Changing

Started out the day with a nice brisk 1.5 mile walk with a friend.  After doing some computer stuff, I vegged out reading and napping outside for about 45 minutes.  Then it was time to get some errands run before visiting Mom.  She was in a pretty good mood and we had a good visit.  Days like this are definitely priceless.


I did take a picture of one of the roses beginning to bloom before I headed out, and then again after I'd gotten back.  I was surprised how different the bloom looked after a few hours.

Morning (around 11:30 a.m.) above.  Evening (around 6:30 p.m.) below.

Just a few days ago, many of these branches were bare.  Love seeing all of the blooms on the mock orange!

My peonies are still holding back their blooms!  My backyard neighbor's peonies are blooming as nicely as Mr. B's are.  Mine are still waiting to open up.  I'm getting impatient.  Okay, I admit, I AM impatient.

One of my daisies has it's bud!!!  Trying to be patient to see these sunny flowers (and will have to talk about Mrs. B for those pics).

Grapevines, above and below.  Love the super tiny beady things (that's my technical term for it).  I'm hoping I remember where this was so I can figure out what they end up being (I would assume grapes, but I try not to assume too often)!

I liked all of the curves in the shot above, especially the two intertwining vines.  

I love and hate this plant (above and below).  It really doesn't look like much for most of the summer, but this plant came from my grandfather's garden, so it will stay.  It's a yucca plant, and the blooms are pretty, but those stalks are pretty darn tall, and when they fall over, a royal pain!

When I got home, I was VERY happy to see my packages had been delivered from Spring Hill Nursery.  Some more plants for the front yard where the rain doesn't hit the plants (Mother Hen and Chicks in two different colors), and another butterfly plant for the back yard (hummingbirds like them too!). 

And, finally (until fall when they will ship another Lilac plant!!), Keys of Heaven for the back yard to help attract hummingbirds.


So excited to be adding to the plants already established, and replacing a couple that didn't make it through the winter.  Having an idea of what I'd like the back yard to look like certainly helps!  I won't be sharing that until it's starting to take shape.


But, as excited as I was about the plants (both the new and the already established plants), I also had a bit of a reality check.


My favorite pre-15 year old niece has been having a lot of stomach problems for several months now.  Sharp pains in the abdomen, and frequently throwing up.  Yesterday she couldn't keep any solid food down, so the GI doc put her on a liquid diet; she still threw up.  They decided today to admit her to Children's Hospital to get her pumped up on liquids, and run some tests.  I'm praying that the doctors figure it out this time and she can get past it all.


I keep thinking back to those first two pictures today.  Just a couple of hours in between the photographs and such a difference in the bloom.  All during the spring and summer, the plants go through a series of changes, including losing their blooms and shutting down for the winter.  They need that down time to come back in the spring and share their beauty with us again.  

I'd forgotten this picture until I wrote the paragraph above it.  Don't know why I didn't include it before, but glad I had it to include now.

Why do we think we can do it all for as long as possible without losing our beauty?  We NEED to take time to recoup and recover so we can come back blooming again.  And, like some plants, with the proper care, we CAN bloom almost year round.  


God's creations are amazing; let's take care of all of them, including ourselves.

Blooming, thunder, & rain

Right now I'm very glad I managed to get the back yard mowed late this afternoon.  Barely had it finished
before I started hearing thunder, then the rain about 20 minutes later.  The rain has blown over, but who knows if there's more coming yet tonight . . . oops, there goes the rain again!

When I pulled into the driveway this afternoon, I noticed Mr. B's peonies were blooming.  Mr. B and his family were living in their house when we moved in next door; I was 4.  I'm well beyond 4 now, and am very glad that Mr. B is still one of my neighbors.  God has blessed me with several very caring (although aging) neighbors.  I try to keep up with them as much as possible!

It was SO bright outside that getting a decent picture of the white peonies was tough.  It didn't help that I was using my cell phone . . .   I like that Mr. B has the white next to the bright pink peonies - they complement each other very nicely.

There are still a LOT of blooms to come . . . and a lot of ants, too.  I don't know how I managed to get pics with so few ants in them . . .

Anxious to be busting out of the bud into full fledged splendor!

 Those pink buds will be catching up soon!  Our peony plants don't get quite as much sun as these do, so it will probably be another week before they start blooming.

I love the delicacy of the mock orange blossoms.

I liked how the branch of the mock orange was resting against the red bud tree, providing a nice resting spot for the blossom.

I was going to go back out and take pics of the peonies and mock orange with my Nikon, but since the thunder started so quickly after I finished mowing, I didn't have a chance.  These aren't too bad, especially considering they were all taken with the cell phone!

Beautiful blooms plus rain showers to nurture those plants make for a nice spring evening.  The sun is now trying to break out again, but I'm thinking it's time to kick back and relax for the rest of the night.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the "super moon" tomorrow evening, and trying to take pics of it.  Just as I anticipate the beauty of those peonies and mock orange blossoms opening up, I eagerly anticipate more opportunities to stretch the photography skills.  Gotta keep stretching and growing . . . becoming stagnant is not an acceptable option in my book!

Today's Symphony brought to me by DP&L . . .

What a gorgeous day in SW Ohio!  I wanted to be outside at 1:00 partly because it was such a beautiful day, but also because Doolittle's Raiders (from WWII) were being honored at Wright Patterson Air Force Base with a flyover of the B-25s.  Unfortunately, although most flights pass overhead, this one did not.

Fear not!  While I was not entertained by the B-25s, there was plenty going on in the connecting back yards to keep me entertained for a couple of hours.

I headed outside just after noon to enjoy the sunshine and pleasant temps.  Set up the camp chair and had my book and drink handy, as well as my camera.  I read for a little bit before I checked out the clouds, and sure enough, it was another beautiful sky day with pretty clouds (not necessarily interesting shapes).

Nope, no B-25s in the pics (I did double check!).

I took a little tour of the back yard, and found more of the lily of the valley in bloom.  I was beginning to think that the last freeze had killed them off, but they must be hardier than they look.

Of course, I had to check my re-blooming lilac, and it is still beautiful and still blooming!  I may be adding more of these to the back yard . . . I definitely need to add more lilacs (I think I would feel that way even if that was the only bloom in the yard!).

The peonies are well under way; love them, but hate the ants!

And the mock orange is also getting ready to bloom!

I don't know what this plant is . . . can anybody help me out with it?  Mom's memory of plants and what had been planted where is kind of iffy these days.

All of the shots of birds I got were very similar to ones I've already posted (and of the same kind of birds), so we'll just skip them.  Did get to watch a squirrel come bounding through the yard for a little while though.

And if that wasn't enough to entertain me, Dayton Power & Light had crews in the neighborhood trimming trees around the power lines.  After the windstorm caused by Hurricane Ike blew threw the area almost 4 years ago, leaving many people without power for up to two weeks, the utility companies took a lot of grief for having let the tree trimming go for too many years.  There are some pretty big trees in our area (around 50 years old) that haven't been cut back a whole lot.  There were crews working at 3 different houses close to me.  I took just a few pics of the guys high up in the trees; it really was kind of fun to watch.

So much excitement and entertainment in two short hours.  I think I'll need to spend more time hanging out in the back yard.  I had planned on some nice relaxing quiet time; although it was relaxing, it certainly wasn't quiet!  With chainsaws going in at least 3 yards and my amazing neighbor, Mr. B, mowing his lawn, I was treated to a mechanical motor symphony.    Bravo gentlemen, bravo!