Speed blogging. It rained!

My timer is on 13 minutes today from whatever I was timing previously. Let's see where my stream of consciousness takes me for the next 13 minutes. 

Not from my yard but from our early morning walk in Frederick last week.
The coneflowers in our yard are being eaten by some hungry insects as soon as they bloom.

It's a quiet Sunday morning. Ward is still sleeping, and I miss having fussy cats yelling about their breakfast being late - no matter what time it is. A peek out the window reveals puddles in the driveway. Glorious puddles! We finally had real rain last night - over an inch. Hurray! The thunder started to rumble at bedtime, but I didn't mind because along with it came a real downpour. With the heat and no rain, we've been watering, trying to help the plants cope. For the first time ever, we emptied our entire rain barrel. Now, they have gotten the deep drink they deserve.

Also, from our walk. Our Black-eyed Susans haven't bloomed yet.

More storms are predicted for the afternoon. I think it will be a good day to focus on things inside. We've been using early mornings to work in the yard. We're making good progress on the two-page list we have. Trees have been trimmed, flowers planted, beds edged, bushes trimmed, beds mulched, and plants watered. Despite attention, some plants, including the grass, look pretty stressed from the heat. The heat has turned much of it brown, and the twice-a-week mowing has turned into no mowing. That's one reason we have had time for some of the other yard chores. I have a feeling that last night's rain will change that. 

Another picture from our walk.

In the garden, I have pulled the broccoli and peas. Ward built a nice frame around the broccoli to keep the cabbage butterflies out. Didn't work. They found their way in anyway. Luckily, we got good heads off the plants before the caterpillars started feasting. The side shoots were not so lucky. Oh, well. It was getting too hot for the broccoli anyway. 

I also pulled the pea vines. We got a good crop of peas this year with a couple of meals, and I froze some. We have small zucchini forming and many green tomatoes. And true to form, the deer found the tomatoes and carefully pruned the top 1/3 of all the plants. If that's all they do, that's okay. I'm willing to share. Like I have a choice. :)

Well, there goes my timer.

Until next time...

Feline Friday

 Danielle at Sweet Tea Reads is participating in Feline Friday, where you post a picture of a cat, real or imagined. Even though we don't have cats anymore, I do have a few pictures from owning them for decades, so I'm playing along.

A cat and his bag.
Not only was Lucky in charge of this bag,
 he was the king of the other cats when we had four.

An Early Morning Walk

 I had a couple of days off in a row this week and felt like doing a staycation. However, the weather was too hot for several things we first considered. And other things were closed on the days available to us. After searching, we decided to do the Public Art Trail in Frederick, MD. Frederick is a small city (pop. 78,000) founded in 1745. It is steeped in history and has an active arts council. 

We set out at 7:30 am to beat the heat. It was pleasant in the shade, but it was getting hot by the time we finished an hour and a half later. Not only did we find everything on the tour, but we also saw several historical houses and other murals and sculptures that were not featured. We definitely want to explore more in the future.

If you want, you can join me for the tour we took. I have posted more pictures than I usually like to, so no problem if, at some point, you want to skip ahead to the end. 😀

Community Bridge. This bridge was hand-painted over five years, with symbols of the community spread throughout the stones. Those are not stones and a gate you are seeing. It's all paint on a flat surface.

Iron Bridge. It is hand-forged and represents flora and fauna found along the creek it crosses.

Marie Diehl Memorial Drinking Fountain. The fountains honor Deihl, the founder of the Frederick Humane Society. It has drinking fountains for people, horses, and dogs.
 And they all work!

Zodiac Sculptures. There is a similar one on the other side. They are intended to connect time, universe, and humanity.

Edge of Gravity Mural. This is one of three of Angels in Architecture. The image depicts a person of indeterminate age, gender, and race attired in clothing from 1745 when Frederick was founded. 

Charity the Dog. This cast iron statue has been on this property since the 1850s.
 (It's an 1820s building.)

