More flower pics

This week at work, there was almost nothing to do.  No one wanted to start a project the week before a holiday.  And, that was fine with me.  I spent the week cleaning up projects.  Doing those last minute things that it never seems like there's time for, like auditing, and converting my free form ramblings into repeated text that can be counted.  Boring stuff like that.  But, it filled the time and now it's done and those projects will be easier the next time I need to work on them.  Friday was extremely slow and I should probably enter Friday afternoon as paid time off for all that I got accomplished.  

We're having a bit of a heat wave with oppressively high humidity.  Thankfully that will break in a day or two, not like in July/August when it seems to last forever.  I spent as much time as I could in the yard on Saturday, just cleaning up and doing a little watering.  All the hard work is done for the year and now it's just "tweaking" things to get them to look their best when we look out from inside the house this summer.

Over the week, a few new daylilies bloomed.  A friend gave me several daylilies that have never bloomed and it seems like they're blooming this year.  I'm enjoying the surprises.

This one is a pinkish-peach color with a gold center, making it different than the other peach daylily I have.  I'm only going to get this one bloom this year, but that's okay.  Now I know what it is and can move it into a better spot for next year.  

And, this red one that I don't recognize.

The greens are really putting on a show and I recently found another clump of these that are in a bit too much shade and will also get moved this year.  

This is a daylily I bought at the end of the season last year for half price.  It had one flower left on it that bloomed after I got it home and this year, it's putting on a very nice show.  

And, this "ditch orange" daylily.  This is supposed to be the least desirable daylily.  They have a tendency to take over and they're so hearty that they grew in the ditches in front of old homesteads.  I think they're pretty but my Mom always said "get rid of that now and let me send you something pretty".  They come in a double and a triple.  I think this one is a double.  It has two sets of orange petals.    

I mentioned last week that I'd made a strawberry jar of succulents.  Can't wait to see what happens here.  

This is my vegetable plot.  Two years ago, it was an idea.  Last year, it was a concept.  This year, it's an experiment.  I'm learning things that I think will make it even better next year.  There's a huge stump here that makes gardening challenging.  This is also where I set up a temporary greenhouse in winter, so I don't want anything permanent.  Im trying strawberries and blackberries, carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans, pickling cucumbers, bell peppers and zucchini.  Way overambitious, but I figure some of it will make it and some won't.

There aren't a lot of big plans for today.  Walk the dogs, clean up in the greenhouse and my home office a little.  I have plans for grilled pork chops, potato salad, and coleslaw for lunch with homemade ice cream for dessert.  All in all, a pretty laid back day.

I'm feeling inspired to sew.  I have a shirt I need to finish for Rob that went on hold when my Mom got sick and I'm sewing together a sweater I made over winter (and secretly planning my next one).  I'd also like to do some quilting.  Maybe finish something I have started.  Maybe start something new.  Maybe pick up that Asian inspired quilt I started not long ago.  Who knows.  I'd like to get back into making Linus quilts.  I like that I don't have to think too hard about them.  

I don't know how I used to get so much quilting done.  Does it mean I get less done now?  Or just doing different things?  When I think about quilting now, I don't get excited.  I go into my quilting closet and I don't feel inspired.  I feel overwhelmed.  I have supplies for more quilts than I can make and have trouble letting go of the excess.  I need to find a balance.  

With everything else we do today, we have to remember the patriots that gave their lives to protect our way of life.  And, we can't let that way of life be destroyed by those that would suppress our freedoms.  We mush fight autocracy and genocide at home and abroad.  And, we must prevail.  There's no other option.  

Have a great week!  Lane

Anniversaries

 Last week was my 40th anniversary with my employer.  Yeah, that's a long time.  It hasn't been the same job though.  I've had lot's of challenging jobs in that time and those challenging jobs are why I've hung around.  The company was willing to offer me new challenges periodically; chances to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities.  And, I was generally ready for something new when it did.  

They made me a half hour congratulations video.  They cast a wide net of people I"ve worked with over the last 20 years.  People that went on to be big corporate names like Chief Human Resources Officer and still took time to say a few words of congratulations and how nice it was to work with me.  One pointed out that my name is everywhere in our products.  Designed by.  Written by.  Created by and credited to...me.  

That won't last long after I retire, but it's out there now and will stay there until I'm forgotten like all the people that retired before me.  Someone will come along and want to put their name on new work and my work will be archived.  

Forty years.  How did that happen?  I've worked there since I was 22 and now I'm 62.  I've grown up there.  I was advised by some really smart people.  Sometimes they told me to speak up.  And sometimes they told me to shut up.  Both are considered good advice.  

