Bloomin' Tuesday and Boring

I haven't been feeling the greatest for the last coupla days, major fatigue had set in.  Some of the problem may have been the hot weather and I may have overdone it a bit, but so far today, I feel more like my old, crusty self, so things are looking up.  

I haven't posted anything, haven't taken many pictures, haven't done a whole lot of anything creative.  I guess sometimes we have to take it easy whether we want to or not, right?  Add to the fact we are working on a new stone landscaping 'thing' (for lack of a better word) and it's not going well, which is rather depressing.  I'll post about that tomorrow.  It's supposed to start raining again by this afternoon and not quit until Friday, so I'll have ample time to post, I guess.

AND:

The power company has been here the last few days, trying to install a new line between Mom's house and ours.

As I write this, there are three men stalking around in my front yard, trying to figure out how to bury a cable without destroying the flowerbeds.  Do you see that big machine in the distance in the picture above?  Well, it needs to come through here and bury a new power cable 4' deep..........oh, boy............but now they are talking about maybe boring under the garden......I hope so!

SO, I'd better post some flowers for Bloomin' Tuesday, before the big equipment makes them a thing of the past!

A quick picture of my 'Fireball' hibiscus (who is in the direct path of the Power Company! before it is no more.

Annual salvia 'Victoria'

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' (What would we do without this plant??)

Oh dear, I hear the excavator engine starting up, they are getting closer:

This is the smallest of the sweet potato vines, which should be safe from excavating due to the rocks, ha!

Yellow Dahlberg daisies and purple 'Imagination' verbena.......I wonder if the verbena would rebloom if I sheared them down?

I think I will try deadheading them and see what happens.

Coneflowers in the path of the excavator...........

Oh, well, I can at least move my potted plants without a problem!

All those pesky rocks in the way, hopefully making the idea of boring under the garden more practical...?

 Ok, there are now four guys milling around in my driveway, I guess I really have to go.  Let's hope we have a 'Boring Day' or I will be digging plants out like a madwoman!!

While I'm defending my flower garden, zip on over to Bloomin' Tuesday and see what's blooming for everybody else!

Karen

Fertilizer Friday, mid-August!

Here we go with another installation of Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday!

I ran around in the yard with the camera last night just before sunset (do you notice how much earlier the sun is setting already, gosh, I'm not ready for fall yet!) so some of these pictures aren't the greatest, but here goes...the first two are taken out by the Quarry:

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Now I'm back by the Pachyberm:

The 'Wave' petunias are finally starting to fill out

Not all of my Rudbeckias have given up yet, though the majority of the volunteer plants have succumbed to powdery mildew.  These are new seedlings from this spring.

'Shenandoah' switch grass turning red

'Indian Summer' Rudbeckia and Panicum 'Northwind' on right; in the background is panicum 'Dallas Blues'

Through the trumpet vine trellis; Miscanthus in bloom

Out in front, not much is happening, I had to pull out most of the ailing rudbeckias and trim the echinaceas, but the red 'Spellbound' impatiens in the pots are doing really well yet:

Supertunia 'Bubblegum Vista' is really putting on a good show too, even though the pots they are planted in are mostly roots now.  Being perched on a fencepost in all the wind is not the easiest location for them, but they handled it very well.

 

Sweet potato vine, doing its thing

Down by the formal garden----oh, things need work down here, lots of deadheading and weeding needed!

'Karl Foerster' calamagrostis, malus 'Coralburst' crabapple trees and some nondescript marigolds...

From the 'dome' looking out

Tried to capture the sunset in the quarry pond...I guess you had to be there.

Getting darker, over by the Pachyberm again

Right behind the Quarry waterfall--we really need to do some plant work in here, things are getting overgrown

This pouting angel statue reminds me so much of our youngest son, David, when he was little--he was not always a happy camper about the gardening around here.

A few of the 'Blue Butterfly' delphiniums are blooming again along with the 'Matrona' sedum in this picture taken from the Quarry hill

Ok, that's it for this week's Fertilizer Friday here----now head on over to Tootsie's and check out what everyone else is growing!

Strolling through the past

Joel had vacation the other day and asked me if I wanted to take a road trip with him to a few antique stores.  Well, I sure did!   We went to a HUGE antique mall and spent over three hours going through most of the inventory.  At least I think it was most of the inventory, after awhile you get kind of dizzy from looking at so much... er....stuff!

  We are always on the lookout for anything to do with stained glass, especially vintage lamp bases, and also for furniture.   Though we saw all sorts of things, neither of us found anything we wanted to buy, which was rather amazing.  We tend to divide and conquer in these stores; luckily we have our cellphones so we can locate each other, sort of like a modern day 'trail of breadcrumbs in the forest' idea. 

Cruising antique stores is one passion, the other is photographing statuary and stained glass mausoleum windows in graveyards.  (I know, it may sound like an odd past-time, but there is so much beauty to be found in many of them, from the elaborate stonework to the statuary carvings and stained glass.)  We stopped at several cemeteries on our way home and Joel took some pictures near sunset. 

Chapel on cemetery grounds.

You'll have to bear in mind, these pictures are taken through the glass doors of a mausoleum so the quality isn't 100%, but the setting sun helped to illuminate many of them very well.

Me, peeking through the door

Unfortunately, many memorial windows have fallen victim to vandals.

Lovely gate and stonework

But even having gates or bronze bars doesn't stop vandals----many mausoleums have their windows and doors barred up or closed up with plywood or cement. I'm sure there was a window installed here years ago.

This dog statue was next to the family plot; he must have been a much-loved family pet.

Beautiful carving

From inside...

to outside

What many of them look like from the outside

From inside

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The marble frame has fallen down, but at least the window is intact.

Some windows have been replaced.

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My thanks to Joel for taking his 'antique' maternal unit out for the day, another lovely memory to cherish.

Love,

Mom