John Hanson Statue. Hanson served as the first President of the US in Congress after the Articles of Confederation were ratified.

Becky the Calf sculpture. This bronze statue of a calf pays homage to the cattle that used to graze along this creek.

The Spire. This was made to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Baker Park. It is made from agricultural machine parts to reflect Frederick County's agricultural history. The spire represents the clustered spires in the poem Barbar Fritchie by Whittier.

Victory, WWI monument. This was in Memorial Park, which had several monuments to people who had served in different wars.

Guess, Greyhound Sculpture. Cast iron sculpture replica of original marble one carved in 1839. Supposedly, the young girls who lived at the house would say, "Guess" when asked their dog's name.

Clarke Fountain. That's Cain and Able on top playing. It was originally built in the late 1890s and was rebuilt in 1965.

Dinosaur Mural. This is a large mural (30'x150') on the side of a parking garage in a narrow alley. It was a fun mural that depicted dinosaurs doing winter sports.

Earthbound Mural. This is the second mural of the series of Angels in Architecture.

Angels in Architecture Pheasant. This is on the same building
 and on the same side as the one above.

Egress Mural. The third installment of Angels in Architecture features
 a wood duck entering the streetscape. 

Until next time...

Happy West Virginia Day

 Today, we celebrate the day West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863. As most of you know, I grew up in West Virginia--a fact that I'm very proud of. West Virginia is not large in either size or population, so not many people know much about it. Or they only "know" what they've seen on TV or in the movies. Let me see if I can give a brief summary of what West Virginia is like.

Like most other places, West Virginia has many different kinds of people and ways of life-- especially since our two panhandles reach far into other areas. Go to the northern part of the state, and it is like the Northeast. Go to the far eastern part of the state and you'll identify with Washington, D. C. Take a trip to the southern reaches, and you are definitely in the South. And when you're in the far west, you are in the Midwest. If you grew up in the middle part of the state, like I did, you can choose whatever you want to identify with because there are bits of everything.

Also, like most other places, there are rich people and there are poor people. There are well-educated people, and there are poorly-educated people. There are people who like grits and ramps and others who don't like them at all (that would be me). But I'd say that almost everyone likes biscuits.

Besides biscuits, there are other things that bind the state together. People here have a connection to the land. This is where they hunt and fish, and where they grow their vegetables and graze their cows or goats. They appreciate things from the past, such as quilting and dulcimer playing. They also appreciate the beauty around them. Whether it is hilly terrain of hills and hollows (hollers) or long mountain ridges with long stream valleys, it's all very scenic. The people of West Virginia are a very resilient group of people. Life has not always been easy for many people here, but they find a way to keep going.

But the thing that strikes me the most about West Virginia is the friendliness of the people. I have found friendly people everywhere I lived, but not always the comfortable friendliness that I have experienced with the people of West Virginia. I hadn't realized this until a young Theo asked me a question one day as we were traveling back to visit his grandparents. He said, "What makes everyone so friendly where Grandad and Grandma live? It's different from where we live." I started to notice that he was correct.

So there you have it. I have just summarized 24,230 square miles of land, 1.77 million people and over 150 years of the history of West Virginia in just a few paragraphs. Maybe another time, I'll tell you more.

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But wait, there's more:

Want to learn some interesting facts and trivia about West Virginia? Visit here.

Until next time...

Around the Yard this Week

 We are under the heat dome like much of the country, without any rain, so we are trying to keep things watered enough to survive. Some recently planted things are struggling but haven't given up yet. But despite the heat, and maybe because of it, there are things blooming around the yard. Here are a few things I saw recently.

The bumble bees love the lamb's ear blooms.

And the spirea around the corner.

However, there are only honey bees on the hydrangea. 

This is the mum I took out of the trash at work and planted last fall.
 It's a little confused and blooming a few months early.

In the same bed as the mums, I transplanted several black-eye susans and cone flowers. Something is enjoying them and has eaten the tops off of many of them.
However, there are still some that show promise of blooming.

