MORE flowers and a nest hunt

I love my new yard. It has so many kinds of flowers in it! My Tillamook yard had flowers, too, but these are all new ones and it is exciting to meet them! Since I took most of these photos, we had a HUGE thunderstorm and many of them were flattened or otherwise disfigured. At least we have the proof in the photography!

My iris are GREAT. I love iris. They remind me of my friend Kanga and her mum. So far, I have the yellow ones and only one brown one that bloomed this year. I need some purple ones. When the yellow ones get too heavy, they fall and I bring them inside. They smell yummy.

My roses looked and also smelled great. They were not as handy as a cut flower as they only lasted one day. I need to save the petals next year, before the thunderstorms!

My very favorite flower so far this year, I do not have in my yard yet. My plant is about a handspan tall. I am looking forward to next year's flowers! These all came from friends and neighbors and they are wonderful! I was really surprised at how they fall apart so fast when they are done. Jon was wondered how so many petals could fit on one flower! I did explain it was parts of several of them, but it is still amazing how they work! I laughed when I saw the mess on the floor, I thought it looked like chicken feathers! So, here are the peony and petals (sounds like a rock group, huh?)

OK, now that we have done chicken feathers, here is a 'Where is the nest' photo!

Amazing, huh? The parents are killdeer and we are not sure if they are going to hatch, it has been a very long time since they were laid and they incubate for about 28 days. We really want them to, as they are in a very bad place. Steve almost ran over the nest a couple of times before he found it and now we try to avoid it, but it is very hard!

Just read a 'new' book. It is a 1926 Newberry called 'Smokey the Cow Horse' and it was very fun to read!

re entry of previous post of odd flowers

And here are my strange flowers. First is one of the white ones all blown, doesn't it look like a caterpillar?

We also have these red petaled ones. Very odd looking are they not? I would really like to know what these might be!!! They have blackish centers, but could not get a photo of that very well. I also noticed that the edges of the petals seem to die off. Then, we have this pinkish shrub thing. Actually, we have three of these in the yard. The one in the corner is the biggest.

And last, but not least, lilacs. They are so beautiful and smell WONDERFUL!
If anyone has any idea what these flowers are (not the lilacs) please let me know!!!

I had to delete the photos of the band (I did not have permission to post them) and lost the whole post! I was very sad as the flowers that were here are now identified! sigh. I am most sorry because I lost my comments that were made on this post! I don't get enough comments that I can delete them!!! LOL.

OSU rocks!!!!

Why? Well, because two different persons suggested I check out my odd plants with the OSU extension office here in the area. So, I did. And they passed my photos on further. Finally, a man in Corvallis, Oregon responded with some pretty solid answers. Although, he did write that this is not definitive as he did not have an actual sample of the plant! Anyway, the pink flowers (Jake pegged this one) appear to be a tatarian honeysuckle bush which is NOT a friendly plant to have in one's yard. I will pull up the babies and leave the established ones! The white one seems to be a choke cherry bush, I will verify that when we see fruit! And last, but not least, the really odd red flowers are most likely a calycanthus occidentalis or spice bush plant. So, there we have it. Thank you very much for all your help and thank you OSU!

NOTE:am done reading Xanth for a bit. I got the last 'new' one read and am going to find something else to read.

Memorial Days, past and present

In the past, we participated in flag ceremonies with other scouts and scout leaders.

This is after the ceremony in 06. These guys are all grown up now...

sigh.

This is a 2007 ceremony. Jon is hidden..Tony is handling the flag.

This year, Jon and Steve went up to the Mountain ranch to do some stuff and Jon found a snake. Not just your ordinary every day little snake. This one is really strange. It turns out it is a rubber boa! I had no idea we had those here. One site we found suggested they are docile and very sweet..Jon agreed. Personally, I think it is rather ugly, but there you have it. I sent the camera and thought they would get lots of different photos, but they just got this little guy.

Not much else going on. Have one more Xanth book to read before I find something else!

AWWWK

Just a short note with no photos for now. The red leaves are really a FLOWER!! I thought it was from the plant with white flowers, but they are not..I saw one all open today and they are a flower. Very strange looking, in a kind of pretty way.

Took a break from Xanth, but am back in it again.

Mid May Flower Quest and Medieval Faire!

Hi all, our internet has been down..again. I have some photos here of a plant I cannot find in the books. Most likely because I don't know where to look. A bit like looking up a word in a dictionary when you can't spell it anyway! So, we seem to have an old fashioned garden. Lots of lilacs in purple and white, tulips that smell sensational, old fashioned roses, and a pretty pink bush that is in several places. However, this one is the one that is puzzling me at this time.

Here it is in groups of buds, in baby leaves (the purplish ones with the bird poo!!!!), in bud, and in partial flower. Now they are mostly all done blooming and look like fuzzy caterpillars! They also smell nice. Not as good as a lilac, but not too bad! The honey bees like them. If anyone knows what it might be, please let me know!!!

Steve also worked on a catapult and Jon a sword for the Medieval Faire we had at our church this weekend. Here they are in stages of before and after!

The Catapult:

The Sword:

The sword was used only for photographs and the catapult was used so much it was injured!

Jon was gone this weekend on a camping trip..we will post those photos after we get the disposable film developed! He found a bull snake!! EWWWW.