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I spent all the time I could in the garden this weekend.  This time it was mostly about cutting spent early spring plants back to make room for new plants that are trying to come up and planting things in pots, especially succulents, which will be the features on the deck during the hottest part of summer.

Three different color coneflowers (echinacea).  Yellow, orange and red.  Conflowers are so easy to grow here and I'm hoping these three eventually get as large as the pink ones (~2' tall).  Considering I nearly killed all three by putting them in the wrong spot last year, I'm feeling pretty good that they're blooming at all.  The spindly things around them are some short phlox that bloomed really early in spring.  

This daylily is called Peaches.  It's a lovely peach color.  It's one of my Mom's hybrids and is named after her dog...you guessed it; Peaches.  It was also in the wrong spot last year and I'm happy to see it bloom this year.  

Gladiolus.  I'm getting a nice stand of glads.  Unfortunately, these are the only three that are going to bloom this year.  I found a couple more in spring that I'm going to move to this spot soon.  They're in too much shade now and I'm hoping that moving them into this spot will give me more flowers next year.  

Please disregard the empty pots, but this is a pencil cactus with a rick-rack succulent planted at the base.  There are two this size.  I got one and Rob has the other up front with his other succulents.  This one is about 4' tall.  

The two of them came from this plant.  I cut the top out of it because it was too top-heavy for the tall pot it's planted in and rooted the two cuttings.  Now, the parent plant is about 5' tall again.  If I'm not mistaken, this is from one tiny pencil sized shoot that Rob brought home from somewhere.  

A different green daylily.  I knew Rob had one of these, but didn't realize I'd kept one as well.  It was a welcome sight the other morning.  

This is a shot of the original green daylily being it's greenest the other morning.

This is a portion of the bed.  Every year, it seems that one section really shines and this year, this is it.  The summer flowers will start to bloom soon and this spot will have something blooming all summer long.

The phlox have started.  There are clumps of them all around the yard like there are yellow daylilies.  They're the real summer backdrop and will bloom until it's really hot and then I'll cut the heads off them and they'll bloom again.

I have a dermatologists appointment tomorrow.  My GP told me to see one as I'm getting older.  I haven't seen a dermatologist since I was a teenager and am not really looking forward to it.  I'm also looking for a new GP as my previous is taking a break and maybe moving out of state.  I had an appt set up with someone new, then my Mom passed and I cancelled it.  That was a mistake.  I should have rescheduled, but just couldn't think ahead then.  Now, he's not seeing new patients, and I'm having to choose from the clinic's "second string".  It's okay.  I can let a temp refill my scripts and try someone new next year.  

Everybody have a great week!  Let people celebrate you when they will, even if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable.  None of us is celebrated enough, so take it in when it's there.  

Lane

Donniedolittle probably won't debate Biden because Biden won't let him be a loud mouthed blowhard name calling little bully.  Donnie doesn't have anything to offer but lout mouthed blowhard name calling little bully so he'll eventually decline.  

The Bachelor

 Last week, Rob was out of town and I was the bachelor, home with two kids, spending all my time trying to potty train one of them.  

I kept to most of our routines...but I enjoyed sleeping late.  

Lots of progress was made in teaching me to sense when the puppy needed out.  I suppose that's a form of potty training.  She did learn what "no" means.  And, she spends more time in the crate and less time in my lap during the workday.  

The biggest thing was I teaching her to crate at night, which means getting up to let her out.  That's been a whole 'nother adventure.  I started out setting an alarm, but now I just let her out when I get up.  

We made significant progress.  And, I reminded myself frequently that' she's only 3 months old and sometimes, she loses track of what is "good dog!" and what is "NO".

And, I enjoyed playing in the yard and looking at the pretty flowers.  

This week's new bloom was this daylily.  It's named Charlene's Patio.  It's a hybrid of my Mom's and she gave it to my Aunt Charlene who planted it near her patio.  And, they gave me a fan.

There were also Evolvulus (sp) flowers.  This is a great ground cover for places that get part shade.  It can be a little hard to control and will roll over anything that's smaller, so I have to be diligent with it in shady spots.  

The 4 o'clocks have started to bloom.  These take over if I'm not careful.  I planted seeds about 5 years ago and they just keep coming back, year after year.  

And, the coneflowers are really getting started, including the non-traditional colors.  This red one opened and I saw a yellow one about to open last night and an orange one on the way.  

Plus the yellow and orange daylilies are going strong.  I believe every daylily has a scape this year.  Some of them have never bloomed here before and I'm looking forward to seeing what colors they are.  

And, then there are these.  Do you have a plant that you love and hate?  I love the blue flowers on this plant.  I think it's a dayflower.  But, it's so aggressive!  It reproduces by seed and root and the roots are deep, so I can't just walk by and pull it out from everywhere it's trying to take a start.  I need the weeding tool or I just break it off and it comes right back with two stems instead of one.  I've pulled it out of places 35 feet from this place, which is the only place I let it grow.  

