Stormy Weather

 It was quite a downpour. The wind was measured to be up to 60 miles an hour. It sounded like it as the house was being hit from all sides with rain hitting the sides of the house. It was not predicted as we were told we would be spared most of it. It actually came right at us and didn't go south.

My project for the day was to drag this out of the street and cut it up. I knew I needed to put the branches in small piles for pick up. When I called to inquire they said that the scheduled time for pick up is tomorrow. She did add that I had to tie the bunches into bundles using twine.  I had my mom's old jute string so that worked out well. It was old macrame twine that she had twenty five years ago. I don't throw anything away and this time it paid off.

 Tomorrow I will have to upright some sunflowers and tie them up to a steel post. I didn't have the time to do it today. I didn't have any other damage as I have found so far. Other people lost branches from their decorative pear trees that line our streets. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday Mentions

 The day started off clear with puffy faint clouds. We now have full heat  from the sun. I was out working in it and didn't stay for very long. 

I watered tomatoes this morning as it just gives them an advantage. We aren't extremely dry righ now but the heat is drying out everything. 

The moss rose was showing off yesterday. It does have lots of good colors. I was scolded by the nursery worker who sold it to me. She said that it would spread all over my garden.  I have never had that  problem nor have I had this planting reseed itself. 

I have built a platform to place under the cupola. It will be six inches taller once I get it under the present piece. I just felt it needed to be taller to show off its form. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunny Day

 

 I have two hummers that seem to fight over the feeder. They don't like it when the wasps or bees eat at the small little holes. 

A late afternoon rain front brought us a double rainbow. One would have to leave the suburbs to see both ends of it. 

It has been a long time since I have seen this complete shape of one. The double rainblow showed up while we were out on the deck admiring the view. 

The weekend rains were good for the backyard plants. Our neighbor bought a new flag to fly over his swimming pool area. 

The volunteer, accidental planting of the sunflower has proven to be a positive to the backyard.  They were slow to start in their growth but they have certainly taken off to be big.

A new day lily is looking good in the area where my hollyhocks did not grow this year. I have seem to have lost them due to the winter weather. 

This large lily is now starting to bloom. I have been watering to encourage its growth. If this one is blooming I have another in the back corner that should be blooming. It is a smaller size of this same color. I can't see it very well with the peony foliage and iris that fill in to block the view. I will venture out tomorrow and check for its progress. 

 I flew my backyard flag on the day and I did get a picture of it. It is the older flag that was replaced by the new bigger one that my wife gave for the front door. Well the last of the leftover fireworks were shot off last night. The areas south of us are not under the same laws as us so they can fire them off whenever. They must of have had leftovers and Sunday night seemed to be a good night to do it.

Tomorrow is a new day and there are things to do with the roses, and weeds, and yard stuff. We will be less hot but we will still be hot. My neighbor lady gave me three batches of Pepsi to drink while I mow her yard on hot days. I told here I had to use double ice with diet Pepsi to bring myself back to life.

Thanks for checking in today.

4th and 5th...Today!

 The phlox enjoys the shade of the blue spruce for a lot of the day. It makes them survive the heat without much harm. I have three varieties of phlox colors. I have a fourth varigated colored one that doesn't seem to be in bloom, it blooms later, or I just lost it over the winter. 

I mowed my front yard this morning in 80 degree heat, F. I would have to had gotten up early to have a better temperature. My front yard is smaller and it took about twenty minutes and I was glad to get inside for diet Pepsi with lots of ice. I returned later in the backyard to take photos and water the tomato plants. I returned back inside for the rest of the day. 

 

It is a folly to plant four seeds from a decorative two color pumpkin. I didn't think they were ever going to sprout. Three out of four isn't bad and we will see what happens. I am hoping that they will vine along the back of the flower bed against the fence. I am certain I will have to do some pruning when necessary. 

 

This blog was started on Friday and here I find that I didn't finish it. It was a busy night last night with all the fireworks going on, up and down all of streets and sometimes next to our back yard. Two days a year in Iowa it is legal for two hours to shoot them. Some pretty fantastic shows were given by those who put out hundreds of dollars for fireworks. It is all quiet this morning as if everyone is sleeping in from the neighborhood war zone.  Thanks for stopping by today and yesterday too.

The 3rd of July

 The rose has such a great form to show soft textures and pastel color. The contrast of the shapes of the buds that explode into the shown shape. 

The Asiatic lily is a different shape and can have such strong color. I like how this lily keeps muliplying more bulbs through the years and spreads this great color. 

