Hot.....

 Hardy Geranium red is so great to see. This is just a small start of the plant but the color is so strong.

In the heat of the day I installed the railings on my stairs. It wasn't so difficult to do once I got started. I just had to sit down on the stairs and work slowly.

While working I was texting with my sons who were having a windy day in Minnesota.  I am pleased with the end result of this project.  I found a gallon of Thompsom's Water Seal leftover from the deck so I will do that first to the new railings.  I still would like to paint them white to match the trellis at the bottom of the stairs but I don't have the energy for that right now. 

The yellow rose bush is starting to show some great blooms. It isn't covered with buds yet but some is better than none.

On the opposite side of the color wheel the purple morning glory is put out a few blooms each day. 

We have lots of humidity with our heat today. It is not comfortable even when you walk from the car to the grocery store. It is Iowa but it would be nice if it were a cooler state.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Shoes of History....

 They have served me well. I first bought them in 2019 and wore them while walking all over Israel. The younger guys of course had Nike shoes but my N shoes worked well for me. They have served me well  as everyday work shoes. Yesterday while mowing the yard my socks got wet from the dew on the grass. Both shoes are losing their rubber, plastic, soles. I have a hole in the one shoe for sure and then the other is flapping as I walk.  They are in the trash and headed for the landfill.

The stair railing is almost done. I know that the gaps look fumy but I have plans for planters between the sets of rails on the flat platforms. I worked on the project between mowing the front yard and the two appointments we had yesterday. I will mow the back yard this morning as soon as the foggy wet morning clears. 

I have always thought moss rose to be a special flower ever since I was a kid back on the farm sixty plus years ago. It foliage is so different and the flowers are so great. 

The weather has helped to keep these lilies going with a longer bloom time. Most of my day lilies are finishing up their bloom cycles. 

the smaller yellow day lilies that grow among the asparagus patch have just a few blooms left. I never picked a single stem of asparagus this year. The weeds seem to have taken over take them while I was vacant from the garden in the spring. 

After a late afternoon doctors appointment I ordered a carry out from Olive Garden for supper.  It was so great and the large amount of food allows us to get two meals from the order.  It is such great food and bread sticks.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday, It Doesn't Feel Like It.....

 Sometimes that perfect picture comes around when you aren't working for it. The evening light along with the proper distance to the flower I got a pure clear photo with the real color of the day lily. 

 

 

The new round of buds are atarted on this rose. It is a small bud to a smaller rose but it still has great impact. 

The tiger lily is almost in full bloom now with only a couple of buds left to open. They never last long enough but they were great to see even if I forgot that they were planted there. 

My backyard cottage garden is so colorful right now. Phlox is one of those plants that you have to tolerate it looking like a weed for a long time and then it explodes into great colors. 

The next splash of color should be from these zinnias.  I finally got them to grow. I have not buds at this point but when I do see one or two I know the whole field will be in bloom.  The finches and hummingbirds love these. I hope we get some butterflies this year but so far I haven't seen anything but white small ones. 

We both have appointments tomorrow.  Mine is insignificant in comparison to my hearing doctor and her surgeon. My wife is very strong now and can handle whatever next will come her way.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday Stuff....

 The house finch is standing firm on the top of the post.  He had just been fluttered at by a baby bird. 

The earlier photo shows the fluttering going on by a baby house finch. There is a time when the adults just stop feeding them and they see protesting from their fledglings. 

At the same time a goldfinch is sharing the feeder with another young female house finch. I rarely see the goldfinch but I guess he really likes the shelled sunflower seeds.

I am thinking this is a white phlox but it is slow in putting out all the hundreds of flowers. 

The phlox have really multiplied in my back cottage garden. It is a lot of color out there.  I have to go out and right the birdbath as the racoon once again tries to get a drink of water.  We have three pools in our neighbor's backyards. The statts say that two out of three pools are having parties today. 
Thanks for stopping by today......

Saturday's Wet and Dry.....

 I captured the wet rose as I was outside working today. I got frustrated with the rains but I did just work through some dribbling rain. 

Early photos of a project sometimes look awkward and dumb.  I stick with these things and design as I go along.

I am not done with this but it is looking better.  I have a cap piece for the top and will add a real railing on the other side. I like it in natural wood but I am painting it with white paint to match the white trellis.

I have two small sections to work on. Their basic form is done but I have to put verticals on the frameworks.  Maybe Monday I willl get some more work done.

Friday is the Day....

 I store bought these to celebrate my wife's great health progress. She walks around leaving her walker often. She is continually working to build back muscles everywhere and is gaining weight a little at a time. 

The backdoor view as I sit in a lawn chair and admire all that green. The bunny comes hopping thorugh and bees are landing on the flowers. Butterflies are very few in number at this time.

