Mischief Monday – The Great Escape!

Or How I Gave My Parents a Heart Attack

Hi everyone it’s Walter here. There are no pictures of this particular mischief so I will start you off with this cute picture of me. Mom says it looks like I have a cigar in my mouth, but it is really just a stick.

On Saturday a local garden center had a fun event they called the “Dog Days of Summer” and mom and dad thought it would be good to take Millie and I there. I love going for rides in the car and really enjoy meeting new people and pups. There were lots of different vendors there and some rescue groups that had adoptable dogs too.

When we pulled into the parking lot I could see some of the pups up for adoption and was very excited. Mom parked the car and then, as usual she clipped on her treat bag and grabbed the leash. Mom usually handles me and dad handles Millie. We usually wait patiently in the back seat while the leashes are clipped on and we are ready to go.

This time I was a little too excited and I don’t think either mom or dad noticed just how excited I was to be there. When mom opened her door to get out of the car I shot through the gap in the front seats and was out the door before anyone knew what happened. I ran straight over to some of the pups that were hanging out with one of the adoption groups with mom running and screaming my name close behind. This very cute human pup who also had a puppy on a leash grabbed my harness and held on tight until mom caught up with me.

Just another picture of me looking cute

Boy was that ever fun to go run and play with those other pups. I don’t understand why mom called me a knucklehead but I suppose I should be glad that was all she said. After mom’s heart rate returned to normal we enjoyed walking around the garden center. There were lots of nice people at the booths and Millie and I scored a bunch of treats.

Mom had the last laugh though. One of the booths was a groomer who was doing nail trims for just $5 each so Millie and I each had a quick pedicure. The ladies that were doing it were very nice with one doing the clipping and one giving me lots of loving while I was on the table. I think I over heard mom and dad talking about maybe making a regular appointment with them for our nails. That would be no problem with me because I thought those ladies were very nice.  All in all it was a fun time and we were there for about an hour. I can’t wait to go to our next event and see what excitement I can cook up for that one.

Note from mom: Walter sure gave us a scare, but luckily he just ran up to the first human and dog he saw and was quickly captured. We never expected him to bolt out the front, but will be modifying our car routine to make sure we never have a repeat performance.

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Colorful Sunday!

Hi everyone! Well today I am going against trend since I didn’t have any black & white pictures to show and let you see some more of our colorful yard.

Let’s start with this large group of crocosmia. Charlie transplanted these from the perennial garden to this location just this spring and they have taken off. We did put up some barriers to keep certain pups from running through there and we have been rewarded.

The northeast corner of the yard is very shaded so we have these lovely hosta with the hydrangea in the foreground.

Here is a wide shot of the hydrangea. When the blooms first come out they are white and over time they turn a pale purple. That is because the pH is right in the middle so they can’t decide if they want to be pink or blue.

Here is a close up of a couple that have started changing color and in the background you can see some newer blooms that are still mostly white.

This one’s color is a little more intense.

These lovely blooms are from our deciduous azalea which bloom much later than evergreen azalea.

Moving to the south side of the yard we have the red barberry with another variety of hydrangea on the left and hypericum in the foreground.

The hypericum flowers are a cheery yellow.

The flowers on this type of hydrangea are cone shaped and look like little white Christmas trees.

Well that concludes this walk around the garden. I hope you have enjoyed seeing some more of what is in bloom around us.

Many of you have said in your comments how nice it must be to walk around our yard and you are very right. We love our little piece of paradise although it would be nicer if it didn’t have so many mozzies as our Downunder Friends call them. I wish you all could come for a visit and take a stroll around the yard with us.

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Flowers on Friday – Perennial Garden Up Close

Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed all the daylilies on my Wordless Wednesday post. We’ve been adding daylilies to our garden for many years, but took a huge leap last year when we visited the Enchanted Gardens of Webster and added 11 new-to-us varieties to our gardens. Another source for some of our daylilies is my mother. A friend of hers is a daylily lover and has given her many beautiful plants. In turn when they have become too big for her garden she has divided them and gifted some to us. While it is true that most of the daylily varieties we have only bloom for one day they have a large number of blossoms that open in succession so the plant stays in bloom for a long time.

