A New Day

The sun is shining ....  for now.... at least.  We have already had a half inch rain.

The boys are still here (in bed) so I have a quiet moment to maybe catch up the blog.  I let the boys do their thing which is stay up around a bonfire half the night and sleep in....works for me.

I have their breakfast already made.  Gravy using left over smothered pork chops from a dinner over biscuits which I will cook whenever....maybe eggs on the side.  They are drinking us out of milk.  We had to make  a run to the market for 'store' milk yesterday evening.  DH milked this morning so we now have 4.5 gallons cooling!  The Jersey is outdoing herself.

OK.  I have only been outside once to work since the girls came  down on Friday evening.  I took advantage of yesterday mornings sun to begin pruning the Korean Boxwoods by the back porch.  This is the first time I have pruned them.  I guess all the rains have  pushed them into overdrive.  They were encroaching on the doorway.  The tops  still need to be leveled off.



I also got the garden fence border trimmed.

This is taken on the east side of the smokehouse as I walk to the fence around the garden. Clematis Nelly Moser surrounded by seedling poppies.



I am seeing seedling poppies every where, even in  the grass.  This is just to the  left or west of the garden walk-through gate.


I wish the captions stayed with the pictures but they don't.  This is clematis Harlow Carr, lilies yet to open, and salvia transylvanica.


and further down the fence:



Clematis Huldine, with lots of self-seeded Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate growing at the base, and persicaria polymorpha is back.  I thought It had  died out but I have two clumps back this year.

I will save the rest for another day.....took 29 pictures!

Just a hint:  Our neighbor boy (16)  came down and asked for work.....he is now trimming the front ditches.......doing a super job so far.  If he has staying power, I will have him do the entire yard.

First picture:  This is the east ditch that was 2-feet deep in cheat grass and other weeds.  I didn't take a before pic; I wish I had.



More to come

Memorial Day

I hope you all have a wonderful 3-day weekend and remember what Memorial Day is really all about, remembering and honoring not only our war dead but our precious family members.

I  will be absent for several days......I am having company, grands plus three of their friends....that makes 6 under the age of 21!!!!! we  will wall to wall sleeping.  Think of us stepping carefully over  teenagers stretched out in the living room floor.......DH will become a 'grumpier' old man before the 5 days is up!

I love  these grandkids and love having them;;  I just hope I am up to the task!

Planted At Last

I am still playing  around with header or no header....this one fits but is too large!  More changes to come.

Garden

Yesterday was a good day.  I went out fairly early and planted a row of tomatoes (two cattle panels long), all the many and varied peppers (I lost  my mind here!) and 5 eggplants.  I also manged a l0  foot row of Fortex pole beans.  I have still more warm season things  to go  now I just need to wait for the 'warm' season. We have had two pretty  cool days.

This morning wasn't promising for work but I did go out and feed the chicks, cleaned the nests and mowed the chicken yard and the west end of the garden area before the sprinkles arrived.

Inside

I cooked a pot of  white beans  and ham and made a small blackberry cobbler and tried a mincemeat tart instead of the turnovers.  The tart is easier and just as tasty.

From cooking

In Bloom this Morning

These are Red Cored Chantenay Carrots in the barrel planter.

 This peony is just opening and is very fragrant;
 wish they all were but  they are not.

 Wabash is still looking very sharp.

 Unknown heirloom iris.  This one was here when we moved in 1992. The previous owner said she got it from  another neighbor and they used them in her daughter's wedding so I am guessing 45 years at least.

This is what happens when it rains and the iris are heavily laden with blooms.

Swingtown iris and peonies in Well House bed.
That is Old Blush rose near the other building.  The lilies aren't quite there yet.

This clump of iris is Bride's Halo.  It is on the east  side of the driveway entrance.  I recently uncovered it from the Cheat Grass (note more in the ditch).

 Close up of Bride's  Halo.  I love this one!

One of my few remaining roses.  It is a Dr. Griffiths but I don't recall the name....Prairie something or the other.

 Should be lots of poppies later .

I believe this is rosa 'Felicia', very fragrant.  A

Hybrid Musk type.

Cross Pollination, new bread and new blooms

Sometimes  this is a good thing and sometimes it is not!

