Showing posts with label Day Lily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Day Lily. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

I can see clearly now the SMOKE is gone...

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I can see clearly now

 the SMOKE is gone...

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the smoke/heat fogs that had me blind

It's a bright, bright, Sun-shiny Day!

(snitched from Johnny Nash's...Sun Shiny Day)


I really have to get back to blogging. I've been hunkering down in our sealed tomb of a home from the Chicagoland heat/smoke/hideous news has really had a hold of me, my mind, my attitude, I've been just UGH!

But, Today, the air cleared it's a brisk 65 degrees at 9:30 am, and I ran around half naked, and opened ALL the windows, doors, blinds, curtains...and OH MY! 

First thing that came to my mind was that song...

So you can thank me for the ear worm and have a Wonderful Sun Shiny Day! 

So far this week, I did quite a bit of gardening. Last night I made Overnite Refrigerator DILLS...the best homemade pickles. I even had fresh dill from the garden I hve stuck in semi-shade to keep it cooler. (Dill doesn't like hot temps when starting)

The Weeds have been horrid with the heat and rain Chicagoland got earlier just made them crazy. Again this year we have a flock of new weeds, I've never seen before. Our gardening zone is 5b at the moment (-5 to -10), but I'm thinking that is really not representational of what it really has been the last few years. I'm sure that weather cycles are just that, cycles, and suddenly we will have -30 winters right around the corner again.

I picked LOTS of cucumbers, dill, pearl onions, lettuce, tomatoes (small ones), a huge turnip-only one), long sweet yellow peppers and green beans. We have enough for this week's fresh produce needs. 

I always pick a few flowers...I'm having Poor Woman's bouquets all the time now. 

Colors are phenomenal...these are early morning photos without editing except for size and being crooked. The flower colors are real...and vivid. The PHLOX are phenomenal as well as the Dahlias and Day Lilies.

I'm not an Affirmation Person...except maybe snarky ones. But a prompt for my Mather class was for an affirmation. 

Here's my 20 minute scribble.

"Even Ditch Lilies Bloom...no matter What!"

I really think LIFE gives you no excuses...you just have to live it, like the panned, dreaded Ditch Lilies that we snub our noses at. 


When we moved here in 1984, there was very little landscaping on a bit over a quarter of an acre. We ordered fifty cheap assorted twig bushes from Michigan Bulb and 12 Day Lilies. That was what we could afford. I planted one packet of Sweet Peas for 59 cents and some marigold seeds. That was it for that year.

Our Sweet Peas are still going strong, the bushes are ringing the property and provide homes for all the birds and bunnies.  I still plant Marigolds from seed because they are kill and weather proof and the bees love them. 

June and May were so cold, we didn't use the porch. I finally got it ready for July 4th, and then it was so beastly, no one would go out there.

This morning I reveled in the lovely temp, opened the windows on the porch and his sink's finally hooked up to drain and get water again...long story on that one.

Ready for company and ME to play on the table with paints, and enjoy the birds from one of our rocking chairs. The furniture is mostly my great-grandmother's, and my dad made the table I painted for my art/craft shows.


I'm hoping the weather holds, I have a 5-6 hours in the car today, but am looking forward to enjoying the porch and having the car windows open! 
See you Soon!

Thanks always for visiting, 


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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  




OldNewGreenRedo





Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020 Sure it's Spring!

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Quick post today,

Remember when I said, I never uncover my flower beds early? In fact I have had a war with perennials, piling leaves on them, and then having them poke their naked selves out anyway.


Midwest Gardening April 15, 2020

This photo is Saturday, our last cool but nice day. I took some quick photos just to document Easter.


Midwest Gardening: April 15,2020

A few of the garden ornaments were placed out. The leaves keep blowing away. We transplanted a few herbs, and some day lilies. 


Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020

This is all I did in the front of the yard for Easter, I guess my heart wasn't in decorating. And, these are hardly thoughtfully designed. We have so much wind here, planting an entire bush is the only way to go. Hubby removed the bench that was here, and put up a shelf. We need to repaint the front (southern exposure) of the garage this Spring.


Midwest Gardening:April 15,2020

Our front porch tin pail has some faux forsythia in it for color, and our sparkly bunny sits in my wreath from last year...the pillows have faded to a nice spring shade. I have covers ready for later. This porch is so sunny and always windy.

THEN, after freezing temperatures for three nights we woke up to SNOW! 1-3inches across Chicagoland, the ground was white everywhere, this photo was taken at 11:30 am, after 4 hours of sunshine.

Fifty-four cars piled up on the Kennedy this morning at 5:45 this morning due to heavy snow falling and unseen black ice. Many cars were totaled, it look like a bumper cars gone wrong...luckily no one was seriously injured.


Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020


THIS IS WHY...YOU DON'T REMOVE FLOWER BED DEBRIS IN THE UPPER MIDWEST!

Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020

Honestly...you can't rule out having freezing temps, it is 32 at noon with a 25 degree windchill. UGH! The greenhouse was 44 degrees at 6 am. Thats with full 1500 watts going at high. At 12:30 pm today it is hovering at 70, with the heater going. I think wind is a big factor, we realize we still have leaks.


Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020

Back to our vigorous perennials, I know I mounded these up on Monday---our Hollyhocks, some daylilies, and something else. to the right. Hopefully the leaves helped a little. But they grew more and pushed them off. I wonder how many bees and helpful insects are burrowed under all that?

Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020


Day Lilies are pretty tough, the Daffodils to the right haven't bloomed yet.



Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020

Just for FUN, we have one bird feeder on the front porch, and the birds throw seed everywhere, but we enjoy watching them. Squirrels aren't shy here, at all... I rapped on the window to get him to turn around.


Midwest Gardening: April 15, 2020

He was too busy visiting my sisal squirrel, which apparently likes to pop out of the tub of faux flowers. Or maybe he is feasting on the seeds, too. 

LOL, Happy Spring?! 

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Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi