Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Summer is Slipping Away

It's the end of August in one of the shortest summers that I can remember.  Cold snowy spring following by a cold and rainy June, followed by the dry July...and now an unremarkable August is coming to an end. I think that there have been only three or four days where it has hit 90 degrees.  Not much time to recharge before the long cold winter hits again.  I'm hoping for a beautiful Autumn.  

Summer flowers in Autumn colors.  I've taken a few photos of this plant, it's the prettiest thing in my garden right now.


We brought Billy to college on Saturday, another sign that summer is coming to an end.  I had to get a family photo before he went, their ages are 19,14 and 21.  How did my babies grow up so fast?  How can my dog be SO old?  Billy loves college, that helps so much, but it is still hard to say goodbye.


We brought a mini van full of stuff to Iowa State so Billy could set up his dorm room.  After saying our goodbyes we drove part of the way back home and stayed in Albert Lea so we could golf in the morning.  Sunday morning was one of the hot, really humid days of the summer.  We golfed at the Green Lea golf course.  I was feeling sort of blue for the first nine and didn't golf very well...but somehow on the 2nd nine things turned around and I think I had the lowest score that I've ever had.  I shot a 45 on a par 37.  Unheard of for me.  My favorite part was that I beat Eric!  He thinks I should be happiest about the low score...which I am happy about...but I don't think I have ever beat Eric in a sport.  Ever.  So I can't help it...WOOHOO! :-)


We drove home after golf on the hottest, most humid day with intermittent air conditioning in the van.  It would come and go...we sure appreciated it when it was working!  It was a thunderstorm sort of day...and in the evening the thunderheads popped up.  I saw this one outside of my office window.  I see the face of a man looking up into the open sky.  Do you?


To give you an idea of how large the cloud was, here's a zoomed in shot of a jet flying by in front of the cloud.  If you can see the face in the cloud above, the plane is passing through what looks like the eyebrow of the face.  If you can't see it, just know that the cloud was really big and beautiful!


There was a lot of lightening in the cloud, I was able to catch just a little glimmer of it in the photo below.


The Russian sage is flowing over my front sidewalk.  Such a pretty color.  I should cut it back, but I like how light and airy it is.  Enjoying it while it lasts.


 Late summer storms, fading plants, kids heading off to school.  Seasons come and go. Life is all about the journey.  Thanks for stopping by and sharing a bit of mine.


Friday, August 22, 2014

Thursday's Update...on Friday

Good intentions, poor follow through!  Maybe Friday is a better day for my bi-weekly blogging.  Anyway, here it goes. Tuesday got busy and I didn't take out my camera...but I did have my phone with at the golf course for my ladies league.  This was taken on the way to the first hole, looking at the 10th hole.  Golf and flowers on a warm late summer night, no complaints from me!


Well, except for the short burst of rain showers. And for the way that I played.  Chipping and putting were not my friends that night.  But long, straight drives and pretty clouds made up for that.  There's always something good there!


It's been humid around here lately.  Even the cat is lazy.  Well, she is lazy in perfect weather too, so I guess that doesn't count.


My petunias are getting long, and leggy.  Not in a good way.  Window box and hanging planter fail again.  I probably should have fertilized a little more regularly!  The flowers that are there are pretty though.


Billy was challenged to do the ALS ice bucket challenge.  He put a big bag of ice in there!  Brrr.  Interesting way of raising awareness and money!


I think that Brian is pretty happy that all he had to do was film the event.  I know that I'm happy that Billy didn't nominate either of us!


I think I'll send in some money to show my appreciation for not being nominated.  It's a good cause.  I hope you're staying dry!  Thanks for stopping in.


Monday, August 18, 2014

Monday Update

At one point I thought that it would be good to update my blog on Mondays and Thursdays.  I don't think that's happened yet, but since it's Monday, maybe today is a good day to start.  I might change my mind by Thursday...but I'll try to follow through!

We'll start with photos from a week ago.  The horses at the farm.  Tish, Skylar, Breezy and Czar.  Boarder, mine, boarder, mine.  Mare, gelding, mare gelding.  That's all I have to say about that.


The birds are always busy at the farm.  I loved the greens in this shot...and the little bird too.

A woodpecker finding insects in the fence post.  My mom sometimes puts an orange half on the nail.  The Orioles love that!


She has a lot of finches this year.  So pretty and bright!


This is our old dog Penny at our house.  Her health isn't the best, but she's hanging in there.  She's a sweet but deaf old girl.


Brian and I were outside in the yard chatting last week when he spotted this red dragon fly.  It stayed on the dandelion just long enough for me to snap it's picture.  It's rained since then...the yard looks a little better now!


A cosmos in my front garden.  The blue in the background is actually my neighbors paved driveway.  I like how it turned out!


Our little kitten is over a year old now.  She's still a soft puffball.  Sometimes she has time for a nap.


