Friday felt like a typical July day with lots of humidity and hot temperatures and chances for severe thunderstorms. Just before dark, they came! In short bursts of enormous energy, it rained 2 1/2" accompanied by wind and lots of lightning. Thankfully, we had only a few small limbs down. Saturday, hubby and I worked on cleaning up the outside. We had a trailer full of garden trash from last fall and this spring and of course our ceiling tile had all been thrown on as well. We took it out to his brother's farm and dumped it in a pit to be burned later. To get to the pit we waded water and had mud to our knees throwing the trash off the trailer. While hubby sharpened the blades on the mower, I took a rolling magnet around the yard and driveway to pick up any stray roofing nails. He mowed our hay field(it had been 3 weeks since we had mowed) and I took the power washer to the stone patio. Both jobs took the better part of the afternoon. I finally finished my chore and came in to take a much needed shower. He stayed with the mowing and then broomed the cut grass and got it hauled off. Needless to say, we were both tired. But it felt good to get the yard and outside back into shape.
Today, I took time to check out my gardens as well as the flowers at my Mother-in-law's. I was surprised at how much things had changed in just a couple of days.
I am not too sure what this flower is. I remember planting small bulbs here a few years back but have no other recollection about them. Still, I enjoy their dainty yellow blooms.
A Martha Stewart 'heritage' rose is just about to open. This is a deep red that almost looks like velvet. Maybe the Japanese Beetles will stay away long enough for some of my roses to show pretty blooms.
Good old 'Betty Prior' is full of promise. It is a great standard in the world of roses. She has few petals and looks old fashioned(which I like) and is not a fussy type. Even the beetles leave her alone.
The columbine that I planted years ago, is in full bloom. It has spread from one small plant to several all over the end of that burm and looks such a pretty purple mass.
My Iris has another bloom, and this one is even bigger than the first one.
In my last post, I talked about my MIL's iris and wanting to transplant some of them to my garden to keep them going in the family as she is now in a nursing home. Today, I decided to see just what she had. These yellow and bronze are one of the ones I think of as old fashioned-original iris.
And of course the pale all yellow ones.
These, too, were some of the very first iris I remember as a child in my grandmother's yard. My granddaughter calls these "root beer flowers". She thinks they smell like root beer. Well, maybe a little.
Oh my! Look what else she has in her iris beds. This is a huge rust colored one.
Such a bright yellow!
And these purple and white ones are gorgeous.
This is a pale pink on top with a hint of yellow then a lavender towards the bottom. It looks like an orchid. I am going to be very busy this fall!
I also found more peonies than I remembered. A pale pink double with darker outer petals.
A truly enormous double deep pink one.
And lastly a pale pink to white double. I feel a case of peony envy coming on!
Then as a treat for all you bird lover's, I wanted to show one of my shots of rarely seen birds. Lisa, are you ready for this?
Okay, maybe they aren't really rare. But I did see them in a very unusual spot. We went to a small town ice cream place this afternoon and while sitting out under their umbrella, up walked these two chickens. I think they must have come from the outskirts of the town, but seemed very much at home pecking around the trash can.
The latest update on our roof. The work was completed late Friday afternoon. Or so I was told by the men as they left. However, and this is a big however! The heavy rain we got Friday proved them wrong. I had a virtual waterfall in the front part of our living room. I didn't get a picture of the water actually pouring through as I was too busy setting out bowls and buckets and towels. This picture was taken the next morning. We have a skylight in this area(separate from where we have the new ceiling tile) that lets in much needed light. After moving the love seat and putting down the towels, etc. I called the contractor. He came over in time to see the leak. "Did this leak before?" "Well, yes-a little recently, that was one of the reasons for the new roof." DUH! He did promise to make it right...to his credit, but when? Hopefully tomorrow, before it rains again! I am keeping my sense of humor about this as I have always wanted a water feature. But maybe outside would be a better place for one.
This week is supposed to be a really warm one here. So I am looking for the gardens to grow triple time now. I hope your week is warm and that your gardens grow before your eyes.
