"Dennis"

Here is a picture of a Rose of Sharon that was given to us by Dennis last year.  Dennis was a very close friend of, and who grew up with, Uncle Tommy.

Uncle Tommy was a gardener who always had a yard full of beautiful plants.  At some point before his passing Uncle Tommy brought Dennis, who lived down the Cape, a Rose of Sharon plant.  A sapling, one from his yard.  

Fast forward several years and Dennis gifted us a sapling from the grown sapling that Uncle Tommy had gifted to him.

Sadly, Dennis passed away in the Fall shortly after gifting us this Rose of Sharon.

I was moved the the other day when I noticed this first single bloom adorning the Rose of Sharon.  To which JoAnne called it "Dennis"

Flower Photos

Random flower pics from our yard this summer!

Echinacea, and Rudbeckia -

Catnip -

 Monarda and Queen Anne's Lace -

Rudbeckia -

Double Daylily -

Broccoli flowers =

Monarda -

Filler-Up!

It was a project I had on my list of to-do's for a very long time, years actually, and I'm happy to report I finally completed it this past weekend and I couldn't be happier!

In all the years that we've been at our ole homestead our pool house has never had a gutter.  Even after we created a couple vegetable beds on that side of the yard, no gutter.  Water for plants on that side of the yard was always pulled from the rain barrel on the opposite side of the yard and lugged over.  But no more!

Pre-gutter install -

This was actually a fun project!  I cut the gutter to length, affixed and glued both end-caps, cut the downspout hole in the base of the gutter, installed and glued the downspout and mounted.

 Post-gutter install-

 Downspout install, 55-gallon barrel in place with a nice level paver footing -

 Paver base laid and leveled -

 Filler up -

 Monday was a day of heavy rains.  Low and behold a near full 55-gallon barrel of fresh rain water -

Happy plants!  No more lumping water around the yard!  Happy farmer!

Red Admiral Visitor

This Red Admiral butterfly is looking a bit ragged for sure.  However, this male still had plenty of spunk and just wouldn't sit still.  He made me work for this picture but it was worth the effort, as you can see.  Insects just love them some purple coneflower!!

They're BIG fans of nettles, of which I am NOT.  We have quite a bit of stinging nettles and I stay clear of it, for very good reason!

Visiting Monarch

Very pleased to have a Monarch butterfly visiting our flower gardens this past weekend!  A very healthy looking female who was not camera shy at all!

Sadly, I don't see too many of these beauties now a days.

Hoping to see more of her and many more...

Insect Fornication...

A pair of Mason Bees taking a break from collecting pollen.

Bowchickawowow!!

Flowers and Insects

Our echinacea are in full bloom and very inviting treat to many a visiting insect.

A handsome Bumble Bee hard at work - 

A pesky earwig -

A Green Sweat bee covered in pollen and sporting a good size pollen basket on it's rear legs -

A Hover fly taking a rest on this Black-eyed Susan -

A Couple of Mooches!

This is what these these two do whenever anyone is making or preparing food.

Oliver picked up this bag habit from Trixie-dog.

Summer Veggies!

Picked a mess of veggies from our garden the other day!

Delicious!

Find The Critter...

Can you find the critter in the above photo?

Roof Moss Removal

I've been helping a friend of my parents for a number of years now do odds and ends around her house.

During my last visit a couple weekends ago she asked me to tackle the moss problem that has begun growing on her garage and porch roofs.

The first two pictures you can see that I sprayed the garage roof with a mixture of bleach and water.  I would have preferred more bleach but had to work with what I had.

Her porch roof is really a mossy mess, as you can see.  This is on the list for my next visit.  I instructed her to pick up four gallons of bleach, which I'll use to his this spot and revisit the garage roof with again.

I've not heard from her since apply so not sure how successful this exercise was.  Time will tell.  I also cut back a number of branches that were blocking the sunlight from getting through. Hoping this will help too.

One of The Most Popular Fruits

 We have only two blueberry bushes but boy-o-boy are they loaded with berries this year!

They've been on my list to cover, however, I've not gotten to this page yet...

That being said, and even though I've seen Robins, Catbirds and Cardinals helping themselves there are still plenty.  I find myself constantly eating some, as well as our raspberries when I'm out working in the yard.  A little energy boost.  Too bad Cheez-It's don't grow on bushes!

Happy 4th!

Pool, sun, fun, food, beer, roaring fire and entertaining fireworks capped out 4th of July!

Bass Pro Shop Walkabout!

Akin to the "That's Not a Knife" scene from the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee, the Frye's were on our own walkabout among the cranberry bogs at the Bass Pro Shop in Foxboro when we were captivated by this huge snapping turtle -

However, this other snapper swam onto the scene and dwarfed our "huge" turtle - 

Hence, that's not a turtle, THIS is a turtle!!

Surf and Turf and Wings

The Frye family was up visiting from Miami a couple weeks ago.

Perhaps, a tradition has begun with as we trekked to Fresh Catch Seafood and Butcher shop in North Attleboro to pick up some delicious steamers and lobsters!  The last time visiting we did the same thing.  I hope they come up more often, as it's the only time I'm allowed to indulge like this...

I neglected to take a picture but we also purchased a scrumptious New York sirloin steak!  Yeah know for the non-seafood, don't-know-what-you're-missing diners.

Almost forgot, we picked up a package of chicken wings too -