I have a few sunflowers that have come up in my hanging pots.  Too pretty to pull.


Greta loves the great outdoors.


Eric and I took some time for ourselves and went golfing together on Friday.  I didn't bring the camera onto the course, but did have it in the car so I could take this shoot through the decorative grass.  I loved the light.


We had some haying to do on the farm.  My brother is restoring this Farmall H.  It's looking pretty good!  Now if someone could restore my muscles after trying to lift bales over my head I'd be happy.  Oye.  I am not in farming shape!


Breezy and Czar were spending some time scratching each others backs.  Pretty funny.  No one was bitten.


And last but not least a lily in my garden today.  I'm so happy to have my perennials blooming this year.  Thank you Greta for scaring away the rabbits!


And with that, I'm caught up.  Time to take some Advil for my aching back.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to see you here on Thursday!


Saturday, August 16, 2014

Summer is Fading Fast

It's hard to believe that it's the middle of August already.  The cold and rainy spring along with the monsoons of June and early July have really made for a short summer!  Between that and baseball my head is spinning that it's almost time for Billy to go back to college.

We haven't spent as much time at the farm as I would have liked.  I took this picture of a cute little bird one weekend when we were there.


And a rainy day picture of a day lily.  And then it quit raining entirely.  So now we are short on rain again.


It's been an odd year for weather, that's for sure.  My cone flowers have liked the conditions though.  And so have the bees that visit them.


The little lilies have been almost choked out by the cone flowers.  I have to push my way to the back of the garden to find them.


It's worth the effort though.  Isn't this a pretty color combination?


This sunflower is a volunteer that is growing out of a pot of petunias.  I should pull it, but I love sunflowers, so it's staying.


I went to the Arboretum with a friend last week.  There are some really pretty glass sculptures there right now.  Fun to see.  There flowers are all blooming only where they were planted.  And no weeds.  I need a garden crew.


The butterfly exhibit was fun to visit too.  Mostly monarchs when we were there. So pretty.


This is my volunteer sunflower again.  I guess it's a weed.  But I don't care.


Sunflowers are happy flowers!


A rainy day lily again.  I guess I was wrong about not getting anymore rain, it obviously rained this day.  But we could use some more.  It will come.  It always does.


And I'll end with a shot of the super moon.  Someday I'll have enough time to get a fun moon rise photo, but for now it's just a shot of the moon in the sky. I'll end this with a little public domain song about about the moon.  I think it's pretty sweet.  Thanks for stopping by!


<xmp>I see the moon and the moon sees me And the moon sees the one that I long to see. So God bless the moon and God bless me and God bless the one that I long to see. It seems to me that God above created you for me to love. He picked you out of all the rest because he knew I loved you the best. I once had a heart called mine you see, but now it's gone to you from me. So take good care as I have done for you have two and I have none. I see the moon and the moon sees me And the moon sees the one that I long to see. So God bless the moon and God bless me And God bless the one that I long to see.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Back to the Flowers

We drove through the night on Sunday to get back from the baseball tournament in Dickinson, ND.  We both had work things that needed to be done.  But one of the first things that I did when we returned was take my photo of the day.  I knew that as soon as I downloaded the thousands of photos from our quick trip that the last thing I would want to do is take another photo.  It had rained while we were gone, the garden was green and lush.


I caught up with the work stuff, I took a nap, I downloaded the pictures and started sorting out the baseball ones to add to the team facebook page.  By Tuesday evening I never wanted to look at a photo again!  But I managed to take one from my cell phone while we were golfing in the ladies league.  This cute little bridge was nearly under water in the monsoon season of June.  Things are back to normal now.


It took me a few days to feel normal after our trip.  The older I get, the harder it is to recover after staying up all night.  Old people problems.


I've been happy to see butterflies in my garden.  I even left a few milk weeds for them to enjoy.  I'm sure that my neighbor isn't enjoying them nearly as much.


 Bee balm and cone flowers...both are doing great this year.  They are about 4 years old now, so that helps.  That and the fact that the rabbit population is down this year due to our little cat Greta!  She chases those rabbits right out of the yard!


We went to the farm / cabin the first weekend in August.  Billy had some fireworks that he wanted to shoot off for his friend Rachel.  They were spectacular!  Purchased in Wisconsin, they really packed some punch.


The next morning at the cabin was much more calm.  Such a beautiful and peaceful place.


There are a few day lilies that bloom there in the woods.  Such a punch of color among all that green.


Billy has had a fun summer with baseball and his friend Rachel.  He wanted to show her the cabin and the little town where he has spent so much of his time growing up.


I think that she liked it there.  They have a lot of fun together.  But summer is coming to an end, she's heading to a different college 6 hours away from where Billy will be.  Life as they know it is changing.

They knew that it was coming, but I think that saying good-bye is going to be pretty hard for these two. Sometimes all that a parent can do is say a little prayer that everything will be all right.  And it will be.  Amen.