Wednesday, June 27, 2018




 I love the laciness of this lily.



 This lily is actually orange.  Near the redneck pond.


I tried to only have one of each color but I duplicated 2.  So 9 different colors and not all of my daylilies are blooming yet.  I get so excited with each new color and where I planted the lily.
Today watered the south and west beds next to the house.  Today's temperature is suppose to be in the high nineties.  Tomorrow over 100.  Too hot for the end of June.
I also weeded a strip of the vegetable garden and mowed on the rider.  Didn't accomplish much today but I was outside for a couple of hours.
Steven mowed around flower beds in the front and the south bed also.  Then he and Tom put up the pool.  We didn't put up the pool last year But I think that I'll use it this year if we continue to have this hot weather.
I sewed for a couple days this week.  I was trying to finish the mystery quilt from Overbrook class that Julie and I took in May.  I'm almost done with the rows, there are 9 and then I need to sew the rows together and then there are 3 borders.  Still hours of work to do.  Tonight is quilt guild.  I don't have anything new to share.
We visited Mom on Sunday.  We usually do.  Leland goes to church with us and then he asks whose turn it is to chose where we will eat.  And he reminds us that we visit Grammy after lunch.  Mom greeted Leland when we went in her room but she didn't really converse with us on Sunday.  Sunday's become a long day for us.  Took Leland home after 3 and then we went back to church at 6:30.  Pastor Don shared pictures, etc of his trip to Cuba.  We are so financially blessed.  There is a lot of poverty in Cuba But Don shared their strong faith in the Lord Jesus.

Thursday, June 21, 2018



 Today I discovered that there is a 3rd color of these similar daylilies.  Pictures later.
You can usually smell this oriental lily from across the yard.  Several more blooms to come.  Bed in the middle of the bed with the clematis.
I didn't work outside for long today.  Tried to pull some bind weed.  I have said it before I HATE bindweed. Hoed some in the vegetable garden.  The mammoth sunflowers are up and a couple inches tall.  I'm trying to convince Tom to plant the rest of the mammoth sunflowers on the north side of the shed.  He and Steven cleaned that area up this year.  Except for planting more sunflower seeds I'm done with planting this year.
I weeded under the tomato plants in the big garden yesterday and I'm paying for it today.  Lots of chigger bites everywhere.  I don't know why they love me so much.
It has looked like rain all day.  But we the few sprinkles that we received aren't worth mentioning.
Ayvah and Malachi are here this evening while their parents take classes for foster care to keep their license current.
Time to cook dinner.  6:20

Monday, June 18, 2018


 Daylilies are starting to bloom.  This daylily and orange echinacea are in the east small bed on the west side of the house.
 West side of house.
 Another picture of lilies in the tub near the redneck pond.
 Asiatic lilies in the north bed.
Wisteria finally planted in the new bed.
Today I finally planted the last of my vegetable garden.  I planted 2 rows of green beans.  Wonder is there is enough time for them to grow and mature?
Have a new blister on my right thumb from hoeing in the vegetable garden.  Need new picture of the vegetable garden.  Most of the garden has straw covering the ground.  BUT the grass and weeds grow up and under the straw.
I will never know why I wanted to plant such a large vegetable garden.  But with Tom's help and Stephen, our hired helper, we have a larger garden than we have ever planted before.  Tom has most of his stock tanks planted this year also.  We are in desperate need of rain.  My water bill will be beyond scary.
I have tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra, squash, melons, pumpkins and sunflowers planted and all are growing with a promise of bearing lots of produce.  Tom goes to farmers market in Auburn on Tuesday afternoon and if the garden produces an abundance maybe we will do the farmers market in Burlingame this year.  Both are really small farmers markets.  The Burlingame farmers market is late afternoon so maybe I can stand the heat.
Leland was here on Friday and Saturday.  He spent the night and went to church with us.  Pastor Don was out of town and Tom preached.  Tom's sermon was on fire and I could tell that it wore him out.  His sermon came from the "Lord's Prayer".
Ayvah was here on Saturday while her parents went to training to keep their foster license current.  Josh & Kate say that they have asked the foster system for a baby.  July 13 they sign adoption papers for Ayvah and Malachi.  Our 2 youngest grandkids will be come official on the 13 of July.  It has been a long process But oh the JOY.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

