Pumpkin Plants and Flowers!

I planted 4 pumpkin seeds at the end of my flower bed.  Knowing full well what could happen, and it is happening!  They’re taking over my yard area in the back.  Okey, so I don’t need to mow there!!  I hope I get a few pumpkins for decorating. We had so much rain, that I got the seeds in a little late.  In fact everything I planted was a little late.  If I don’t get any pumpkins, I’ll re-try next year.
Here’s more pictures of some flowers.


My header picture was taken the same day as these this week.  The lilies in my header were transplanted in the 1970’s from my mothers house.  So they’re very old!  They get really tall, and I almost have to be on the ground looking up to take a picture of them.




One lone sunflower seed grew!  Just getting ready to open up!

The day lilies will soon be done.  They’re so pretty too and easy keepers!
I’m going to be traveling a few days.  On my way to Minneapolis tomorrow Saturday morning to attend a wedding of a great nephew in the afternoon.  Minneapolis is a good 4 hour drive from here.  Steve is staying home because of farm work needing to be done.  Since he won’t be with, after the wedding I am going to drive to Stephani’s in SW Minnesota.  Spose that’s another 5 hours from where the wedding is.  I’m going to stay with her until Tuesday.  I’ve been bad, and haven’t been there all summer.  So really need to spend some time with her and Cullen.  Steph is taking Monday off work, so we’ll be in Sioux Falls SD most of the day.  Gotta shop you know!
Have a great day!  jo

More of my flowers that will soon be all done blooming.  They sure are pretty this summer.

The sun is shining through the trees behind the flowers, and a little spot of sunlight shows on the one petal, by the stamins (think that's what they're called).

The peonies are all from my mother-in-laws garden, and she would be happy to see that they are doing so well.  Both Stephani and Leah have some planted, and their flowers are so pretty too.  This is the first year mine have bloomed, and they were transplanted 3 years ago.  Don't know why it took mine longer that the girls before they flowered.  Maybe I had planted them a little too deep.  Understand they don't like to be planted with a lot of dirt over them.

The tiger lilies are from my mothers yard, and she passed away in 1977, so they have been around for a long time and have done well.  It feels good to have transplanted these flowers, and I think of both of my moms every time I'm out checking the flowers, or weeding!  Some day, when the time comes,  my girls can move these to their gardens, along with some of my other plants! 

Here's an update of the swing set I've repainted, and recovered the cushions.  It's now nice and comfy!

And thanks you Connie and Gene for a very nice swing.  The hunt for material to recover the cusions was something else.  Couldn't find anything less than $8.00 a yard and what I wanted and liked was over $12.00 a yard.  JoAnn's didn't have any on sale and their prices were all over $19.99!!!!!  I just couldn't afford any of those prices right now.  So a day or two later, I was on another mission and went into the Ben Franklin in Detroit Lakes and they were having their 3 year anniversay sale, with 1.00 off per yard!  I checked their remanent material area and found this red for $3.99 per yard; so on sale I got my 7 yards for $2.99 per yard!  Wow, what a deal!  It of course isn't water proofed, it's a heavy almost canvas weight, so will be just fine.   I can get some spray and spray the cushions, to waterproof them; if I remember to look for some the next time I go to town!  For now,  I'll  keep the cushions in the garage at night and when it storms.  If I forget and leave them out and they get wet - oh well, they'll dry out!  The spray paint was right at 4 dollars a can, and I used two.  Makes that swing look good as a new one.  I told C that she was going to want it all back now when she sees it.  Hee hee!

Haven't started the awning yet.  Don't think I'll get that done before next week when Jess and family will be here.  Besides keeping the lawn mowed, I've been busy cleaning to get ready for more company.  Friday, yikes, it's already here; I'll be mowing more and getting the car seat installed in the car.  I took the car seat all apart and washed the cloth seat, now to get it all back together with the straps in the correct holes, etc. and strapped into the car. Saturday, we have a funeral of a good friend that passed away after her 2nd battle of cancer.  They live 3 hours away, so Saturday we'll be gone all day.  Then we drive to Fargo ND to pick the kids up at the airport on Sunday.  Granddaughter Amanda flew there 2 weeks ago, and will come back with them.  Her boyfriend TJ will also drive over to Fargo to get her.  He has been pretty lonesome!    Can't wait to see them and of course little Renee.  She turns 2 on July 2nd, and they'll get here the 3rd.  When we get home, we'll have a little birthday party, and later in the week we be having a big picnic with neighbors and friends.

Picked a couple of the peonies that were almost ready to bend to the ground.  The wind kind of got to them - next year I'll have to put taller  fencing around to hold the flowers up better.

I used a wine bottle as a vase -  Cupcake wine - (didn't like it, so poured it out) makes a very nice vase, and I'll save the cork for another project.

Well, hope you'll all have a great weekend.  Til I write again -

Keep smiling ~

Flower pics before the weather ruins them!

