Yellow Kitty....

Cats come and go. When the come and your not sure if you can return them to their owners, you don't go ahead and name them. This cat's mother came to us on a very snowy day as a kitten and immediately curled up in my lap to warm up. She stayed but we called her Gray Kitty. I guess it was a description of her more than just a name. This cat in the photo was her last kitten and she was an only child. So she automatically became Yellow Kitty, daughter of Gray Kitty. Gray Kitty was eventually called Grandma Cat as she was the reigning cat of the cats. We have had this kitten for a very long time. We are thinking she is over 13 years old. My dad made my sons this wooden barn and it sits on my steps as I just haven't taken it to the basement yet. Yellow Kitty loves it and you can find her sprawled out sleeping away inside on a daily basis. You can see she likes to crouch in there too waiting for the next feeding. Thanks for reading......

Finding Blue.....

I love the color of my gazing ball. It is always a trick to photgraph it and not be in the reflection.


My wife collects blue glass items. Not so expensive but just very blue. It is probably one of my most favorite colors when seen this way. Can you see the oxalis' blooms next to the lavender bottle. It sets on the counter and reaches high to get light. I will be setting it outside soon.

Viola violet and purple.....

This is a lone violet sitting among my old fashioned rose bushes. Note the healthy Creeping Charlie.

The lilacs are just about to open. I think we will have some warmer weather soon and that will be great for opening up those little flowers.

These guys are my late bloomers. They seem almost statue-like and seem to be enhanced by the greens around them.
Speaking of greens, I just gave away about 50 tomato plants. I had planted a lot of them for Clarence to take care of and he is now gone. I think that I will only plant about ten or twelve plants this year so I have more to give away. The lady that I gave plants to was so grateful, and I kept saying no I am the grateful one. I just can't let plants die so I usually put everything in the ground. I had 76 individual tomato plants in just one section of my garden last year. This will free me up to plant other things this year. Thanks for reading.......

Seeing red.....

Color is an interesting element to study as an artist. A bunch of light red flowers can look dark red when the light is low and seen at a distance. But close up the red flowers are pinkish. The one red tulip has so many varied values of red because to the light shinning through it. It would be a fun but difficult thing to paint, just to match colors. The strong rich red-orange tulip has a strange foliage that is spotted. The camera actually picked up a lighter color than it was in reality. I have a couple of these among diverse other kinds. It was a cheap bunch of bulbs from a Menards. Thanks for reading.....

Doris and Zella.....

My cousin sent this to me a while back and I really hadn't taken time to look at it. It is a marvelous picture done in a photo booth. The more I look at the photo and the painted background I suppose it may not have been in a booth. My mom is on the right and my dad's sister, Doris, is on the left. I am thinking that my mom has been married and that Doris is her sister-in-law at the time. The photo is taken around the 1940's. Mom and dad married and then a year later dad was drafted into the army. Mom had her first child 10 months after they were married and when dad was gone her 5 sister-in-laws were so good to her helping her with everything. She talked about that in her later years as how nice they had been to her.
My mom's name is unusual. Her grandmother had the name of Zella incorporated in it somewhere and her mother's name was Mabel Zella.
The photo shows the times of the century with short curly hair, it had been bobbed when she graduated from high school. The red lipstick was characteristic and they both have good smooth white skin. Doris was always well groomed and her eyebrows were always plucked to perfection up to the day that she died many years later. Doris had two children, a boy and a girl, and my mom had the four boys.
The total ten children in my dad's family are all gone now. The spouses of that family are also now all gone. My mom was the last of that whole clan to pass away this last year. It seems strange now to look back and remember all of the families and the lives from those families that have continue on to this day. It is strange to be older in age now than those two young women in the photo. It is a good memory though. Thanks for reading....

Red, White, and Blue Day....

Everything is growing quickly. I need to get my vegetables planted but I will be substituting as an English teacher tomorrow at the middle school. So maybe Tuesday I can get some things done. I have most of my sticks picked up and I need to finish mowing areas of my lush yard. I love spring but one can't keep up with all that needs be done. Thanks for reading.....

Spring and green...

If you have never been in Iowa in the summer, you would never believe we were ever this lush and green. This is the grass in my orchard area and I don't always mow it weekly. Sometimes in August this would be brown and spotted with dead looking areas and pretty sad looking. Some of our summers, like last year it rained every two weeks. But eighty degree weather is not unusual for us all summer and a lack of rain can be common also.


I am sure this is a common sight throughout the states, but ferns have been a common plant around older houses. They were probably planted years ago in the early nineteen hundreds. Abandon farm homes and vacant farm sites will still have ferns coming up strong this part of the year.


I didn't have the heart to mow the violets in my yard. I have spots of grass that are now longer than others and that is fine with me. I can mow it next week with they are finished blooming.


I have the one neighbor who makes lolly pop trees but my other neighbor has this flowering tree that he doesn't like. I remember when a former owner got that tree for free at a bank give away and it continues to mature and bloom beautiful red flowers every spring. I go over and give him a pep talk once in a while to explain how we really enjoy this tree and he continues to say that he wishes it was gone. I tell him that he would miss it and so far it is still standing. Thanks for reading....
By the way!
After looking at this blog I noticed the picture of the leaning building behind the tree. I thought I should explain. That house on that property was a funeral home probably seventy or more years ago. They have a newer garage and the leaning one use to be the carriage house for the funeral home. It had storage above it and of course that it is it's original siding. It is quite a piece of history and I am sure there once was a barn next to it to hold the horses that pulled the carriages.