While the puppy slept last week, I tried to rest.  I did a pretty good job of it, too.  I spent a good bit of time reading, including some time just sitting in the yard with a book.  It was nice, but I had to force myself to do it.  I'm glad I did.  

Everybody have a great week!  Do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do.  I sometimes struggle with that.  Not the doing what I enjoy part, but sometimes the enjoying what I'm doing.  I get caught up and frustrated when things don't turn out just right.  

And, it's a good thing puppies are cute or I'd have wrung this one's neck.  I wasn't actually being held captive like my face says.  I was focused on getting a picture before she wheeled around and tried to bite me on the nose again.  She's got a thing for noses and ears and has drawn blood on us both.

Lane

Perseverance

 Sometimes, it's enough to be able to put one foot in front of the other.  Those are the days when perseverance pays off.  

A couple weeks ago, I found the biggest mistake I've made at work in about 15 years.  Last week, I told my boss about it.  I'm sure he's disappointed, but he's been a real trooper about it.  We've elevated it to corporate for advice.  It could be one where the right info was so obvious that it can't be considered an error or it could be a very expensive error to correct.  We won't know for a bit.  Fortunately, I didn't let my feelings about that stop me from doing more big things last week.  There were multiple opportunities to go above and beyond and I took every one.  

I persevered.

The garden is blooming up a storm.  Most of the daylilies that have bloomed so far have been yellow, but they differ in their shape.  This is the fanciest one so far.  I have a lot of very plain yellow daylillies and they look great stuck here and there in the perennial garden, but I have some others spread around that aren't going to bloom, probably because they're not getting enough sun, and a very large clump of plain yellow ones in the middle of my garden.  I plan to take 2/3 of those yellows out and replace them with some of the others. 

Last summer when I was mapping the garden, I kept having to write 'daylily, unknown' because I couldn't remember the color.  This year, I'm adding the colors so I can keep track of them.  

This one is supposed to be green, but some years, it's more yellow than green.  This year, it's definitely showing its green hue.  My Mom wanted to give my Dad a green daylily for Fathers Day one year.  They found this one and she gave me a little piece.  It's also having a good year this year.  

This was the last of the iris and the first of the coneflower together.  The coneflower will bloom most of the year and I have it in two shades of pink plus red, orange and yellow.  Those are about to start as well.  

The garden perseveres.  

Rob's gone to visit his Mom this week.  He tries to get up there once or twice a year.  She's in Nebraska and he has a new truck, so he drove this time.  14 hours.  While he's gone, I'm doing some very intensive puppy training.  Dotty is just not getting it and Rob is so soft hearted that we weren't making much progress, except in putting miles on the steam cleaner.  This week, there's a lot more confinement and control of how much space she can move around in so I can keep an eye on her.  Here she is sleeping while I cooked yesterday.  She's never been confined to the kitchen before and she did great!

Last night, she was confined to her crate instead of having the run of the bedroom.  She did great with that, too.  I woke her up at 1am and took her out and she went.  When I put her back in the crate, she cried a little so I took her back out because we want her to wake us if she needs out.  She didn't do anything that time, but when I crated her again, she went right to sleep.  This morning, we went out multiple times on leash and she wouldn't go.  I'd fed her so I knew she needed to.  She doesn't understand that the word 'no' means you're doing something we don't want you to do, so she'd go right in front of us with us yelling no right next to her.  And, she'd look at us and jump around to play.  We've been doing this a while now, so the only thing changing is the confinement.  The idea is to tell her no inside and take her outside, and if she goes, give her treats and praise.  She has a better understanding now, but I've got to get her to understand what no means first.  Thankfully she does better with 'leave it' which is what she hears when she takes something of mine and goes tearing across the house in a game of keep away...which she will play with my car warranty, but not with a ball.

We will persevere.  

Yesterday, I made onion jam.  I had never heard of it before and those four cups of onions I chopped cooked down to about 3/4 cup of jam.  But I put it on a burger last night and it was so worth every tear I shed while I was cutting those onions up.  My pint jar was a little overambitious.  A half pint would have been plenty big enough.

And now, it's time to take her out again.  Because that is my main job this week.  It's a good thing she's cute and sweet and smells good.  

Everybody have a great week!  Find time to do something you enjoy.  I will be spending as much of it in the yard as I can.  

Lane

I wasn't going to post this from Trump's Time interview.  But, damn, dude.  You are delusional.  The bias against white people is all bias people like you created.  Someone else having the same rights doesn't take anything away from the MAGA morons, no matter what they think.