Flowers in my gardens are starting to bloom, and my "grandma" peonies are beautiful this year.  They haven't bloomed since I planted them 3 years ago, but I'll have many flowers this year.  I seperated my bulbs when I planted them, so they're in different places throughout the yard.  They're just starting to open up, so I hope the rainy weather we're suppose to get these next 3 days doesn't beat them up. 

They're such a pretty pink!

Very fragrant hybred lilac bushes.  These two bushes were planted years ago, and never did grow much.  But the flowers are a soft lavendar color, and almost white.  They don't sucker out like the older variety of lilacs, and they bloom late, as my other lilacs, pictured below are all done blooming.  My allergies are acting up this year with the lilac strong smell.  A bad spring for allergies!

Odda's spot where she lays down to watch me work!  She love cool days.  I've been combing and brushing her every other day, filling up a grocery bag each time with loose winter hair!  She is shedding all her winter undercoating hair that keeps her warm in really cold weather. 

This is part of my new project!  Friends (you know her - Connie (Far Side of Fifty) gave us her old swing, as it needs a new canopy and covered cushions.  She decided to get a new one and the framework is just to good to throw away.  So since its raining out today, I think this project will get started today!  I'll keep you up to date how that is going - hope it won't be too difficult to do.

And like several others, pictures of the Showy Ladyslipper.  They are so pretty.

A close up of inside the slipper - isn't it pretty!  I think I need to find some yellow flowers, and I also know where the white ladyslippers are! 

Hope you all have a great Tuesday!  Plans are already in the making for this upcoming weekend, as there is a craft show in our town, so NEED to attend that just to see what everyone is doing.  Don't really need to buy anything!  On Father's Day we went visiting with Steve's sister and brother to visit the Nebraska cousin that was vacationing near Brainerd MN.  Had fun looking a old family pictures and just had a relaxing day.

As I'm typing this, the rain has started to come down hard.  So I will probably have to mow again on the next sunny day = love summer!

Til next time,

Neglected flower garden!

Here's pics of my flowers this year.  I have totally neglected my flower beds, but they still have bloomed some nice flowers.  Don't mind the weeds you see.  I 've only watered flowers once this year with a soaker hose;  but we have had some decent timely rains this year.  Since that one time I've been too lazy to pull the hose from the barn to the house and hook to this soaker hose.  The past years I probably wouldn't have had any flowers if I hadn't watered.  When in my garden areas, you can really tell they're not taken care of as nice as in the past.    

I'd thought when I was retired I'd find more than enough time to do everything I wanted.  Not so!  Seems like we're always busy.  Guess I'm not as stressed out as I used to be, as spending time pulling weeds, and holding a hose to water plants was soothing for me!  Think next year I'll make some changes to my gardens.  Actually, I've found that most of the plants take care of themselves, as long as there has been enough rain.  They just don't know how to get rid of the weeds and grass that grows with them!

Love these!!!!!

Most years you can't see the little fence because these were so high.  Maybe that's what the watering with the hose nightly did for them, just made them taller and woodier, as these flowers seem to be doing fine.  Earlier I'd thought the flowers themselves looked like they weren't going to be very big, but they seem fine now.

Lots of berries on the flowering ornamental crab trees.

An old rickety high chair I painted in bright colors.  Sometimes I put a potted plant on the seat!  It adds

more color out there!

 Have a great weekend! 

A surprise in the Mail!

I got my package from Buttercup Counts Her Blessings!  It is great.  Thank you so much.  Be sure to check out her blog, as she has another give away going on!   This is what I won.  The terry bath robe is so nice and soft and thick!  Then the accessories to bathe with, and also coupons for Greek Yogurt.   Think I should have used my flash on this picture.

Here are some of my flowers in my garden.   This one is what I call "old fashion" lilies.  These came from my mother's garden (she passed away in 1977).  I split them up every 3 -4 years.  They've lasted a long time.  There are some that have really turned into giant lilies, but they haven't bloomed yet.  So more pictures later of them.

A favorite - Daisy's.  They're just starting to open up.

These are just about done.  A slight breeze when I took this picture, so a little blurry.  But kind of like that.

Have a great weekend everyone.  Hope no bad weather for anyone this weekend.

Steph and Cullen's Farm

Steph got this cement horse head one year when we drove to Texas to visit Jessica. We went to a lot of flea markets those years. The rust color comes from an acid poured over the cement. Looks really nice.


This little rooster just loves to wake us up in the morning! The young ones try to copy him - but it comes out pretty squeaky!



Steph's Morning Glories are still in bloom. Just that 4 1/2 hours south makes a lot of difference. We had a killing frost last night, and it's going to happen again tonight. We had 26 degrees at 6 am, and 29 degrees at 7:30 this morning. This year I'm not going to work so hard to save my blooms, as a new puppy has had a hay-day this summer with my flowers. Next summer should be better.



The horses know when supper is served! The sun set as we were watching the horses and visiting.




Stephani came to Louisiana with us, leaving Cullen home to go to work and do chores, etc. etc. When we got home, he had a surprise for Stephani. He and a friend had put up 3 flood lights on 30' poles for their outdoor arena. They will be putting up 2 or 3 more. This will be so good for her when she is giving riding lessons, and training horses. She was so excited!