Monday’s a Moody One......

Rain on deck this morning.  We had a thunderstorm that made a lot of noise early morning. We needed the rain so I didn’t complain. We can’t seem to keep up with the grass mowing but a year ago it was all dead grass.

The plastic geese get moved when I mow and their placement is not though out much.  I liked this one as it looks like the goose is looking around the corner to watch while the female is eating.  The female is always eating.

The tomato plant does make a fine trellis for the volunteer morning glories. They are all folded up by noon rain or shine.  The cherry sized tomatoes are needing to be picked again.  It takes time to do that but I don’t always have a container with me to do that.  My neighbor lady carries an old woman purse to put here tomatoes into as she is out there.

This is a blurry shot of my new purchase.  I had one that was very large at one time.  I saw in a garden magazine that they had them outside on the patio.  I put mine outside and it died, burned up, immediately.  This sale item was out and about and I had to buy it.  I have memories of the mother-in-law tongue in my mom’s house when I was younger. I am sure someone shared it with her as of that time plants were not so easy to find to buy.  Plants were shared a lot in the 50s and 60s. I will need to repot this into something more sturdy than the plastic one that it is now growing.

The zinnia seed that I bought had a flower with specks of colors in it. You can see one in the top header.  But genes from this seed got confused. The yellow side has the yellow with red streaks and specks but the red side is pure red. I guess this is the one part of the genetic ladder when you don’t get one kind or another but you get a mix.  I am sure a scientists that specializes in genetics would not be surprised to see this misfit.

A mixed flower looks like this and I just bought the seed at Wally Mart.

It is a cloudy day today and it is still wet outside.  Humidity is high even though the temps are not so unbearable. I don’t have along lists of things to do today but I should do something other than drink coffee.  I hope all will have a good day today.  Stay strong.  Thanks....for stopping by.


chimera zinnia

Sunday Summary......

The pole that projects up from behind the garden shed is new. It had to go right at that location as the gas line was south of there and a telephone line had been put in to the north of it. It seems strange to have the pole right there.

The miniatures roses did survive and now are blooming.  I lost one of them but the other three are budded ready to bloom. I saved them inside this past winter but some people do plant them in the ground and they will winter over outside. When they go on sale this fall I will get another to replace the blank space.

This foliage was growing underneath the previous old stairs. I didn’t quite know what it was but I do now as it is blooming like a hosta. I don’t think I have ever had   one with such small leaves. It probably didn’t bloom when it was crowded by the stairs and its shadow. The whole area where the old deck stairs was planted with lily of the valley and now it should grow and bloom better than ever.

Our internet was down again for 24 hours.  It is getting to  be irritating. I don’t want to change providers but the company needs to get things figured out.

I will catch up on my reading of blogs in the next few days.  I hope all is well with everyone.  Thanks for checking in today.

Thursdays Things.....

The red with white edging is very striking and the all red ones make it a pretty border.  The zinnias seem to be doing well and don’t show any signs of shutting down for winter.

The red twig dogwood is turning its leaves by allowing a branch at a time to turn yellow.  Not all of the but they act like they have been damages but they haven/t.

When you but this style of grill brush, you will like it.  You won’t like it when you heat it up while is sits on the top shelf inside the grill.  I think I can still use it but I am n to sure that the steel wool pad will discount from the melted handle.

I was out working a couple of days ago and I noticed that my chipmunk likes to eat the seeds from the hibiscus.  He was crawling around and bitting the spent buds off of the stems.

I have the volunteer tomato almost ready to bear sweet pear shaped tomatoes.  I watched for it to come up and I did nurture it as much as I could keeping it watered.  They are left over from the original owner who had them apparently growing there two seasons ago.

I bought pavers today to create a partial patio under the deck.  I haven’t got the design figured out yet but I am planing to just lay them out for n ow and deal with the leveling with sand in at the end of the season or next spring. I also trimmed back all the sprouts from the base of my large pussywillow tree. I am n to sure that I like that shrub as a tree and am thinking in a couple of years I will hire people to come and take it away. The spring bloom is wonderful but then it sprouts out a truck full of branches at the base by fall.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish everyone to be well today.

Middle of the Week Report.....

I crossed the bridge yesterday and saw pelicans down below feeding along the shore. I have not been down here as it has been underwater most of the spring.  The water was held back at the damn to prevent flooding and they have gradually let it go down the Des Moines River. The lake was 41 feet higher than normal taking the water level up to the bottom of the horizontal T/s of the supports.

I almost forgot to mention that your screen isn’t dirty but that is a dragonfly in the photo.  I of course did not plan that but it is neat to see.

The road down to the boat ramp looks like this as it passes by the highway at the top of the phot.o  The water was high enough for all the dead wood to drift up agains the banks of the road.

