Tuesday's Things.....

 I successfully moved some bluebells to the back of the house. It is a strong plant once it gets established. 

 The trees that one inherits when they buy a property can be a good or bad thing. This is a crimson king maple tree. I like the shape and it is a wonderful shade tree. I am not a fan of the dark deep red-brown color of its leaves. There is never any red on the tree except when there is a new sprout of a leaf on the trunk or like right now. The sun is at just the right angle to change the colors to red for a moment. The leaves really are not red but the sun shinning through the new leaves can show that for a moment. In most cases the leaves look black to me and as the tree looses its leaves in the fall they are a dark, blackish color. I am still glad the tree is there. Both of those two trees have grown taller in the eseven years that we have lived here. 

 

I have more of these tulips on the back garden. I must have had a large number of bulbs in that pack. I walked around everywhere and put them in the ground.  

Happiness is when the newly planted hosta come up in the spring. I moved them out to put in a rose bush and these look happy here nest to the front step. The hosta are up everywhere and they will look great with all the rain we have received has made them look good. I have a lot of grass seed in two different locations that just isn't sprouting.  I am still very concerned about three of my rose bushes. The look like I am gonng to have to cut them way back or even take them out of the ground. Our winter was so hot and cold all season so they could have been destroyed by that. I guess I can go buy new ones if the need be. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Monday's Mentions

 An afternoon still-life tells a story. The coffee break in the afternoon and a favorite sugar free cookie is waiting for me. A new cup of coffee and a new art magazine is waiting for me to review. My wife and I talk over all that is in the magazine studying the artists and their mediums. 

 Preciously before having coffee I ventured out outside and snapped some much needed photos for blogging. The yard looks good after it has been mowed and the rains have everything looking green. The front planter is starting to take form but flowers have yet to mature to make it look good. Iris will be blooming there and I will plant some annuals in there. 

 It is windy and the greens are swaying and out of focus. The background greens are in focus. It is an amazing tree that has doubled in size in the past years we have lived here. 

 My white and red Rembrandt tulips are a little later in bloom that the red and yellow ones. The hail and rain didn't do to much damage to the newer blooms. The older blooms are tattered. The peonies are not budded but I bet they will be soon. We are having a warmer week this week even though we were at near freezing this morning. 

 The yellow tulips are spotted here and there and are later than all of the others. I can get some good close up shots once they get full developed. We spent the morning buying birthday gifts for our second grandson's birthday. He turned ten and will receive his gifts late. We wrapped and mailed them out this morning and it will take a few days to get to the Chicago area. He has had a few parties and gifts keep flowing for the week so we like to be late at sending our gifts. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Saturday's Stuff.

We had hail again on Friday afternoon. The cold front created the storm and the hail. That front actully stretched from down in Texas all the way up to Canada. When I saw it on the radar it was a long stretch of a storm front with serious colors that say it was intense. Maybe today we won't get hail. 

 

I mowed the front yard grass this morning. It was cold, 50 degrees F., and I had to wear a parka. The wind blowing down from Canada made it feel very cold. I could have used a face mask adding to the hood of my parka. 

 As I started to mow on Friday morning I got interrupted. I first turned to see Mr. Livingston coming over to great me from our winter hibernation. He mentioned how disgusted he felt that we had to start mowing again. I shared that I had thought the same thing as I had to move the snowblower out of the way to get my mower out. 

While talking to him, a couple with their dogs came walking by with their dogs. They always stop to talk to me if I am out there so the four of us and the dogs had a get together.  You can tell that it was along talk as the dogs got tired of waiting and just laid down. Oh yes Mr. Livingston who lives next door is on the family tree of Dr. Livingston ( I presume). They talked window replacement costs and the woman evaluated again my front yard gardens. She loves what I did in the improvements of the front yard. 

 Our city has been invaded by mallard ducks. These two male mallards were walking around in the neighbor's yard a few days ago. A pair has a nest at one of our town parks and the city had to put up plastic fencing to protect them while they hatch out the egs. Our neighbors to the back yard keep chasing away a pair from their pool. The father sends the kids out to shoo them away when the see them in the pool. 

 

The birds are busy nesting and do show up for food. We have a resident cardinal pair this year and the male like to get to the top of our maple tree each morning and do his territorial call.  Having mowed my yard for the first time I can see I will have to do it every week, already. The grass was so thick and hard to push through that I am going to have to stay ahead of it. I have to get my body back into shape to mow. It will be good for me. I didn't mention that I liked it, but I am glad I am physically able to do it. 

I am going to bundle up and grill on the deck for supper. I am gong to do some smashed burgers on the griddle. They will taste good being cooked on the grill.  

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Spring Flowers

 The bluebells were always so magical to  see when I was a kid on the farm. Now I have them in a larger area in the front yard. I also started some in the backyard but they are slow to get established. 

 

 I always admired the creeping phlox but it does take over all of the areas as it spreads. I pulled out a  lot of it last fall but there is still some for everyone to enjoy.

 

 My fern leafed peony has buds with red showing. This plant is getting established now. I had to move it because of a fence being built. I have one other stray start of it with only one stem.

 

 My regular peonies are shooting up quickly and they have leafed out too. They won't bloom for quite a few weeks as there are no buds on them for blooms.

 

 

 The hail and heavy rains took off a lot of the red bud flowers. I still have a few on the limbs that  trying to bloom but the is blanket of flowers is sad to see. We have had hail every day that it has rained. This afternoon it hailed a lot more. We have tornado warnings again this evening. It is Iowa. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Much to Share

 

While out on the deck we saw a very large black bird land in our maple tree. It was twice the size of a grackle or black bird. I had to look it up. It is a crow and not a raven. I read up on all the differences and the beak tells us it is a crow. Articles shared how they flock in the thousands during the winter in the large cities of Ames, which is north of us, and in Des Moines, south of us seven miles. 

 My robin's nest outside of my downstairs patio door is a mess. I think if the bird isn't in the nest  the next couple of days it will be gone. I have plenty of places in the rafters that they usually build their nests. 

 The frequent rains have been great for the tulips. The hail did not damage them. This variety is one of my favorites.

 The wite and red one of this variety is also striking to see. I had one other kind of the variety and it just went away. 

 The hail didn't bother this variety but my plan colored red ones lost petals from the storm.

 I have too many photos of this multi-petaled tulip. It is so great to have. It has been planted in this location for a few years now. 

 As the storms move on to the northeast, we get great views of thunderclouds afterwards. Some severe weather resulted from these clouds as it moved on and a couple of tornadoes did hit the ground along the way. Our hous sits off kelter to the world at 60 degrees to the north/south axis which helps us tolook out at these view better. 

Full sunshine all day has been welcomed. I will never complain about getting too much rain have lived through droughts for a few years in the past, but the sun looked so good today. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

West to the East

 This is the view to the west as the sun was setting. Threatening storms were on the news. We did get rain from all of it. It has been raining each day for forever. I dump the rain gauge each morning. We had just under an inch of rain yesterday. I should be writing things down but don't. 

 

As I rune with the camers the sky is showing such great blue colrs with the pinks on the clouds. 

 As I turn to the east the colors are wonderful. The clouds are all along the edge of the horizon as thunderstorms are headed our way. I find the colors in this view to be so soft. It is such a contrast to the bright reds and orange of the sunset in the opposite directions. 

 The multi-petal tulip has some of the same colors in it as the pink clouds. The rains have made the tulips bloom well this year. 

Today is my wife's birthday. We will celebrate going out for a meal this evening. I think the weather will be good for us to be out. The rains for today ae staying north of us. We did have rain in the morning for a while. Our temps are the kind that you can't wear flannel shirts anymore and a light jacket would be best even though it looks strange wearing a coat. I went over this morning ot the grocery story to pick up some loose items. I always buy flowers for my wife as well as a very small birthday cake. I was pleased with thr roses that I found and the cake is decorated with small balloons. I shold have made it mysel but I find it convenient to pick out something at the bakery at the grocery store.

Thanks for stopping by today. 
 

Tuesday Start

 A heat wave was going to hit and the clouds were reacting to it in the morning. We now have tornado warnings. 

 The back yard needs to be mowed. I am just going to wait one more day hoping it will be cooler. The redbud is showing off its color now as the blooms are now opened.

 It is a "looking through" shot as one can see the blooms are open fully. The color green is welcomed at this time. We have had so much rain and it is so great. 

 Over in the corner of the yard next to the red bud the wild violets have a lot of blooms. The rains have made them do this. 

 This was always a sure sign of spring when I lived on the farm as a kid. I liked picking them and finding small jars to put them in to enjoy.

 In thr front yard my Rembrandt tulips are looking good. They are planted in with a row of peonies so as they tulips fade the peonies are up and covering the area. 

 The flowering tree is in its prime right now. As a tree is isn't looking that good as storms have broken out lots of limbs. Once the leaves sprout out it will look pretty normal. 

The work begins with the mowing of the grass and the pulling of the weeds. I think I have lost a couple of rose bushes. Our winter was so warm and then so cold that they look like they just didn't make it.  One was a newer bush but the older one was very established.  It is a part of the nature of things when it comes to gardening.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Spring Suff

 

 

 

 

 

Robin and Blue Spruce

 

 

 

We had another rainy day. We have been in need for it for so long that I won't worry about it being too much at this point. We drove by some low level swamp areas in the valley today that have not been filled with water for five years. The birds, frogs and maybe some fish will come back. My yard will need to be mowed in a few days to clean it up. We still have such windy days and the wind from the south is welcomed. The mourning doves are back and there are many of them. I am sure thay are nesting already.

Thanks for checking in today.