Monday, April 30, 2012

Monday's Blast of Color......


I have been holding this photo to put up when I ran out of shots.  This is a geranium that I have nurtured all winter from a scrap plant that the neighbor had on her garbage heap.  It sits in the window in the living room and put out such a tall shoot that I didn't know the blooms were there.  They were hiding behind a blind.  The other plant in the pot is a white geranium and it doesn't act like it is going to bloom for a while.




Sunday, April 29, 2012

Spring Green Growth..........


The Japanese Yew puts out great color with it's new sprouts of growth.  I have tried to prune them into a shape and I guess I don't know how to do it correctly.  I wanted a globe shape and all I get is a larger shrub.



It is such a nice green and eventually the new growth turns into a darker shiny color.  The rain on Friday night did help make them look greener.



Saturday, April 28, 2012

Rain and Wind..........


The continueing winds for the last 24 hours, with rain, caused my spirea bushes to drop most of their flower petals.  The wind was measured up to 60 mph gust and it was nasty.  It also dropped to 42 degrees F.  We should warm up to 61 degrees by afternoon today and that will seem better.



Friday, April 27, 2012

New Bloom...........


A new bloom in my garden.  I don't know where the  plant originated but I think it just took a few years to finally bloom.  I like the color and the way it has outlines on the falls of the flower.



Thursday, April 26, 2012

Translucent Wings.....


The butterfly shows through it's intense color found on the inside of its wings.  The outside are a light color but the sun does shine through them. I have never been able to photograph them with their wings open.  You can also see the little honeybee friend below him.  I had not seen it until I posted the photo.

The yellow sulfur butterflies were plentiful and there were cabbage white ones out there but they were scared of the camera.




Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Columbine.........


When I was young and living on the farm, I made my first attempt to transplant columbine.  We had a lot of timber and I dug some columbine from out in the wild and moved it to the north end of our house.  I am sure that it is still growing there today.

This columbine I bought commercially but it is just like the ones you find in the woods here in Iowa.  I have not had any success with any other colors of them as they did not survive our winter.  I know that they grow well in different states both hybrid and wild ones but I can just grow this variety.






Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Getting time to stand still.......


Red Admiral
The warm weather earlier this spring cause a larger amount of these kinds of butterflies to appear. My allium is a big draw for them and I have four or five at the flowers at all times.



Most of the butterflies that I have observed like to close up their wings while they are feeding and this particular one had great markings on the back of it's wings.  There was a gentle breeze and the sun was sitting, so my lighting was good and bad.  I had to be careful not to shade my objects when standing to the west of them and then the sun did shine through their wings washing out their color.



On a one photo a day basis regularly I broke my own rules.  I wanted to show you three of the many photos that I took of these beauties.  I did have to search to find the name of the butterfly and the nice thing about blogs is that you can go back and edit them.





Monday, April 23, 2012

Monday's Moulding......


While taking photographs of the birch tree I looked up and saw a good architectural shot of the house and bay window.  I see that I need to do some painting. Also you are able to see the leaves on the birch tree which are nice and shiny right now from the sprinkle of rain. The bay window is original to the house but I replaced the flat roof on it with a peaked one so the water would readily run on of it.



Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Late Saturday Post.......


A simple shot of the redtwig dogwood.  The flowers are great in contrast to the dark shadows of the dense bush.  This dogwood has become very invasive and I am going to take out a few branches that are crowding out the fernleaf peony, an iris, and a hosta. I took a start from it last fall but I guess I need to take some more and plant some in another location.



Friday, April 20, 2012

First Iris.......


I classify this as a cemetery iris because I am sure that is where I got the start.  They are small and I believe this is the very first year that they bloomed for me.  I kept thinking that I needed to move it the past two years but now it has itself established and has many buds and blooms.




Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Rainy Morning........


The lilac bushes will be about done by the end of the week.  They bloomed well and were out for a long period of time.  Most of the flowering trees are done now.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sculptural Form........


As the tulip starts to fall from it's stem, it changes colors and becomes misshapen.  The colors are turning into a nice faded pattern.  It is time for the bulb to get nourishment and revive for next year.