Some large trees that were along the edge of the water were lifted and ended up here.  I saw all the debris floating in the water along the road and hit probably was all along on top go the gravel road. I could have cropped out the truck mirror but I thought it helped in showing the proportions of the bank littered with dead trees and limbs.

This photo does show the bad pictures that I got of the pelicans.  My cell phone would cooperate and I couldn’t zoom with it.  I will learn.  The thing you can see here is the erosion on the side of the embankment next to the lake.  Every line in the clay soil shows the different levels of the water as it receded. The water was so high that the land here which had growing shrub material was completely covered in water and you could not see that tree, growth line in the water.

A closer look shows they almost look like pelicans. There are a lot of them on another lake south of here called Red Rock.  I have seen others getting great pictures of them as they are migrating south now.

My yellow rose planted at the foot of the stairs is growing so well.  I just bought it this spring and it has been worth it’s cost.

I have many blooms coming at the ends of four or five stems.

My oxalis in the big pot as started to put on more buds and blooms.  I forget that it is now in the shade when it is under the sunroom so I have to move it out from under the shade.

Mowed my lawn today and it sure was needing it. We have a green lawn this time of the year and that is unusual.  The neighbor mowed his two days ago and my height was an inch lower than his.  We are having to mow about every five to six days.  Thanks for stopping by today.  We are going to have a warm day again today.

Zinnias and the Moon.......

I didn’t get the best shot of the moon but I will try again. I have a full set of stages to work on if it isn’t cloudy.

Monday....

Early morning and the fluff of clouds is all that we have.  A few hours later and we are clouded over covering the sun.

The earliest morning shot shows the few clouds partially blocking the sun.  My old tree with the dead branch gives me the true east marker.

The bonsai tree has put out a few blooms.  That should help me to identify the kind of tree that it is. I have a couple of books to look through to see if I can identify it. The container gets to be moved a lot as we don’t keep the sunroom cooled so I bring it in and out a lot.

When I don’t keep the feeder filled the sparrows get desperate and try eating at the finch feeder. I have too few goldfinches so the seed doesn’t get eaten. I have had to hang the feeder out on the eave trough as my metal railing isn’t good for such things anymore.

Rather than trying to cling to the mesh sides the sparrows jus land on the tray.  It is too small for them but they cling onto it anyway.

I can collect a few books and look through them to see if I want to buy them.  These two were not purchased.  The pottery person doesn’t finish up the pots with much good craftsmanship. The other book deceived me as I didn’t realize they were making small library cupboards in which people can get a book and share a book. I did like the small shed that it showed which could be used of garden tools, rakes and hoes.  Over a cup of coffee one can really check them out before deciding to buy.

A couple of others that I considered.  Having just made a smaller raised bed I check out the one that was on the cover.  The benches look like a good idea for an old guy to sit on while planting and harvesting. I like the photo magazines but those people seem to go to more exotic places that I do. My wife did buy three magazines that day which will be good resources for her artwork.

We don’t have any big plans for today. My neighbor next door must have been bored as he just mowed his yard again.  We are having a cloudy day with dull light.  The photo shown to the right was one take a few days ago with the clouds putting out strange forms.  I wish everyone to have a good day.  Thanks for stopping by today.

The Sunday Times.....

The Jordan Creek Mall has a bookstore. Because it is a modern mall the bookstore was not made into a two story design.  It is one long stretched out bookstore with an elevated coffee shop. While sitting and drinking coffee one can feel like you are in an exotic place. The railing makes it that way and it really is just a bookstore.

The new iPhone has a compass on it.  It adds to my confusion as I though I had figured out the directions while being in the house.  Our house is on a curve so one can’t find true north.  Now with the phone I see I was not correct but I can now understand it better.  The table that is in the photo is sitting square with our sunroom at the back of the house. With the phone showing, I could say the sunroom was built on the north side of our house. By the compass we are slightly northeast and I could more easily call the back of our house the north side of the house.  Almost north but not exactly.  I can now step out on the sunroof or deck and look at the one corner of the neighbor’s house and point north. I can stand on the back side and turn 21 degrees and know true north.

I don’t know who the church member is that drives this Chevy to church most Sundays.  It is a neat older Chevy and as a joke he has sticker on the back window saying, “I like Ike”.   For those who don’t know the history, President Eisenhower was nicknamed “Ike” abbreviated or replacing Dwight D. (I looked it up and it was 1952 that they recruited him to run for President.

I don’t know the model year but it is perfectly restore. It makes one smile when you see it parked among all the cars and suv vehicles. The new phone helps me to take the pictures that I couldn’t have before now.

I hope all is well with everyone on this first day of September.  We are having warm day with sunshine.  Thanks for checking in today.