My one yellow rose is a great pastel one that does deepen in color as the bloom ages. I was going to dead head this bush this morning but it just got too hot. I mowed the neighbor lady's front yard first and it was almost 89 degrees F. when I had finished the job. Maybe tomorrow morning I can get to it after I mow my own front yard. The heat just creeps up on you when you work in it and I enjoyed the air conditoned house when I was done. I had to just sit and feel the cool. 

 The sunflowers are good at just rooting down deeper as the temps get hot and it gets dry out there. I forgot that this variety grew tall. They have multiple flower heads on one stem. I have marigolds planted around the outside of the bed and I do have to keep watering them to get any growth out of them. 

Our morning started of this cloudy but they didn't stick around for long. Those who see my morning shots often probably are familiar with the trees in the foreground. 

Tomorrow is another day and more yard work to do, even if it is the Fourth of July. We don't do parades anymore and stay out of the crowds. Thanks for stopping in today.

Middle of the Week's Work

 The early morning view eventually changed into a clear sunny day. It did warm up quickly as it is summer in middle America.

My little buddy bunny was out there watching me this morning. I was going out to go to work and the bunny just hung around. Once in a while I will walk to get something and I hear a mad rush through the lily of the valley as it was escaping from a scary man.

A new flower blooming this morning is this lily. It was an Easter lily from last year and it did grow and bloom again this season. I still need to plant one bulb that is in its pot from this year's event. I will have many more photos of this as there are lots ofr buds. They don't grow very tall just like they do when you buy them in pots. 

 My second variety of star gazers is also now blooming. I  again hadn't noticed it was even budded but you can see in the shot their more blooms to come. The fragrance of the star gazer is amazing. 

My second story view down to the raised bid shows the sunflowers taking off with many blooms to come. I watered the tomato plants today as they looked a bit weathered from the heat. I dead headed my knock out roses in the front yard this morning. It is always backbreaking for me as one has to lean in to get to them. I had two waste baskets full of past blooms. I was glad that I got that done. 

While I worked out there the music from Mexico was playing while the workers on one of the houses near us as it was getting new shingles. Also next door the shingle company was at work trying to fix the holes that they left on their job in which the bats entered the attic. I am thinking that the company didn't worry about trapping in the bats that are inside there as they did try to seal things up. They won't be escaping. Garden work is satisfying but it seems to be that I am always behind on it. I can find five more roses that need to be dead headed tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunny Warm Day.....

 Sunflowers and hot sunshine go hand in hand. This variety is not the mammoth one but it does have some good blooms. 

 Last afternoon I had a perfect view of the sun shinning behind a large cloud. By the time I got a camera the clouds had moved away from the perfect shot. There were some storms yesterday in the northern part of the state but thiese clouds did nothing for us. 

Us locals call it the ditch lily but it is called a field lily or wild lily. You can see it growing along country road ditches where farmsteads are long gone. My wife's family farm had it growing a mile down the road from where its origin was at their place. I harvested this from a ditch across of Xenia Cemetery at an old mining town, Xenia, Iowa. The coal mine in the area was called Xenia. All that is left there is the cemetery and a couple of farm homes.  Our neighbor lady was recently buried in that cemetery The ditch lilies grew all along the ravel road where one could see the trees up the way that once surrounded a farm house. It took the ditch lily a few years to get established but this season I will have lots of blooms where it is planted under my stairs to the deck. 

I moved from the old place a couple of different colors of this star gazer lily. It has a different kind of bud compared to the regale lily. I saw the stem with the buds and couldn't remember what it was until it just started blooming. They have a strong wonderful fragrance. The other lily is tan. 

I worked out in the back yard this morning and saw my bunny. Can you see the little guy in this photo. 

This is what he looks like when I zoom it in. He is the reason I had to put up screens to keep it away from the glad foliage. He was eating away at them, keeping things short. So now that the screens are up the leaves are growing back. This is the same bunny that got into my tomato plants and he could not get out of the screened area. I had to open a corner of it to let him out. He apparently had crawled, sqeezed under one of the frames and then couldn't find the hole to get out. 

I did finally get my bookstore shot to come up in Google photos. I don't know why it took a day to get it there. My wife is better today from her eye surgery. I waited at the bookstore yesterday while the hours passed by. I got a call when she was in recovery and I then returned to be with her. When she is all better we are going to hit this place on a Monday morning as it is peacefully quiet. A few people meet for coffee but in the most part people come and go to pick up books that they had ordered. 

We are up to 88 degrees F. today. I guess I am getting use to it as it didn't seem to be so bad when I went to get the mail. Thanks for stopping by today.