In the case of my Dame's Rocket it is a good thing.  I started with these:



Then one year I had some white ones.  Since I hadn't  any whites to cross with the purples I am thinking these were self-seeded and the white genes were in the plants.



Now I have some that look like these:



They are all fragrant in the early morning before the sun is up good, probably at night to but I am not out there then to check!  (I am early to bed/early to rise).

 I have been sticking  to the l-2 hours a day trimming until the showers began yesterday and today.
So far, we have just had about 1/2  inch.  We need several inches.

Finally the recommended  Contractor responded with a feasible bid to screen in the dining room porch, lay tile flooring and build a custom screen door. He said it will be about 3 weeks....in the meantime, we will clear cut the honeysuckle vine in his way. It needed to go anyway.  I am very excited about this project.  Now we can enjoy the outdoors without cats and puppies and wasps and other flying creatures and no maple seedlings to sweep up.  I will take before and after pictures.  We will leave the house siding as is in case.......it is just a screened in porch; not another room.

I am delighted. I plan to get a bid on enclosing the very small entrance porch that one person has used in 23 years! I want to make this my tiny computer office. It will be about 4.5x6 and is right off the living room.

Dont know yet if I will have a door to the outside.

5/7/15

I trimmed the garage wall and the east end garden, l hour, put my tools away (DH will be delighted not to have to do that later in the day......) Came in and have a new recipe of oatmeal bread going. Interestingly it calls for a teaspoon of cinnamon to 5.5 cups of flour. I don't think the taste will be significant. The dough looks good and is now in the l hour raising period.

It turned out great; just a faint taste of cinnamon.  The only negative is that loaf is dense right at the bottom crust.  I don't know what causes that.

From 2015-05-08

Each day something new  blooms:

Clematis by old chicken house with Blueberry Bliss iris:  I Think the clematis is 'The President'

My red iris:

Do iris cross pollinate on their own?:  This didn't have the edging before and it is near Wabash:

This was moved from cellar bed where it was buried from view:

 

and iris 'Swingtown' in the wellhouse bed:

The bed is a little bedraggled after the rain:

Lilies will be here shortly.  I see the clematis behind the pony has dropped down.....need to do something about that.

I should have lots of self-seeded poppies later:

This clematis H.F. Young by the garage and near the garden gate

Please note the wall of the garage bed.....this had weeds three feet tall a few days ago.  

 

 

April 30 - May 2 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

The last day of the month...how  can that be? 
The last two days have been very cool with lots of dew in the mornings and  then very nice in the  afternoon.  Tonight should be our last 40° night....I hope.
I have been trimming an hour or so each day and am finally getting something done.  I just have  to  not think about  the entire job.....just plug along and do my 1-2  hours daily. 
I also mowed around the back yard and garden yesterday.
In bloom:

The patch of red oriental poppies:


Lisenby (neighbor)  iris in the kitchen bed:

 

Lamium groundcover in the same bed:




Iris Immortality in the old Ash Tree Bed  (maybe the Kerria Bed now.)

 

From 2015-05-03

Kerria japonica pleniflora



A samll patch of Dame's Rocket here and there.

 



On the garden fence (all  trimmed and  weeded but not mulched yet)

A clematis whose name escapes me :




I have been tying up clems and trimming (this should have been done two months ago before new growth).

The oldest rose  I have planted in the 90's, Old Blush or the The Parson's Rose, a China but does well for me in this sheltered location,


 


May 1 2015

I went out fairly early and planted 4 bunches of Candy onions.  I know I am extremely late but  will see what  happens....just a lot of very small but sweet onions I am sure.

I decided to finish mowing but the rear tire was way down, after making one strip around the west side of the drive (I forgot about the tire!), the tire was off the rim!  DH took it in to have it fixed.  It was late afternoon  so mowing will wait until tomorrow.
The results of the flat tire:

 

I have the string trimmer reloaded with string and gas so it will be ready to go when the grass dries.

Random Thoughts

When Jean showed us the labels for  storing things in the new Gator building, I had to laugh.  Just recently, I labeled all the drawers on DH's chest so he would quit destroying the order and forever saying he was out of something!  Well, it has worked like a charm.  Why did it take me so long to figure this one out!  It doesn't look too bad and I am  not fussy about decor.