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

 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.

Planted the last 5 Dahlia bulbs today.  To plant them I dug out the less than favorable dirt on the north west bed next to the house.  I dug down 6 inches, Tom hauled the dirt to his stock tank gardens and we replaced the dirt with compost from the compost pile and finished off the top with garden soil.

The rest of the bulbs, plus a few that I don't have the picture for, were planted over the last few weeks.  Now I have to wait and pray for the bulbs to come up.

As I think I have said before we have been busy with vegetable garden and I have worked on more than half of my flower beds. Only 4 more beds to work on.  Hope I get them done this year.  The beds that I have left have bind weed in them.  I have never figured out how to get rid of the bind weed.  UGH.  Is that a word?

More pictures to follow later.  As soon as I shower we are headed to Orschelyn's and Panera Bread.

 Tom tilling the garden.  It has been tilled twice by Bill's tractor.  Need to get the straw down and plant pumpkins, watermelon and cantaloupe.

My tomatoes, peppers and squash seeds at the far end of garden.  In the front of this picture is a marigold.  Marigolds usually grow really well in the garden area if the rabbits don't find them.  We have hired Steven Parker (no relation to Parkers' in Burlingame) to help with some of the gardening work this summer.  He worked on Saturday.  Leland was at our house and he helped also.
I can only work a couple of hours, with breaks and then I'm done.  But it feels really good to be working on vegetable garden and also on the flowers beds.  I didn't do much work last year and then I remembered that I spent 4 days in the hospital last year over Mother's Day weekend   I had a cyst on my kidney.  After I got out of the hospital I went to Topeka for weeks for IV infusion medication.  Every time I went to the doctor for the next 6 months I told them that I was still really tired.  And doctors told me that it would take a long time for me to feel well.  Guess I'm feeling better.  Some days I wish that I could still work like I did 20 years ago.  63 is not old but being so overweight slows me down a lot.
More garden work to do.  So hopefully more pictures.

 This is a bush that Margaret Elmore and her sister Mary gave me as a cutting probably 15 years ago.  I didn't think it was going to bloom this year.  But look at it.  Margaret and Mary called it a beauty bush.  And it is.  I've been working on gardening.  In the last week I've mostly worked on the flowers.  Still have a lot of work to do.  I've also planted 8 tomato plants in the garden the Bill Sherry kindly tilled for us this year.  It's only the middle of May but there is lots of work to do.  Gardening is always a satisfying.  Tom's inside and will be cooking our breakfast soon, we should eat by 10.  Thanks Tom.

This is the only time Leland would let me take his picture on Saturday, September 16, 2017 at the state fair in Hutchinson, KS.  This woman was allowing people to come up and pet her goat.  Leland is growing up so quickly.  Maybe Leland will want to join 4H and show goats.  We had watch goats being judged and his favorite was a black and white goat.

On the way to the fair I asked Leland what he was hoping to see.  Papa and I had already told him that there would be farm animals.  Leland told me that he wanted to see a turtle.  Of course I told him that turtles are not farm animals and that he probably wouldn't see a turtle.  The first thing that we stop to look at was the petting tent.  Low and behold the first pen held a Turtle and a kangaroo.  Wow.

We walked through the poultry, rabbit, cow, etc barns.  Ate good junk fair food.  Cotton Candy comes in a bag not on a stick.  Who knew certainly not me.

We had met Josh, Kate, Ayvah and Malachi for breakfast in Emporia and we all had a good visit at the fair.  After 4 hours I was done and we left.  Josh and his family stayed a couple more hours.

Leland taught us a knew song on the way home.  "When we all work together".  It was a song that he had learned several weeks ago at church.  We don't take him to church often enough and I was extremely impressed that he knew all the words to the song.  He likes to sing.

Life is passing by too quickly.  I need to figure out how to grab hold of what it important and let go of the things that don't matter.

Lord, forgive for when I make mistakes and help me to remember that your LOVE can carry me through every day.  cathy

Yesterday, June 16, 2017 I went to the quilt show at the Overland Park Convention Center with my sister Julie and her daughter Jennifer.  Wonderful show.  I overheard people talking about how the show gets better every year.
I hope it's not an age thing with me.  Pretty sure that it is a weight problem, anyway I digress.  I had a hard time walking around the showroom.  Pain in my feet, knees and hips keep me from fully enjoying the show.
Julie and Jennifer had a great time spending time looking through the booths.  I bought 2 patterns.  One was a Lori Smith pattern.  I love her patterns but don't think that I've every made one of her quilts.  The other pattern was a "this and that".
I'm working on the red and white blocks that Lisa Borgean posted last year.  I'm on block 19, only 6 more to go before I start the set together.  I'm using these as my leader enders.
After being sick for almost 6 weeks in April and early June I'm finally getting caught up on my blocks of the months and my gardening.  With Tim's help the flower beds are looking great.
Well, I don't have any pictures to post today.  But maybe this is a start on using this blog.
P.S.  Tim's Katy is 6 weeks pregnant.  That will truly make me a great-grandma.  Oh my.