Summer

It is a nice warm day. We completed our Spring yard work this morning. No rain today. Went to the store and purchased a few flowers for the front yard. I will plant them this evening. I want color for the rest of summer.

But what I really want to tell you about are the Pansies on the deck. They have loved the rain and cool weather we have had the past three months. Don't they look great? I am sure they will start to fade as the days grow hot, but for now, aren't they pretty?

Knock,Knock, Who is There?

We have been chosen by a little black and yellow bird to be awakened by his pecking at our windows each morning. He comes to the bedroom door sometines but mostly he is at the kitchen windows. A couple of times there was another bird with him. This second one was yellow too, but did not have such vivid colors. His mate I guess. I really can not figure just what he wants, but he does not stay long.

Snow on the Snowball bush

I got up this morning only to find that it had snowed last night. Today is May 30th, Memorial Day. A day that usually is thought of as the begining of Summer.  But this year has been different. We braved a downpour on Saturday evening as we placed flowers on the headstone of my husband's parents graves down in Salt Lake. Now those Snowballs and Lialacs have snow on them. The forecast is good weather is coming. Hope my little tomatos and peppers can hold on for another few days.

Snails

I'm on the lookout for them most days as I work in the yard. They seem to like the damp, dark places in the yard. Under last years leaves, in the cracks of the rock wall, at the edge of the gardens just into the grass. I sometimes see their silvery paths crossing the sidewalks and sometimes even see them on the sidewalks and driveways. They bother me because they eat my plants and flowers. I admit that they are considered my #1 enemy in the yard.  One morning I spotted a snail , not just eating a flower, but with a large part of a pink petunia dangling from its mouth.

A Lazy Day After A Busy Day

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Hogle Zoo. We arrived about 9:45 that morning and stayed until after 1:00.  There were four of  us in our group. My husband, a grandaughter,  a grandson and myself. Our grandaughter was the planner of the morning.  She had the map of exhibits and she figured out how we could find what we were looking for.  We went into the various exhibits hoping to see some fine animals playing and eating their breakfast. Many of the animals were in hiding so we had to stand for a long time trying to find them. There is a baby elephant and the mother was rolling a big ball back and forth. We guessed she was playing with her baby. We saw many monkeys, some were just looking at us. I guess we looked funny to them. As the morning wore on many school children arrived and the Zoo became very full of mothers, teachers and students. There is a special display of Dinosaurs. They are moving, howling and a couple even spit at the onlookers. It became lunch time and we found a nice table for four and ate our sandwhiches and chips and had our drinks and cookies. A good time came next as we rode the train around the zoo. Then it was time to come home.

Today has been quiet here. We have a wind and cooler temperatures, so no yard work for us. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Planting

I was able to do a little planting today. It was raining abit while I was working. I replanted the sugar peas that I had planted a month ago that never did come up. I also put in 4 green pepper plants close to the tomato plants. now I need to put in some seeds too. That will come tomrrow if it is dry outside.

Mountainwest's Northwest Weather

I have a son, a grandson, and a granddaughter living in Washington State and they all seem to love the cool, damp weather. We, here in the Mountain West, have been on the receiving end of the cool, wet days, not typically part of our desert weather patterns. Here it is, the middle of May, and a fierce storm happened last night. There was lightening, thunder and much heavy rain. Then quiet for a while and it happened all over again. About 4:00 a.m. I realized that there were car lights shining into our bedroom, so I got up to see if there were problems in our neighborhood (several years ago there was a mudslide about a block away from our house). I saw no cars, some neighbor must have had to go to work early this morning. Looking outside I saw only a quiet street, it was wet though. So I wandered throughout our house, upstairs and downstairs making sure that no water had found a way inside. By now it was close to 4:30, so I turned on the early morning news. heard that there had been a mud and rock slide last night, but it was far away from our little corner of the world. When it grew light I looked outside again and saw that we had snow on our deck. Will Spring ever come?