Quotes of our Days

All Creation is a canvas of green and gold

Covered with a canopy of blue and white. JWK

Daffs or Narcissus, purple and white money plants and money plants mixed with the best smelling tulips in the world!! And spring in the loverly tree next door with brand new leaves shining in the sun!

'Sunrise, Sunset. Swiftly fly the years...' One of my favorite songs from Fiddler on the Roof.

Very odd thing about this photo..It was purple colored, but came out orange. I need to figure that one out. Still looks good, though. LOL.

And last but not least:

God sees the moon, God sees me.

God bless the moon and God bless me.

Or maybe I could quote, "Space....the final frontier..." and encourage you all to go to the new Star Trek movie. Especially if you are an old Trekkie fan. It is AWESOME. In fact, people clapped at the end and when the characters let loose lines that we all knew and loved it was hilarious! I promise not to spoil unless someone emails and asks, but it was a wonderful spur of the moment Mom's Day present. (thanks, dear!)

I totally apologize

This was supposed to be my May Day post. However, I somehow missed doing it. Perhaps the computer was down again, it does have a habit of doing that! Anyway, enjoy the flowers!!!

This first one is a pasque flower plant and the second ones are a money plant. We have ones that have purple flowers and ones with white! Very festive and they last ages when cut! And in the fall they have the silver dollar coin shaped seed packets. They are much prettier now and I will add more photos later.
Daffodils that are just some of the many that came up after I planted bulbs that the neighbor gave me. I now have a different kind blooming.

These are Tillamook flowers. The first is a Camilla from Wendy's yard (not in focus cuz I was learning about my new camera) and the second one is a pile of buds! They are Rhody's from her yard that her daughter shared with me.

And here is a huge pixel photo that I took before I discovered the settings on the camera. The tulips are done now, but they were stunning!

Working on making a pond, so reading has been geared towards water type books. And Xanth. (I needed some puns!) Speaking of water, check out the cool fountain and very odd pool on the Travel Channel page.

Random Whatevers

Yup, those are my thoughts today. It is raining outside and it is so beautiful! The dust is gone and the new leaves and colors are so vibrant! On the other hand, the flooding by the door is worse than ever. Jon's smashing of the concrete is definitely not one of his most favorite things to do. More of it is removed, but not enough yet!

Last Thursday we had a Scout Court of Honor. Jon will advance at the next one, he has to do one more campout to complete one of the ranks. I was kinda damp at this ceremony. I had been drinking one of those sugar free carbonated water drinks and I am ALWAYS careful when I open them..except once this evening and it literally exploded all over the table and myself. I was very thankful that my camera was put away and the liquid was sugar free. The funniest thing, as it happened I had two split second thoughts. The first was that I wish I could see it (like in a photo) and the second was 'it really does make a 'sploosh' sound!!!'

I also learned that even though my camera is good with batteries and I had spares, it is best to have spares that are not already dead. Thus, the camera was not working very well when I took the shots upstairs! I need to get good rechargable ones.

On Wednesday night, we found our water line that had been missing. This is for the UGS. When the addition was put on, the start to the system was dug up. Since it was getting to be spring, we thought it might be good to find it. Well, we did. It reminded us of Beverly Hill Billies, but alas there was no black gold, just muddy water. On the other hand, it was great to finally find it. Steve had dug out a great deal of dirt in the back yard and we were starting to despair!!! Now, of course, the hole will fill with water for a little while. One thing about rain over here, it never lasts long, but it dries up very fast!

And then, here is the school here. Well, outside of it anyway. I understand why they have two mascots, but really. In the grand scale of life, wouldn't the tiger wipe out the cute little scotty dog? (Ages ago two schools merged and when they became one they kept both mascots). Personally, I like the idea of a tiger in a kilt, but I might be the only one! If you look close you will see a metal scotty dog and the larger tiger. On their new reader board, though, there is a guy with bagpipes. He is a figure you see a lot of here.

OK, so much for random. Next on the agenda are dishes and laundry! LOL. Just finished reading Just Ella and Palace of Mirrors by Haddix. VERY good reads.

Dear Tony....

I love my new camera! It is the most awesome thing I have ever used!!! We took it to Tillamook this weekend. It was a sad/glad weekend. I will post more on that later, but for now, I am sending you a note full of photos!

You know we stayed with David and Wendy..here is Jet working on his truck. He went racing on Sunday morning.

This flag one was taken while I was trying to figure out how to shoot moving objects. Later we went to Short Beach, Radar Beach, or 100 step beach with Anita and took lots of pictures there. I think the moving water came out pretty well!
At the beach we found a mama crab. Anita said the goo stuff was babies.(Does God not have a sense of humor???) She was supposed to be running and she did for a while!

Dad found this cool mussel thing and then Anita insisted that we needed a picture of the two of us..I hate being in photos! The driftwood we were sitting on made me taller, though! LOL.

On Sunday, Linds was baptized!! Very cool to be there for that!

On the way home we stopped at Arlington, of course. It was so fun to use my new camera there! I took a photo of a fish (we are not sure what the fish was!) and ducks. I liked the mama duck ones! I used my telephoto option to capture her. I hope that she is left alone for the duration of incubation. She was awful close to the path, but very far from the water.

Then, we got back to the house. It is very warm (a bank temp thing in Pendleton read 86 degrees!!!) and Teddy seems glad to see us. He stayed with grandma.

We miss you tons and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading your letter!!! Mum.