The butterfly bush is in bloom. However, I've only seen a few butterflies so far.

A new color of yellow daylily is blooming.

And around the corner, the orange ones starting to bloom just today.

Purple sage.

Look carefully. There are 4 zinnia plants in the picture. Despite the diatomaceous earth around them, they are still being devoured by earwigs. However, the diatomaceous earth has slowed down the demise. The first dozen I planted were gone in one day. These have been out for almost a week. The neighbor has had to plant her vegetable garden twice because of earwigs.

Hydrangea. Wally and Theo got me a hanging basket that contained 6 hydrangea plants. I have transplanted them around the yard to see if I can get them to thrive. So far, they are all hanging on but have definitely suffered in the transplant process. This one had all of its leaves and much of its stem eaten by a rabbit (?). However, I was pleased when I saw new growth. 

Until next time...

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and father figures.

I was looking through old Father's Day posts to see if there was something I wanted to use again, and I found this from last year. 

"Today is Father's Day. We're going to celebrate with my father-in-law and Ward's siblings. Yesterday, Ward, Wally, and Theo celebrated while I was at work. They spent the day cooking using the sous vide and the grill. Fun toys for them. I was at work all day but contributed a cherry pie that I made the night before. The carnivores enjoyed their time together."

Guess what? Today, we're going to visit my father-in-law, and Wally and Theo came over yesterday. Theo cooked dinner on the grill while Wally helped Ward with a project. The carnivores (Theo cooked chicken and sausages) enjoyed their time together. I had to work all day but made a cherry pie the night before for dessert. 

Boy, we are more predictable than I thought. 😁

While I was perusing, I found a post from 2013 about my father and his garden that I am rerunning today as I remember him on this Father's Day.

______________________________________________________

My Father's Garden

For most of my life, I watched my father garden, and I learned a lot about life as I observed him adjust to the ever-changing world surrounding him there. 

He usually had an acre or more of vegetables growing every year, and I watched as he spent hours and hours, days and days, and weeks and weeks planting the garden. He'd plant 20 rows of corn, and the crows would eat 20 rows of corn. He'd plant beans, and the rabbits would feast on the leaves. He'd plant tomatoes, and the groundhogs would take one bite out of each one. And the deer—they liked EVERYTHING in the garden. 

So he put up an electric fence. That worked except for the things that could go under it, like the rabbits. Then he put up a chicken wire fence inside the electric fence to keep those critters out. And that worked except for the creatures that burrowed under the fence like groundhogs. So, he buried fencing a foot underground, which worked for the digging critters. Now, all he had left were the flying creatures. So, he put up scarecrows and shiny streamers, and that sort of worked, except for the wild turkeys. And turkeys are like the deer in that they like EVERYTHING in the garden. Turkeys are really smart, and for several years, the turkeys did more damage to his garden than all the other animals combined.

But yet he kept on. He would plant and plant again. He would hoe a row, and he would weed a row. He would stake the tomatoes and build teepees for the beans. He would fertilize, and he would carry water. And along about the middle of summer, the first of the bounty would need to be picked and picked and picked. And my father was happy. 

As time passed and the kids moved away from home, my father planted his huge gardens. He gave away most of what he grew, but he was happy. My mother finally convinced him that maybe the two of them didn't need such a large garden. It was hard, but he cut back. He adjusted just as he had when the crows ate all of his corn. And then, because of failing health, he had to move to a nursing home, and he was not sure if there would be a place to plant a garden where he was. However, he adjusted, and he was happy.

When I grow up, I want to be like my father and his gardens. I want to do things when they need to be done, just like my father did when he had to water his plants when they needed it, not just when he felt like it. I want to keep working on anything important until I get results, just like my father did when he had to plant his corn again and again. I want to adjust to changing situations just like my father did when he had to downsize his garden. And most of all, I want to find a way to be happy in any situation, just as my father did when he had to leave his garden and couldn't live at home any more.

Note: My father passed away two months after I wrote this.

