Rain, Off and On......

Fond memories of our visits to Minnesota are brought up as I see this rock. It has been pounded on the North Shore, rocks against rocks. It is as close as I am going to get to being in Minnesota this year.

The former owners dumped a rock collection that must have been in an indoor fountain, into the rocks around the house.  I picked them up and leave them out to see.  My oldest grandson had been here and I again found them scattered back into the rocks around the roses.  It bothers him that the rocks are not with all the other rocks.

The youngest grandson played in the bird bath and I noticed later that he too had placed rock in the bird bath. I added a bigger one for birds to perch on while admiring the water.

The vining honeysuckle did not bloom much this summer but some watering of the plant did bring out some new blooms. I like how there are little yellow blooms on the end of those long narrow horns.

The seed group from the Jack in the Pulpit plant is starting to turn red.  I remember seeing them in the wild and the red seed group would be laying on the forest floor.

The hosta grows in spite of its bad location.  The side of the house with lots of clay soil is the location.  Rhubarb is crowding it on the left and a volunteer tomato behind it is crowding it too.  The tomato plant is a yellow pear tomato that is so sweet to eat.  I know from experience that a lot of those tomatoes don’t make it into the house as I eat them on the spot, dirt and all.

We are receiving rains today.  We had a good rain in the middle of the night as I lay awake listening it. It was sprinkling when I took Barney this morning.  If it does what they say it is suppose to do, we will have moisture coming down all day.  The grass looks better already and maybe I can mow it to even it all out height-wise.  We have missed rains all around us for the entire month.

It is Monday and it will be a busy day at home today.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Mind Control is Out of Control.....

A blurred view of what I could see last night.  As the moon looks like it is halved.  I have been seeing the new moon behind the neighbor’s tree the past few nights but it has changed position in my view.  I took a few shots, with no tripod, so I show you the best of the blurs.

The lawn ornaments have been moved around a bit as they spent most of the summer up next to the fence. These geese are a whole lot better to care for than all the ones that live in our city, for real.

Fox tail is a weed in our state and I see that I need to do some weed pulling. As a kid I would have fun with the plant pulling the seed flair and flashing it about.

These seem to be my favorite colors of zinnias, until I start taking some other color groupings.

These are bright and cheery.  They aren’t smaller though, I just held the camera farther away from the flowers.

A little mixture of the similar color makes for a good color study.  I like how zinnias put out so many different forms of flower shapes.

The white ones are nice to see.  There seem to be less of the them this year.

I am late posting today. Some days I get out of sync and thought that I had done the posting.  Then, by late afternoon I realize I haven’t checked in with my people. The aging process in my body seems to be an easy cause to blame. My brain really is not up to par anymore and I am now getting to be surprised to realize that I don’t remember much.  I do still function.  Anyway,  thanks for stopping by today.  Tomorrow is ahead of us.

Saturday’s Posting.....

Saturday is starting out as a quiet day.  No clouds and a cool start for the day.  All the vines are doing well and the morning glories really do retreat by noon.

The dinner plate hibiscus blooms and then falls to the ground.  The pod shape that remains is a nice color before it does shrivel up too. It is good to see more buds on the stems ready to bloom.

The time is flying by for August.  My greenest grass is at the back yard where it is getting shaggy.  I won’t mow for at least another week.  I really can’t remember when I last mowed as dormant grass doesn’t need much care. The television weather person just said it is going to be a hot day at the fair.  We are not going there so we won’t get overheated. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday’s Blog Posting.......

The cloud reminds me of the mountain carving of an Indian chief that is being done in one of the Dakota states. I took this last evening before the storm that came through and missed us. I could see it  on radar breaking into two parts. Our town didn’t get more the ten drops per square foot. Early morning we did get a little more then.

I was late in getting this pan planted with moss rose.  It took forever to bloom until I put it out into the hot sun. The granite ware pan does have  rusted out holes in it to allow for drainage.

When I was a kid on the farm in southern Iowa my mom would plant this in a couple of different places.  It would come up from its own seed each year. The photo here shows the  first few blooms in the pan after it was placed in the sun.

We did got two tenths of an inch of rain early morning.  It was so little in amount that the sidewalks were dry by early this morning. A few trees were dripping some moisture but it was not a major rain. I may go ahead and water today as we have large cracks in our soil and I last watered on Wednesday.

Our sky looked like this a few evenings ago. We were getting rain at the old place from these yellow clouds. I bet I could drive down into the river valley and see quite a view of this sunset.  We drive south about three miles and we are in the Des Moines River valley where there are still open views because of the farmland there. The town of Johnston is sort of in the road but it is farther away enough that a sunset can sort of be viewed.

Normally we never see the clouds in the evening but when the color is this bright you can’t stop what we are doing and go out to see what is going on out there. That being said, we sometimes have greater sky shows in the front of the house and we don’t see them unless I go out with the dog.  I have been looking for the new moon and I realized that it is out there but its view is blocked by the neighbors birch trees.

