Middle of the Whole Week

 Not a cloud in the sky and that helps to make it cold. The wind did pick up and we had wind chills out there. 

 Soft clouds did form later on in the morning as you can see in this photo. I had two of these roses on the bush and I had to photograph them. The blue of the sky is so great and makes a great backdrop. 

 The sparrows are cold and hungry. They showed up to partake. My wildlife camera goes off continually all day as some bird keeps setting it off. 

 My stick tree showed up last night on my doorstep. It was grown in Kentucky. It is a Japanese bloodgood maple. 

 I really like the leaves on the tree. It seems like a fun thing to watch grow. I have it in the ground already so it can adjust to my backyard. 

 I knew where I could plant it as the yard had been marked for the fence installation this spring. There were no power lines in this area. I didn't have to dig down far as it was grown in a pot that was about six inches deep. I like how my taking it out of the pot really didn't disturb it much. I put a little blacker dirt in the area as that spot has a lot of clay in it. That type of tree probably likes some clay anyway. I have always admired that kind of tree and the internet helped get one instantly. 

Going out for Chinese food tonight. It is a great place to go with such great service. Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

A Good Day

 Tuesday started off with a few clouds but they did go away. We are having a warmer comfortable day with a light coat that is all that is needed. As the earth continues to tilt I will have to wait to see the sun coming up from behind the neighbor's house. 

 I worked outside again this morning. The view of my neighbor's maple is great. 

 The photo shows two small stakes sticking up in the yard. It is the future spot of a new small tree that is arriving today. I bought a stick and hopefully in a couple of years it will look bigger. 

 I planted it and the blooms evrnutally all died down. I was hoping that it hadn't died. I guess it didn't as it put out some new blooms to show that it is very much alive. 

 The burning bush has finally developed into a bush again. It got hit by the derecho winds and lots of it died back. The two years of drought keep it from really developing. Now after four or five years of patience it now looks good again. The old original stump is still there but this is all new growth. 

 The knock out rose is putting out two last buds and blooms. I read that we had a hard freeze earlier but these seem to be staying strong. Most all of the rose blooms are dead on all of my roses. 

 This is one last on on the other bush next to my stairs. I will cut back on that bush in another week. 

 While at the neighbors yard talking to the gas utility man I saw they had some new flowers planted. They just bought them from a green house and they will do well last year as they are planted in a protected area. Gaillardia, blanket flower, looks good but I do have a hard time keeping it alive. 

Thanks for stopping  by today.  

Monday, Monday

 My Thanksgiving/Christmas is blooming. It isn't early as it tends to bloom whenever it wants. I like seeing more buds as it means it will last longer.

 

I worked in the backyard today pulling up the zinnias and tall marigolds. I have lots of seeds already but I still like to collect more. 

I had pulled each zinnia one at a time by its roots. Of course my rich black dirt that I put in that bed had to be shaken off of the roots. Once they were all pulled I had to fold them to make them fit into the recycle bags. I added two bags to my pile of already bagged material. I will have to take a load to the city's recycle bins north of town some time this week. My truck is up and running again as I take it in and out of the garage often to see if the battery is charging. Today I left it set and idle while I was trying to figure out how I could squeeze two more bags onto the already full truck bed. I ended up potting one in the passenger seat. 

 It was cold out there as I worked but layers and a parka makes it pretty comfortable. The cloud formation this morning when the sun finally rose we could see this wonderful cloud pattern. The time change is strange as it will be dark at five o'clock tonight. We will adjust but I don['tlike how we have to suffer a little over the change. By Friday it will be just normal to have fallen back. Thanks for stopping by today.

Checking In

 As the sun sets in the west the light glows and reflects off of the trees in the east. The colors are really more intense that in the day time. 

 With a light sprinkle going on there is a partial wide rainbow showing. I had to shoot this through the screen wire so it has lots of texture. 

 While cleaning up things in my water soaked closet I found in one of the drawers my grandma's quilters clamps. The quilting frames were held together with these. I helped my grandma set up her quilters frames and I also helped my mom doing the same many times. In the winter we would often have a quilt frame set up in the one end of our living room. We could watch her progress as she would roll it up as she would complete parts.  I would explain it more but it would take too long if you don't understand what I am writing about. 

 

 

These two views are of my one quilt done by my grandma. I like to study the different designs that were use use back then. My grandma would make dresses on her tredle machine. The thing she did not do was to quilt. It was called knotting a quilt, as thread was sewn from front to back and then they were knotted from the front. Notice all the string ties in the photo.

 The one way to identify her quilts is that she bought flannel for her backings and they usually were not very colorful. Flannel did make them warm.

It is very cold again and the wind chill keeps us frosty.  We were out twice today and it will take us awhile to get use to the winter to come. Thanks for stopping by today.

Just Images

 

 

 

 

 

Dress Warmly

 Rose hips instead of roses is all that is left for the season. It is cold today and I was out getting some shots but it was so cold out there as we  had a bad wind chill.