Until next time...

Speed Blogging Check-in

 As I often do, I am doing my morning check-in of email, fitness app, Wordle, and blogs. And sometimes, I squeeze in time to write a post. And that's what I'm doing this morning - squeezing in a post by speed blogging with a timer. My timer happens to be set at 12 minutes. So here it goes. Twelve minutes of stream of consciousness. 

We recently celebrated my FIL's 91st birthday.
Ward's family likes to play music at family gatherings.

You may (or may not) remember back in January, we started a project of going through our house room by room and decluttering. It took a couple of weeks, but we successfully touched everything in our bedroom and bathroom, reorganized, and purged what was no longer needed. Next, we moved onto the office and started with all the paperwork. And I am thrilled to report that we finally finished last week. Yay!! Double Yay! We haven't worked steadily on it for the last few months, but I was determined to finish. We shredded several big bags of paper during the process. But papers are like dishes and laundry; there are always more being generated. 

We do many things online that we used to do with paper, but paper still abounds. Someday, when I'm feeling ambitious, I will tackle all of the files on my computer, including pictures and email. But next up are the rest of the things in the office. 

However, at this time of year, the outdoors are calling. We planted more pots this week, including four big ones for our porches. My attempts at making planters have never been that successful in the past. If I make a decent-looking one, it never holds up. The plants grow at different rates, and the whole thing looks lopsided in no time. However, this time, the people at the nursery showed me groupings that you just plop into a pot and water. It helped that there were examples they had been growing for a while that looked quite good. It was cheaper buying this grouping than buying individual plants. We'll see how they do.

This was my attempt to take a picture of the first tomatoes that are forming. They are hard to see, but if you squint, you can see one above the bloom on the right.

I also planted zucchini and basil this week. None of the basil came up from last year, so I bought some plants. The zucchini was hard to find. Lots of yellow squash out there, but not zucchini. I found two scraggly plants at Walmart after visiting several stores. I really have to get coordinated next year to start it from seeds. However, the beans are up from the seeds I saved from last year. 

I harvested the last of the spinach yesterday, and the peas are ready to be picked. I hope Ward will pick peas while I'm at work today.

There goes my timer. Time to get ready for work. I have to leave early today because I am feeding my sister's cat while she's on vacation.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and gets a chance to feel the sunshine.

Until next time...

Around the Yard This Week

 We've recently had some hot and humid days, along with the stormy weather they often bring. Luckily, we didn't get the worst of them. Friends not that far away had 2" hail at their house, while we only had rain. Today is going to be a pleasant day with moderate temperatures, so I will be taking advantage of that with some puttering around the yard, probably focusing on more planting.

In the meantime, here are some things I've seen recently in the yard.

Siberian iris. 

One of the storms had a rainbow at the end. It was hard to see through the clouds, but it was there.

Impatiens. These are planted in front of Ward's shop in a planter his dad made from an old hot water heater.

This lettuce didn't come up last fall when planted, but did this spring. 

The peas are blooming.

Another rhododendron is in full bloom.

It's kind of hard to see, but this little bee on one of the rhododendron blooms was more loaded with pollen than I have seen any other bee carry at once. Notice the pollen sacs on either side; the back was covered like that, too.

One day, I planted 12 zinnia plants, and the next day, they all looked like this. So disappointing. But I guess all of God's creatures gotta eat.

The first Stella Dora day lily has bloomed.

Purple sage.

Our soil is very rocky, and I've been collecting the rocks we dig up. Bless, asked to see my rock pile, so here it is, Bless. It's several inches thick. What looks like dirt are pine needles on top.

Not all rocks make it into the pile.

We just discovered that a woodpecker has been at work on an evergreen tree behind Ward's workshop. Woodpeckers destroyed a maple tree at our old house. I hope this one doesn't meet the same fate.

Also, behind the shop, we encountered this juvenile blue jay. (Debris is in the background from the neighbor's garage, which is under construction.)

Until next time...