Flower Fun

It's Nov 8 and we still have flowers blooming in the front and side yard . . and one on the porch.

Thus pot of Geraniums has been under the mailbox,
next to the front door
since we bout it at Save-A-Lot this summer.
 It has bloomed continually.

If you can see the deep red/burgundy,white,yellow
and "coral" flowers
those are our snapdragons.
 always forget how hardy they are in the cool/cold weather.

On the north west corner of the porch,
behind the snapdragons,
is our Spiderwort.
We found it this spring,
 when we were planting the hill
for the snapdragons and marigolds.
It had been dug up when the plumbers had to
lay the new pipe to the sewer.

It was lying there . . roots bare and looking so sad.
Now look at it!
It has NEVER looked this good.

Then we have these poor yellow daisies.
We bought them in June when we were in Indiana.
They just kind of "laid" there in the spot I put them.
Figured they would die.

Now look at them . . . 

Growing just the way we wanted them to grow.

Now we have the Christmas Cactus

that hung on the south side of the front porch all summer.

Now it is hanging in a south facing dining room window.

Time for More Flower Pictures

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our front flower bed.

It is just JAM PACKED with flowers

(and one fruit) 

this year.

I've shown you pictures from the front

but shown from the top

really shows how packed it is.

Looking to the left you will see the bottom of our light pole.

In front of it is the Mallow.

to the right is part of the Rudbeckia,

or as we called them Black Eyed Susans,

that came up as a surprise.

In the bottom right are some day lillies

that bloomed quite a while ago.

Then to the upper right we  have part of our GIGANTIC Rudbeckia plant.

Notice the big leaves "flowing: through the Rudbeckia?

That is our "voluntary" pumpkin

from one of the seeds Mr or Miss Squirrel dropped last winter.

Can you believe how HUGE that Black Eyed Susan is?

Next year we will be dividing it among neighbors 

an family members

In the very front of the left corner are two Mums.

They are the smallest of our Mums.

We have one plant that must be,

at least,

3 feet in diameter and,

at least,

18" to 2 feet tall.

When it blooms

I will post pictures.

See the little white "blob"

to the right of the Black Eyed Susans?

That's my 2 foot tall garden angel.

The Purple Coneflowers between her and the Black Eyed Susans

are close to 4 feet tall.

On the bottom right corner is or rosebush,

wish it rebloomed.

To the right of the angel

you can barely see the marigolds and snapdragons.

Next to the rest of the garden, they look like samples.

24 July 2014

Wish I could write more but my TMJ is hurting so bad 

I have a heat pack on it.

Best stop and pay attention to the pain :(

Front yard, hanging baskets & Indy.

Front yard with some spots on no grass :(

Rose Moss surrounding Hens & Chickens
I can't remember the names of the purple mass in the front.

Marigolds surrounding Snapdragons

SoapWort

I can't remember the name.

Rudbeckia

Coleus

Rose Mallow

More Back Yard Pictures

The husband has finished weeding, digging, adding topsoil and mulching the back yard. It looks SO NICE around the edges. Next, till the yard and over plant with grass seed :)

Everything looks so nice and clean. 

Notice the Lilac bush on the other side of the fence? There were all kinds of trees growing in it and through to our side of the fence. The woman who owns the property never comes out to do anything in the yard, so we talked to our neighbor, that's their red SUV on the other side of the fence, to see if he had a chain saw that could chop the tree's down. Today, he came over with one of the saws he has . . . I think he must have every tool possible in his garage . . . the house they bought was small and, basically, he added another whole house on the back of the existing one, so he is one handy guy to know.

Cutting down the Maple Tree sapling.

Of course, we had our fur~babies out with us.

This is Nora, Mike's dog. She is just the sweetest pup there is. Before they "laid the law down" with her, when she would get bored with what the kids were doing, she would come up on our front porch so she could come in and play with Indy. Well, I really think she was coming in so I could love on her.

And of course, 

Miss Indy had to check out her newly renovated bathroom :)

I think she approves.

Yard Work

On Monday, the husband and I stopped b y a local lawn service that also sells bulk top soil and mulch. We placed our order for "one bucket" of top soil and "two buckets" of black mulch.

This is what we have in our driveway now.

We have used a lot  of the topsoil in the front yard. We have a TON, well, maybe not a ton, but a whole bunch or small holes in the yard and then, after the sewer lines got fixed, we have torn up places from the back hoe and the area they had to dig in.

What we did yesterday was "bury" a drain from our down spout  under what will be a mound of flowers. This area was where we had a beautiful butterfly bush that had to be dug up when out sewer connection was broken.

Not sure what we will plant on the hill, but we do have an angel statue to place on top of it.

It rained pretty well last nights, so the dirt we added to the yard yesterday has settled so we know we have to add more to FINALLY make the yard level.

Notice the purple flower with the yellow center. That's our Pasque Flower. This year, instead of blooming on Easter, it started a week later. Just look at all the blooms now. It will continue to  bloom for quite a while and when the blooms die, the seed pods are very interesting to leave in the garden.