I have a blister in the palm of my left hand.  The first one this year.  I'm working on a new bed, stupid me, on the north side of the arbor.  I trimmed the few grape vines that are still there and have a few plants to put in there.  I started the bed for a wisteria plant that I bought a couple of weeks ago.  Joyce has already planted the wisteria that I bought for her.  A new bed requires digging around the outside of the area and laying leveled bricks where I have dug.  Most of the dirt needs to be removed from the bed also.  I have 6 bags of garden soil, hope it is enough.  Anyway pictures to follow later.
Ayvah and Malachi are here today.  So I'm not being a good Nana.  Too busy working on gardening.  I overheat easily and then I become crankier than usual.  We didn't eat breakfast until 10am so that gives us a while before we need lunch.  Thanks Tom for fixing waffles for us to eat.
Stephen was here this morning to work but I have to have him redo the pulling of weeds from under the tomato plants.  He is a good worker and will do almost anything that we ask him to do.  But he has to be supervised all the time.  Gardening is hard work and its no fun to redo what someone has already supposedly done.  Enough griping.
It's cooler outside today than it has been but by 12:30 we were ready to come in out of the heat.  This will be the year that we remember where the weather went from winter to 90 degree weather.  We didn't really get a spring time this year.
Ayvah and Malachi are in the living room taking to Papa about knee caps.  Must be time to take my shower and spend some quality time with them.

Monday, June 11, 2018

I had this picture with the flowers and somehow I moved it.  Anyway.  Royal Palm turkeys just a few hours old headed for the shed to grow.



 More pictures from the south bathtub.

 This clematis did really well after I cut it back in early March.  The short yellow Asiatic  lily is to the left of the clematis on the south side.
 This is the only bed that is truly finish for this year.  Cypress mulched.  There are butterfly bushes at each end of the arch.  Day lilies and a couple of Asiatic lilies.  The purple flower growing on the arch is a clematis.  At one time I had a clematis plant on each end of the arch but there is only one on each side now.  Daylilies are newly transplanted so it will take a few years for them to mature.  Last year Tim put the paver blocks in the arch opening.  I think that it looks really good.

These are in the north bed.  The white trumpet lilies used to have 6 or 7 blooms in a circle.  There are only 2 plants and this year there is 3 on one and 2 on the other.
I never tire of looking at the flowers.  And every year I change something.  Keeps me busy.

Saturday, June 9, 2018


 2 pictures of the south bathtub.  Not quite fully in bloom.  Late afternoon.  May try for a better picture later.  The wind and heat has knock a lot of bathtub lilies over this year.
 This is called "Ruby Spider".  I bought one from Lowes last year and it didn't make it.  So now I've bought another ($13).  Put it in the south bed.  The blooms are as big as my hand.  Just so beautiful that I couldn't resist.

South bed, south part of the bed.  So pretty.

Today, I finished the bed with the small arch. I only had one small corner to finish it.  Moved a couple of plants around, divided a lily from the big arch and put it in this bed, cypress mulched and water.  Guess I should have taken a picture if this is my plant diary (lol).  Planted my Lowes red daylily. Weeded a few pepper plants in the garden.  Wow, that doesn't sound like very much work.  Stephen worked on the big arch today.  Still some work to do out there but the ground is really dry.  Watered the big arch so hopefully on Monday it will be ready to work on.  Making a small bed on the north side of the arch for the wisteria plant.  The plant name that I couldn't come up with yesterday.  Leland was here and helped some.  We really need RAIN.

I haven't been talking about quilting because I haven't been sewing.  Using all my energy outside right now.

Friday, June 8, 2018

Purple  Echinacea's are not one of my favorite flowers But this plant is chest high so it deserves special mention.  In the south bed.
 Pretty more to come looking at the buds.

 One orange tips and one yellow tips.
 These must be a double bloomer.  The above 4 photos are flowers in the south bathtub.
Three plants one bloom.  In the zinnia bed.
Today I planted a few more plants in the south bed by the house.  Tom worked on Spaghetti squash seeds, bell pepper plants & he put pavers in the bottom of the kids playhouse.  Not sure what else he did because I didn't go out where he was working.
We have hired Stephen Parker (no relation to Donny) to work a few hours a week this summer.  He worked (I did some supervising) on digging out the grass on the north side of the big arch.  Stephen also pounded in a few fence stakes for Tom today.  Stephen & I cut out some of the dead grape vines.  I can't think of the name of the plant right now that I want to plant out there on the arbor/arch.  The name will come to me when I don't need it.
Anyway vegetable garden is coming along and so are the flower beds.  Lots of work.  I am having to be careful because of bottoming out on my blood sugars.  But I'm really enjoying myself.  Too much hot sweaty work.  LOL

Monday, June 4, 2018

 My goal is to keep a record of what is where this year.  These are actually orange and in tub next to redneck pond.
 I think these were called Lily-Pop and are in far north bed.  I don't remember the name of the yellow flower but I do know that it has a long tap root and I was unable to transfer one several years ago.
 I bought these this year at Lowes.  There are in the bed with clematis growing up trellis in the middle of the yard.  I also bought several Asiatic lilies that had already bloomed.  I think there are 3 near this plant.
 These are on the other side of the bed from the previous lilies.  There are a peachy red color.
 These are in the south bathtub.
 These are in the south bed.  They are also orange.
South bed.  Purple echinacea chest high.  As you can see there are lots more plants to bloom so lots of opportunities to post colors.  Time for lunch.