My oxalis are enjoying the outdoors weather.  They were pretty sad looking when I took them out to sit on the patio table. The rains drip down on them and they are looking so good.

The hydrangea puts out one more bloom. We are told that we are now completely out of the drought. These kinds of plants will do well next season having suffered through three years. 

I am building a railing for my stairs at the outside end of the house and it is too early to share photos of it. am designing as a go like I usually do and I am trying to use up some leftover wood from another project. I feel good about it even though I haven't had enough time to seriously work on it. I had to get a haircut in this morning and had some quality listening time with my neighbor lady. I need to buy some screws to keep the project going.  It did get hot outside by the time I quit.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things....

 I took out the nest as she was long gone.  The past week she started to rebuild for her second rounds of baby robins. 

It is a great show of color with all its frilly edges.  He has the same color scheme as one of my other day lilies but this is larger wit  more reddish color.

The smaller version is a nice flower though.  I have two plantings of this under my patio shelter area.  It still has some more buds yet to open. 

My brown eyed susans struggle with the salvia crowding it.  I use to have a larger set of plants of this. 

The way things are today when it comes to buy major items it is something else.  I remember when we bought our couch and we didn't get our couch.  We had to wait for it to be built.  The new refrigerator has been purchased. We treated ourselves to a great model that is designed wonderfully. Unfortunately we won't get it for about another month. I should have known but it is the new way of marketing.  We don't have our walk in shower yet either.  They keep telling us that they are waiting for all the products needed for our new shower to come into the warehouse.  I am beyond getting mad anymore as it just is a stupid way to treat customers.  I am glad that there are stores where you can pick up items and pay for them and walk out of the store.   Thanks for checking in today.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Small Visitor.....

 He is one of my little visitors that is busy eating my grass. My neighbor had four of the them in his yard and now I have a couple of them. I like how this photo shows how small he really is.

He is exploring his whole world around our house.  I have seen him at the front door steps.  I have watching him cross in front of me in the back patio while I am sitting in a chair. 

A very blurry photo gives proof that I did see a cardinal at a far away distance.  It even sang me a song.  My iphone couldn't pull it in for focus. 

I thought it would clever to get a side view of this day lily. I didn't know the insect with legs was clinging to the side of it. We called them walking sticks when I was a kid.

The blanket flower is doing well even though it is being crowded out by the salvia. I will work on that with some screens to hold things back.

My very first morning glory showed up in my tomato patch. I was pulling most of them up but some always get through the greens. Our high was 80 degrees today.  I got the backyard mowed this morning in cooler temperatures and it looks like we have more storms coming our way tonight. Lots of things were taken off my list today. Important things were decided and I still have a some more things to fix. Thanks for stopping by today.

Computer Hospital....

 Flowers from the store look like sunflowers even though they are small mums. My sunflower seeds started slowly this spring so I won't have blooms for quite a while. 

I don't do great planning but the moving of these two kind of plants into this space is working out great. 

This is a different variety of tiger lily than the traditional variety. I would still like to have that old fashioned one which would remind me of my on grandmother who had them growing in her garden when I was a kid.

I have many things that have broken in the past few days. I fixed my garage door sensors this morning.  I am hoping that our refrigerator will recover from lint covered coils that I cleaned.  I finally got a hold of a billing company and got back a lot of money that I mistakenly paid for a hospital bill. I finally took my computer, MacAir to the computer hospital as the hackers or whatever they are invaded my computer.  It made downloads of unwanted logins clogging things up and cluttering my screen with unwanted squares in a row continually posting in a column. When I would delete them one at a time they multiplied. My diabetic meter and sensor have been failing and I have been told that I was over sugared when I wasn't. I think it is corrected now with a new battery in one of them and calibration corrections finally took hold on my meter. 

Other things have been going bad as I lost a first cousin recently who was two years older me. He lived a sad story of being in an institution most of his life from severe autism. He went to the State Hospital to live when he was 12 years old and never had a family that could support him. He had family there where he lived. 

I did get some good news yesterday but am not sharing it for now.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Humid Beyound to the Max.....

 We had severe heat today with high humidity. It was the worse that we have had for a very long time. Walking into the grocery store from the car was an overwhelming experience. Because of that we had a front go through with potential tornadoes.  We looked outside and it was a dark green light that looked like a cloud that went all the way to the ground. Fortunately the very worse went south of us and a part went north.  We got lots of rain.  My garden flowers didn't get damage and hopefully the moister will perk them up a bit. 

Thanks for stopping by today

Hot…..

 It’s a hot day and even a hot night for hardy geraniums. I will dump more water on it soon.