We have "the cemetery" finished. On Monday, we bought three different types of Hens and Chickens. I split them up and planted them in the back part of this bed, down the sides and ended up with one for the front.

Today, the husband put mulch on the bed, so it is looking real nice. All we need to do now is find some Moss Rose (portulaca?) to mix in with it for some color.

I think this bed is so  pretty right now. Those King Alfred Daffodills just make our home stand out from the others on the street.

I spent my afternoon weeding this flower bed. If you look at the mulch/topsoil photo, this is the fence that runs beside the driveway to the garage. The day lilies that are already leafing need to be thinned but I wanted to weed first. I didn't weed this garden  last year so you can imagine how bad it was:(

Now, I need the husband to dig up the day lilies so I can split them up. I don't mind one or two in each of the spaces where the clumps are now, but I want to be able to plant some Coral Bells and other Butterfly inviting flowers here . . . And we grow green beans on  t he fence too :)

Indy's Boots

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day. I was sitting inside working on E's 2nd Birthday present and was feeling rather homesick. So I told the husband that Indy and i were going for a walk and he could come along if he wanted.

So, we took off . . . checking out the plants in the front yard before we left.

The front yard is starting to look a LOT better.
I have planted three more "patches" of the King Alfred daffodils.
One set behind the plants at the corner of the steps.
One set in front of the rose bush by the steps
and one final set to the left of those orange tulips next to the flower light.

This is my Pasque Flower.
It is supposed to bloom on Easter,
no matter the date.
Every one I have ever had,
be it in Indiana or here,
has always opened the day before, Easter, or the day after.
This year, it was a week late
but the wait was worth it.
It is such an interesting flower and will continue  blooming
for almost half of the summer.

We just walked around out block . . . and it is one of the BIGGEST blocks I have ever lived on. It can take us, at a stroll and many stops for Indy to smell and mark  her territory, 30 minutes or more to walk it.

Today, it was pretty quiet. Indy was only barked at by a basset hound and a beagle. While the beagle was barking, we were talking to the woman who owns him . . he was inside in the front window and she was outside by her car.

By the time we got around the corner, the beagle was running and barking in his fenced in back yard. Since Indy is very good about coming when called, I let her off her lead and said, "Well go get him. You need to run and play."

Well, she did . . right up to his fence and they ran up and down the fence barking at each other and enjoying themselves.

Indy came back once, jumping over the HUGE puddles of water that sit on this empty lot. But, and I know you know this is going to happen now, when she went back to run some more she went right through the muddle puddles. This, from a dog who HATES to go out in the rain and hates baths . . . except when she is at the groomer when she likes them.

When we were ready to finish out walk, I called her and here she came, hitting every mud puddle between her and us. This is when we noticed her paws. They looked like she had put on mud colored boots. We should have been mad . . . we I should have been mad at  me for letting her off lead with mud puddles around . . . but all we could do is laugh. She had so much fun and was as proud as a peacock that she had been allowed to run and came back when called.

When we got home we sat outside until her paws had dried enough to let me take her into the bathroom. She wasn't thrilled about getting into the bathtub, but she did and the mud just rolled off of her. She wasn't happy, but there was no way I was going to let the mud dry and fall off all over the house.

Here is my pretty girl with her muddy boots on.

What do you think if Indy's bandanna?
Her groomer makes them and each time she goes in
she either comes home with a seasonal bandanna
(this one is Easter Eggs)
or a bow with ribbons for the season or closest holiday

Checking out her "kingdom."

Ah-ha! Tell-tale mud on her front paws.

And look at those back paws.

Yep, these pure white legs need to be washed.

Easter 2014

From Maundy Thursday through today

this song is continually on my mind.

I not only love the words

but the memories of singing this in church,

on Easter morning,

bring back such happy memories

that I had to share it with all of you.

It is a beautiful Easter Sunday,
here in Western New York.
The sky is a beautiful blue
and the clouds that are in the sky
are light and airy.
A beautiful day to go outside
and see what flowers
Easter has brought to us.

The daffodils have opened
 to celebrate HIS rising from the grave.

Today is also the husband's birthday.

It may not look like much here
but this is my Pasque (also called Passion) Flower.
It looks dormant and then on Easter,
no matter the time it occurs in the spring,
the flowers will start opening.
It may be hard to see but,
on the upper left of the plant,
there is one but ready to bloom.

Two sets of daffodils and a couple of hyacinths
in our poor front bed.

Documentation so,
later on this summer,
I can compare pre and post
"garden remake."

Indy checking out the sites up the street.

Indy is such a happy dog when she is outside
checking out her "turf."

See how pretty it is today.
Reminds me of the Easters
I remember growing up . . . 
warm enough for one's
Easter finery.
Days like today do signify 
that God has truly blessed us
by allowing us to see a new spring
and the beginning of the Earth
renewing itself.