Tuesday, April 17, 2012

It is almost time..........


This globe allium is starting to go into full bloom.  It has become cold again but it doesn't seem to bother them.  They too are early this year along with most everything else in my yard.  A good snow would jolt the whole yard a bit, so I am hoping that doesn't happen.




Monday, April 16, 2012

The Wind Does Blow.......


Strong winds have been around for two days now and the dead limbs of the trees are being thinned out. They are laying all around in my yard.  The other thing that is falling is all of the silver maple seed pods.   They usually fall after they have dried out but instead quite a few are being stripped from the trees.  The squirrels really like them green as the seeds are juicier.



Sunday, April 15, 2012

A Rainy Day.......


Storms were hitting all over Iowa last evening  and it is to be cloudy and rainy most of today. The tulips will be gone soon.  I am sharing a bright yellow tulip to show a little sunshine.




Friday, April 13, 2012

Beautiful Blooms



I snapped a photo of my neighbors lilac.  It was a purchased plant which is a different color than the traditional purple or lavenders that I have all over my property. My lilacs came from Minnesota as starts from a bush that I had in front of an old cabin that I owned.  My white lilacs came from the neighbors in the alley.

The freeze didn't seem to bother any of the them.  They actually  bloomed a lot earlier than usual and they are going to start dropping their flowers with the rains and wind that we are now experiencing.




Thursday, April 12, 2012

A Pale Perspective........


The cool weather is starting to take it's toll on the tulips.  I think we are now done with the hard freezing and the tulips have been blooming for a long time so they were ready to fade away anyway.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Tom Tom the Neighbor's Cat........


Tom Tom is the name we gave to our neighbor's cat. He is a good friend of ours as he likes to eat from Yellow Kitty's bowl on our side porch.  A gentle cat that puts up with Yellow Kitty growling at him while he eats from her bowl. He is a young cat compare to our 14 or more year old cat.

He is warming himself on the car after we had returned from church.  As you can see Tom Tom is about to have a cat nap. He lets my wife pick him up and I sometimes can pet him.  He is always welcome to visit  and if he is there during feeding time,  he and Yellow Kitty each have a bowl of food.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

At the Base of the Tree............


The birch is over 35 years old now and these tulips look great against the bark.  Forsythia that rarely blooms keeps spreading into the area and the bishop weed shares the space with the tulips.



Monday, April 9, 2012

The Sun is in the West......


It is late afternoon and the light falls just right to give good lighting on the blossoms and to give great volume on the trunk of the tree.



Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday


It is a cold start here in Iowa but the sun is shinning for Easter Sunday.  The 34 degrees will warm up to 60 by the end of the day.

I wish for your family a great Easter Sunday.


Saturday, April 7, 2012

Blooms in the rain......


The apple tree is in full bloom with the lilacs in the foreground.  My raspberry plants are doing well to the left in the foreground also.



Friday, April 6, 2012

Finally it is Friday........


I can't seem to find any other kind of subject matter at this time so I am going with quality of the photo as my criteria. I have a lot of new things up that I had transplanted form the farm and things are budding but no different kind of flowers at this point.  We became very cold last night, it being under 40 degrees F. It doesn't hurt this kind of flower but we don't need any hard freezing which could of happened north of us.



Thursday, April 5, 2012

More of the same.........


More tulip photos for you today.  I haven't been out to see if anything new is out there to photograph.  The color of these two are wonderful.



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Lilacs of Different Colors.......




The warm weather really did speed these lilacs to bloom.  We will be cool now for the next week and a half.  They don't mind cool, wet weather so they will last for a while.



Monday, April 2, 2012

Monday's Trio...............


This is a different variety of daffodil than the ones I have shown you before now.  I have just a few of these and I like the small yellow center cup with the orange fringe. We were in the 80's yesterday and will be that warm again today before it cools off to the 60's.



Blurry Blue Cup Day.....

 It is Monday and I am a little blurry eyed today. It is fitting then my blue cup is blurred a little because it is in low light. I was too ...