 The neighbor's clump birch is looking good. It looks great as the wind blows the leaves around. I will get a lot of those leaves even though I am across the street. 

 I have a hibiscus trying to put out a bloom today. I don't think it will make it.

 

My pumpkin vine keeps putting out blooms. I was so surprised to see it when out there but the sun was shining.

The knock out rose has blooms that have never looked like this before. I am guessing the wind is fluffing them out. 

It will be a cold halloween tonight. My neighbor Vino has all his decorations out and they are ready for the crowd. The wind is blowing all of his blowup, scary things so it will be a bumpy night.  I hope the kids have a good time. We got photos of our grandkids wearing thier costumes for the school parade. They had all their pumpkins carved and I am sure they will be out and about. The oldest one is dressed all red with an I on the front of it. I don't know what that means. Tricks for Treats tonight.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Thursday's Things

 We had a stump left from the city removing the flowering pear tree. It was time for it to go and they took it down with great fanfare. 

 

I was worried about the big hole they left me. So, in twenty more minutes, someone came by and filled the hole. I would have had to buy four or five large bags of dirt to fill it.  

 

This morning at eight in the morning a guy was out there grinding it all up into sawdust and dirt. He blew it all into the street and he left. I thought how could he do that as we are told not to mow grass into the street to keep it from the rainwater drain. So fifteen minutes later, just like our floor power robot, the city drove up with their power vacuum. They took three swipes at it and the street was clean again. Their vacuum makes a lot of noise and it is a different sound that one doesn't recognize. 

The project for the past few days was a shelf for my wife's art studio. She needed a shelf that she can use to display things by leaning them against the wall. 

 

I did it with an old creative design for an art room with a variety of bracket designs. Painted it white and it is hung on the wall already. 

 My wife has her own mobile in  her room hanging in the far corner. I don't go in there very often so I was surprised to see it when I looked up while measuring the wall. 

We have new neighbors that will be moving in soon.  The had fence people in today so that they will be putting up gates to finish up their backyard.  It will be intersting to see where they will place them on each side of the property. I said to my wife that maybe they have a dog. We will see.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

 

The Tree Time

 The Halloween tree is gone., As I watched them take it down I counted at least three dead parts in it. I use to be able to cut t house down myself but the tree now is too big for me to handle it. 

 

This is the "after" shot of the area. Maybe I can get some grass growing back there now. It shaded out the whole area and now I can appreciate the corner of the yard. 

 

I watched from a window as the crew demolished it all. They were hard working guys . They tried to cut the parts into large peices so it would cut down on the number of trips they would have to make to get to the frontyard street. It was a soft wood so the chopper cut it all up very quickly. 

 I didn't see how the machine was used but I am thinking it was used to cut the final cut on the base of the tree. Notice the guy in the tree. We also can now see the luxury pool in the niehbore yard if we are in the bedroom window. We never see the area otherwise as the blue spruce blocks the view of their entire backyard. 

 The ad for the company shows that they have men who climb up into the big taller trees to take them down. I saw at one time that he had to cut a branch that extended into the neighbors to the south and he had to catch the end of it and the guy on the ground grabbed parts of it and rolled it back over the fence into my yard. 

 My continuing saga of the water disaster has me taking everything out of the closet to see that more water damage exist. Things on the shelves were not bothered but water from the base of the floor did crawl up the wall making it bad the entire length of the bottom feet of the closet. I will be cutting that drywall out and replacing it. The woodwork is still ok but the drywall is stained and will have to go. I will be running the fan inside that closet for days to get things dry. I had a chest of draws that sits inside the close full of quilts and nothing was hurt inside the draws. The bottom feet of the dresser will need some attention.

 A scene from Silver Bay is going to need some restoration. I don't know what caused the black spots but I will try to remove them. The bay there is sometimes open for the people to be in but in most times the gates are locked. The bay is covered with small pellets of iron ore that must have been spilled in the area over the years while in operation. It is like walking on pellets instead of sand.

It has been a busy day and we did finish off with a nice day with some sunshine.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Tuesday Things

The privot is turning colors with soft pastel colors. I planted this to partially cover up a meter. It has to be trimmed to keep the numbers on the meter visible but it does cover it up mostly.

 

I checked the closet below my water break in the bathroom. I thought everything was ok Today I opened the closet door and smelled mold and mildew. So now I have a new project as the very back of the wall got soaked up. I foresee where I am going to have to cut out drywall along the wall and replace it after it has been dried. We lost some minor artworks and  I found some grandparents photos that were also stored in the one portfolio that had been damaged but not destroyed. 

 

I have things strewn out on the floor to dry them out. Each was wet on the bottom edge and in some cases it didn't ruin the painting. The girls are probably going to be tossed unless Della wants to go it and layer new pastel on it. 

 The North Shore painting of mine has a black spot. I am going to let it all dry and see if I can save it. 

It has been a slow drizzle day with dampness and a wet deck all day. I went for groceries this morning and avoided getting wet but right now one would be wet if they went out into it. We need rain so we are not complaining.  Thanks for checking in today.