 Our youngest grandson added rocks to the birdbath when he was visiting. I liked what it looks like so I added more with a main rock for the birds to sit on for a drink.

No big plans for today.  We took off to visit the pie place yesterday afternoon and had a great outing. It wasn’t busy and we didn’t have to wait to be seated of for our meal. We have a short shopping trip to do today and maybe will get a few groceries at the same time. Friday is here and the week did fly by quickly.  I wish you all to have a great day.  Thanks for checking in today.

Thursday’s Here......

The clouds in the sky tended to make a better shot with the common sunflower.  We continue to have high humidity.

This color of morning glory is blooming on the deck.  It grows out of a window box planter and is vining around the trellis and the decks railing.

My newest hardy geranium is putting out a new set of blooms. The red is a pure color.  I lost the one plant that had the deeper red color. Planting it in the pot was a good move for me as I can now bring it inside for the winter.

The quilt block has found a new home in the garage.  I could put it in the room in the basement where all the old quilts are stored but this seems to be a good place for now. I am glad we took it down as it did look out of place.  The trend to place them on barns and outbuildings looks good but having in the largest gable of the garage didn’t really work for two people who are not quilters.

Having the gable be a blank statement looks good.  It seems to balance our other side of our living quarters. Most houses in this neighborhood have three car garages and the right side of the house is not balanced with one room and an entrance door. The newer designs for houses are ones with all garage doors and a minimal view of a door and one set of double windows.  Most all of the house is behind the front to the house.

I had decided at first to not plant sunflowers.  Then I planted four on the edges of the garden.  I later added more so that their are seven of them in my forest.  I really am glad that I did.

I am off to the old place today to do more work in the kitchen. I have the flooring replaced and it looks great.  I have a strip on one end next to the stove that needs to be finished with lots of cutting of pieces.  I should have that done today and if things go well I will have the quarter round all cut.


We are still not getting the rains that we need.  It rained south of us for half of a day and it rained at the old place last evening.  I would’t complain except that the forecasters show us getting rain everyday for the whole week.  Nothing happened yesterday and it doesn’t look promising again today.  Thank you for stopping by today.

Middle of the Week.....

I was late in buying the moss rose because I never saw it on sale.  A few weeks ago I did see some and it is planted now.  It was not doing well in the shade so it sits in the hot sun now. Once it gets normalized in the pan it will put out more than just two blooms.

My small tomatoes have rebound and is putting out a new batch of tomatoes. I did see that I am over watering my tomatoes as some of them were splinting. I read that info yesterday on the net and will now back off the watering a bit.

My marigolds blooms are not doing well.  The few that are ok are helping the bumble bee to get some food. I have more dead blooms than fresh blooms.

My large grocery store puts out roses like this once in a while. I could pick up three  for ten dollars. I know of a couple of friends who have them overwinter without a problem.  The lady that sold them to me says to cover them with thick leaf cover and they do come back.  I just have to find a protected area for them and get some good black soil for the be planted in for good growth.

I have tried to grow them inside over the winter but they just don’t like heating systems. I like how they are truly a rose, just smaller in size.

The phlox that I bought recently did come with names. I had misplaced the pot for this one but now do know the name to be “Laura”. My challenged mind probably won’t remember but for now I will make a effort.

We had a sprinkle of rain for a lot of the evening.  It was a good think as we got about a half inch of rain. It seems to keep raining above us and also below us.  What ever we get will be good. The clouds are still hanging around but we are now starting to clear.

I usually go to the old place on Wednesday but I am just going to ignore the job for now.  I think I caught a cold from the dental technician.  The sneezing and aches and pains seem more like a summer cold.  It is causing me to have low motivation. It may be just nothing.   Thank you for stopping by today.

Second Day of the Week.

I am curious as to how tall the sunflowers have grown.  I will take a measured reading some of these days.  This is the second bloom with six left to bloom.

The heat was hard on the two blooms with he yellow petals becoming all shriveled. I hadn’t water for a day and that was probably a part of the problem. I am thinking that is a bumble bee on the flower.

I would hate to think that this is the last of my flowering season but the petunias are struggling in the heat.

This one variety seems to be strong with drought conditions.  My next door neighbor who has regularly watered his grass was out mowing his yard last night. He is back watering again this morning.

The locust tree is such a nice tree for a front yard specimen. I have been watering the burning bush when I do the flowers as its leaves look pretty wilted in out weather. You can see the neighbor’s wedge of yard with all its green grass in this photo.

The zinnias have thicken up with more blooms as I keep watering them every chance that I can get.  I am off to take the car for an old change.  The car itself complains to me that I need an oil change. The computer contacts are harassing me too.  It is about as consistent with warnings as the dentist office is. I made in through the dentist appointment and spent the rest of the day getting over the experience.    I had drug out the time between the last appointment at the dentist but I finally responded to their calls for care.

Thanks for stopping by today.