Today I want to show you a bigger view of the perennial garden that is just behind our house and show you a few close ups of some of the non-daylily flowers.  The past couple of weeks the perennial garden has been bursting with color.

This is our beautiful purple clematis. The birds love to use the trellis to hang out and hunt for bugs.

One of my favorite flowers that blooms this time of year is the crocosmia. This is another plant that has grown so well that we have divided them and spread them around the yard. We also have gifted some to my mother so she gets to add to her garden too. The hummingbirds and butterflies just love this flower.

This view of the perennial garden is from the opposite end from the first picture.

The dark pink flowers in the foreground are monarda and are always covered with bees and butterflies. I’ll show you more about that in a later post.

I love the color of these cute little cone flowers.

In the shady part of the garden we have a few hosta and astilbe. You can also see our cool butterfly sculpture in the background.

This hissop is also under the shade of our linden tree.

Last but not least we have some canna lilies with a white liatris (Gayfeather) and pink loosestrife behind them.

I hope you enjoyed this walk around our perennial garden. I will show you some of the other plants that are blooming in other areas of our back yard in another post.

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Wordless Wednesday – Daylily Delight!

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Black & White Sunday – Smiling Sweetie

This shot of our happy girl was snapped by Cindy. Click on the image to see a bigger version.

We are participating in the Black & White Sunday blog hop.

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Mischief Monday – Walter the Water Boy

Hi everyone! It’s Walter here. Do you remember a while ago when I showed you all the fun I had with the sprinkler? Well since then it has been raining almost every day so I couldn’t get out to play with the sprinkler any more. A few days ago we started a heat wave and dry spell so when we were playing in the yard and I started hitting the jug mom and dad decided it was time for some cooling off.

Walter Hitting the Jug

Okay it really is just an empty maple syrup container I was playing with, but it sort of looks like a moonshine jug don’t you think?

When I saw dad getting the hose and sprinkler out I waited for him to turn it on.

Get this party started!

Well here is all the action.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

Boy did I have to pee after that! The weather this week promises to be hot and dry and I thought I heard dad talking about watering some plants. I can’t wait to help him set up the sprinkler again. Have a great Monday!

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Black & White Sunday – Highland Park Sycamore

 

Another beautiful shot from Charlie. Click on the image to see a bigger version.

We are participating in the Black & White Sunday blog hop.

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Flowers on Friday

Hi everyone! It’s time for another update on what is blooming around our yard. The weather has been wet and very humid and the mosquitoes have been relentless so when I get just a bit of sunshine I like to wander around the yard to photograph what is in bloom.

Do you remember my snake friend from the other day? I was taking a picture of this campanula punctata when I discovered him.

Next up is the veronica in our perennial garden.

It is such an intense blue and the flowers stay in bloom for a long time.

We have a lot of these Stella d’Oro daylilies around the yard. I love their intense yellow color.

The dwarf monarda was just starting to bloom. I can’t wait to show you what they looked like today, but you will have to wait until next week.

These mophead hydrangea are in a shaded corner of our yard and have really been thriving. When I took this picture they had just opened up and were still white.

Here is a closer look at those huge mopheads. Next week I will show you how their color has changed in just a week.

Another shady corner of our yard has a variety of shrubs and perennials.

These astilbe have been in our garden for over 20 years and have been moved from place to place throughout the years. They continue to thrive.

Also in this corner are some lacecap hydrangea.

I love the way these have the small buds in the center and the larger flowers around the outside. You can see that these are a lovely pink color. We don’t do any soil enhancement to achieve the color of our hydrangea and prefer to let nature take its course.

This last shot is one of my favorites from this day. It was fairly early in the morning and the smoke bush was full of dew drops. The tiny flowers have fallen off but the stems remain on the bush and collected all these water droplets and made the bush look like it was full of crystals. Sadly I don’t think the picture really captures how beautiful this was.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this weeks tour of what is blooming around our yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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