this morning while I was mowing. There are rain clouds all around us but we aren't getting rain. Most of the front is staying west of us in Nebraska, The afternoon is a pleasant cool windy day. I was out taking new photos for other blogs in the future. It was about time for doing that. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

Friday's Finds

 The female house finch isn't too far behind of her mate at the feeder. They are almost always together until they build the nest.

 At one time two females and a male was at the feeder at the same time. The male mate to one of them kept getting attacked by the dominate one here. 

 The new fledgling mourning doves are in great number at our feeders. Researched info says a pair can have four or five nest fulls in one season. We do have lots of doves aat the feeder. When I zoom in on the smaller doves you can't see that they are smaller than the adult birds. 

 I was mourning the loss of all of my roses from the winter. I cut back eighty persent of the canes and I was glad to see them come back.

 This was a newer "knock out" rose that looked totally dead. I am glad that I didn't dig it up and toss it.

 My yellow rose that was so robust is now coming back. It isn't as big bur it is looking good with more buds and blooms.

I didn't use the new grass trimmer today. I needed to give my left arm time to heal or maybe strengthen. We had an investment guy visit early this morning on a business call and the rest of the day seemed one to just take it easy. I am getting use to the heat somewhat but most work will have to be done now in the mornings. I can't keep up with the grass. I guess I fertilized too much.

Thanks for stopping by today.