more flowers

My other clematis have been blooming. I only have one that hasn't bloomed and not sure it is even alive anymore.

The rain doesn't seem to have affected them as much.

This is my oldest clematis and is an heirloom called a Jackmani

The blooms on it are smaller and only has 4 to 5 petals instead of the 6. I really like it the best. It is a deep purple ...almost blue purple.

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We cut down an old tree a couple of years ago. It had gotten rotten on the inside and was leaning towards the house. We knew it was rotten when a mushroom grew from it's side. When we cut it, we left a tall stump thinking to eventually make it into a gnome house. A wild trumpet vine has grown up on it as well. But surprisingly the mushroom continues to pop out in spring after much rain. I did research it and it is a lions mane mushroom and is edible though we are too chicken to try it. 

It is really big...about 15inches long and about 8 inches wide.

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I went out this morning to check on our baby hawk. With the storms we have had, I'm not sure it is still alive or there. The nest looks pretty worn. I could not see the baby but will try again another time. 

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My usual internet finds of terrific photos.

I love sunset and sunrise photos and also love the old water windmills. They are becoming fewer as people now go to electric well pumps. I have noticed now that people are using the old blades from these windmills for decorating. 

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As usual....

Iris bloom & baby hawk

Well our iris didn't bloom as well as they normally do since we have had so much rain. But I did manage to get out and photo some and also spent time marking those to keep and those to get rid of. We plan to dig the entire bed and downsize it to 3 rows instead of 5. We will also shorten the rows as well as remove the entire small bed by our sidewalk. We only had one to bloom in that bed and it was never a pretty bed anyway. 

Anyway here are some photos of the best we had to bloom this year. 

Strangely our water iris (Siberian) that we dug growing wild have bloomed well this year. 

Our fruit trees are loaded this year. Our blueberry bushes have a lot of fruit but we had to cut back our oldest bushes severely so the crop over all won't be as good as normal.

Our clematis have been blooming as well even though we cut some of the vines way back last year.

I finally got around to taking photos of the hawk nest. It is hard to zoom in so close so wasn't sure what I was getting until I looked at the photos on my computer. From what I can tell, we have only one baby this year. I plan to get out today and take another as by this time the fuzz should be going away and feathers appearing. They grow so fast and soon mama hawk will be booting her baby out of the nest. 

Sadly this may be the last year to photograph the hawks. We plan to cut this tree. It is a sweetgum tree and is directly over our sidewalk in the front of the house. At our age, the sweetgum balls are really a hazard for walking. We can't afford a fall. Hopefully they hawk will find another tree nearby to nest in next year. 

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This is our yard dog Lulu. She is about 13 years old now. It is hard to catch a photo of Fred as he is always out and about. He is also 13. 

Our yard-house dog is Kinzey and she is a year and 7 months old and we are beginning to train her for a service dog. We have kept her in a large wire crate at nights in the house and last night decided to leave her out for a change. Well if we barely moved in the bed, she was there checking on us and finally I crated her again around midnight as she was keeping us away. I have just purchased a service dog harness and her lessons begin today.

We keep her in a pen in the backyard and she is so active running constantly that as you can see there is no grass any longer. Her play toys have to be tough enough to endure her heavy handling and strong teeth. So she has mainly buckets. She throws them up in the air and just loves making noise with them. We will try her again every night for awhile out of her crate until we can get her used to sleeping outside it for good. 

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Sonny got to visit with the new great grandson the other day. I had made plans with one of the daughter-in-loves to go shopping and he wanted to visit with the oldest son which we rarely see so he got a double blessing. 

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Another love of mine is old churches. We have so many in our area but this photo I found online. Love the lighting in this one.

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And as always

quick post

As usual I'm running out of data so this will have to be quick.

Our church has been doing some overhauls lately. We got new carpet and also a new piano. Our old upright had gotten to the point of having to be retuned every week and was costing us as much as having a payment on a new piano. We got a good deal for a baby grand and with a fund raiser or 2 have been able to afford it.

We have a nice band-choir. I really don't know what to call them as we do mainly gospel but we do have a drummer, piano, several guitars and lots of singers. But we really have more fun in singing and worshiping each week. We can feel the Spirit move each week.

Our main piano player had major surgery lately so we have had a couple of stand-ins but thankfully she is back with us now. 

I really haven't taken any new photos lately and still looking for our baby hawks. The iris are winding down and with all the rain we have been having, they look awful. We plan to downsize that bed to 3 rows instead of 5 this summer. And also take out our smaller bed completely. We are getting too old to work ourselves to death on flowers any longer. 

On a crafting note. I have finished several redwork baby quilt tops and only need to get backing and then bind and tie them. I hope to get enough to donate to Children's Hospital soon. 

And as usual...I have to share some photos I love that I've found recently.

And as usual...