Bouquet........and Barbecue.

For company we needed a spot of color on the table.  I brought in the last of the peonies and also a few of the hydrangea.  Some hydrangea are still partially green and haven't turned white.  My wife turned it into a very colorful bouquet.  The hydrangea leaves really add to the arrangement.  I have never brought them inside as a cut flower before so we will see how well they do.

We  had burgers and brats with all the other good stuff for a great picnic on the patio.  Andy and  Patricia , our son and his wife from Chicago, were our guests and we had a great time.  It became too hot by late afternoon so we came inside and sat at the dining room table for conversation and a cup of coffee.  It was cool in the house so the coffee was good to end the time. The birds at the feeder did a great job of showing off by eating at the feeder while we all watched.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

White, red and blue........

I really like peonies and yet I don't like the fading away of the flowers.  If I have time, I clip the flower heads off and leave the foliage as a hedge.

The creeping bluebells are starting to show off their color.  I may have to water on the south of my house as it is warmer back there and we are in need of rain.  I will water the roses for sure with my rain barrel water.

I guess I have a white, blue and red theme going today.  My red peonies have done well this year.  They bloomed later than all of the rest so they survive all our wind.  I have a couple of the red peony plants that I want to move and I know I should wait  until fall.  Maybe I will wait if stays hot now which is our normal weather.

I am tech guy today and will be busy most of the day doing physical work.  I slide out of school as a permanent sub to become a summer worker for the custodians.  It isn't just janitor work as they have shelving to build and rooms to move around and busy stuff.  The nice thing about cleaning a school in the summer is that it stays clean.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

My Macro World...........

Hydrangea

I really don't know the time when these turn white but I really don't remember them being in a green stage at first.  I transplanted one of these here in the front of the house 5 or more years ago and they have really spread out to be mature plants.  It is the traditional old fashioned white one that you see around a lot of the older houses planted along foundations.

I received a note from a high school graduate friend of mine yesterday.  She was asking me to consider letting her bring her garden club tour bus to see my gardens.  I was flattered but very embarrassed.  I plead innocent to the fact that I have shown off my gardens somewhat.  I also confess that I am a better macro photographer than I am a gardener. I have lots of nice plantings that look good together as I do understand good design.

 What I don't have is the ability to have a great lawn and to keep my gardens weeded.  The creeping Charlie owns my yard and I just don't have the time or money to deal with it right now.  Also my garden flowers are not all planted in groupings.  So I may have an iris blooming here and 10 yards I will have another.  My orchard area is planted with stray things that have no organization other than I have temporarily planted things to get them into the ground and I will move them elsewhere later.

I will not have the summer to get my yard and garden in shape and I am sliding into another job right after the last day of school.  I haven't planted my perennials for this year and I may not as I am too tired, lazy, busy to maintain them and keep them alive.  I will plant zinnia's as they are easy to maintain.

I might send her a slide show of all the photos of my flowers so she could do a presentation with them.  My macros seem to be cropped so you can't see the glaring weeds or creeping Charlie or bad gardening skills.  I also don't have a drop of mulch to make my place look better.

My red peony bushes are now taking their turn to be in bloom.  I have them planted in three different locations but one of them is being crowded out by an old fashion rose. It has only a couple of buds on it this year so I will move it after it blooms.

The smaller rose has many blooms on it this year.  The one on the right is one that is just opening and the one on the left is fading away to the dropping of its petals stage.  The brown from the freeze in April is visible on all of my roses.  When I clip them back after blooming the new ones will not show any damage.

My mock orange bush is an old one.  It has grown to be so large.  It was better looking when I first moved here 30 plus years ago.  I will probably start removing a third of the mature branches and see if I can get it to be a smaller bush.

I am a floating sub today, working in the special education room in the morning and then will be reassigned to another job in the afternoon.  I haven't had a tech day for quit a while as bad spring allergy colds are hitting the staff and students.  There are a lot of track meets and golf meets that take teachers away from the classroom also.

Thanks for stopping by my post today.

Friday's Showing.........

Peonies are early this year because of many reasons.  The first of my white peony came out yesterday. The variety of colors you see in the flower are real.  They have pink and yellow colors blended in among the white.

This little guy was at the feeder last evening.  His fluffy feathers tells me he is a newly hatched bird this past month.  The adults were out and calling territorial calls all evening.

The bad think about the wild rose is that it takes over the entire acreage if it were allowed to grow.  I mow it to keep it back as it's roots continue to shoot all over my back yard.  It really isn't much more of a nuisance than the Chinese Elm tree as it too has shoots all over the property.  I still have new trees that try to come up from a neighbors Chinese Elm hedge that actually was removed thirty years ago.

The wild rose does have a great fragrance.  That is a positive to get such a great smell in the back yard.   The mock orange is starting to bloom and that will give out a fragrance for half a block away from the bush.

I am the science master again in the high school as well as middle school physical education.  It is a good thing that I like pitching wiffle ball as I have done it for two straight days now.

Friday, it is great that it is here.  Thanks for stopping by my post today.