Day 152

A fun fountain/statue/plaque in front of the main branch of the library. I didn't read what it said there thinking I'd be able to in the picture but I can't see here even after lightening the pic. I'll have to look next time I'm there. I think it's something about giving.

Day 151

When they dug up their yard to replace the sewage pipes they pulled out a variety of pipes. I think they are ceramic. I wonder what that curvy one did.

Day 150

Rainbow colored sunset in the rain. The rain was massive soaking drops but still they didn't show up in camera. No one TV and movies have to make fake rain even if it's raining so it'll actually be visible.

Quite a bit of change between original and posted, sunset scene style with vibrant color and a turn to the left for the whole picture.

Day 149 Happy Memorial Day!

You can't celebrate Memorial Day without a new grill. Also they finally fixed the sewer so it's safe to use water and not feel bad that you're sending sewage out on to workers.

Day 148

Barbara and her birthday cake. It's chocolate with layers of strawberries and whip cream. It matched her today with a red flower in her hair.

Day 147

Here are some pictures of the mess the neighbor is making in the yard. There's the back sidewalk piled in the front yard now, a giant trench half finished, and man-high piles of dirt everywhere. We suspect the dark colored dirt (vs the orangish clay dirt of the area) is a sign of sewage leakage.

Day 146

Another alley picture finally. I think this compares to picture 2 or 3 of the series. It's much greener and more filled with plants than it was in January or February.

Day 145 Happy Birthday to Barbara!

I picked Barb up after school and we met some of her coworkers at Sharp Edge bar which has delicious tofu buffalo wings. Before I left home I thought that would be my picture of the day but I forgot to take a picture! After eating we went to the dollar theater and saw Wrath of the Titans then we went to Walmart, then to Denny's for Barb to get a free Grand Slam breakfast. It looked yummy too but again I wasn't thinking of pictures.

Outside Barbara's school there was a white rose bush and some new rustic log benches for outdoor classes and I thought about how maybe it'd be nice to take a picture looking through the roses at those benches but I didn't get out of the car. So you get these white roses I took a picture of last Friday on my walk to the library.

Day 144

Today I FINALLY planted the garden. I set the box up a week ago but it didn't look like it'd filled with weeds while I neglected it. Also the stupid top soil I shouldn't have bought made the soil rockier looking than the normal garden ever had. :p I'm hoping if it ever rains here again it'll somehow smooth itself out.

Regardless, I went to a local garden stand and got a flat of vegetables and some marigolds. In the picture: there are tomatoes to the right, zucchini to the left, brussels sprouts up front and peppers in the back. I need to add beans to the top corner, they're soaking now so they'll sprout faster. I also have a couple things from Barbara, more tomatoes and peppers. I'm thinking of adding some more things outside the box, maybe some corn for fall decorations and pumpkins. I'm a little worried about the soil quality since the garden hasn't done so well lately but I figure if it's things we aren't going to eat it doesn't matter if it actually grows.

Day 143

There are lots of tiny, likely to be inedible, peaches on the tree out back. I should probably spray it again for bugs even if the fungal thing has to be treated after the leaves are gone. The tree definitely doesn't look as bad as it did last year but it could be better.

Day 142

I should have taken a picture of the stack of Batman graphic novels I spent the day reading. Instead here is a picture of the sunflowers-to-be I planted for mom Saturday.

Day 141

Today I went to Waynesburg for the last ward conference of the year. The GPS led us along a small winding road that randomly went through some farm fields. It was beautiful, partly from being so unexpected, and I wish I'd taken a picture. I planned to on the way home but the GPS took us back a different way. So instead you get a picture of St Paul's cathedral that I took walking back to church from the library for Rebecca's bridal shower.

Day 140

My feet hurt and I wasn't even dancing like the kids at the seminary bowl, dinner, and dance tonight. The kitchen floor in Greentree chapel is murderous. My camera really can't handle pictures in a darkened room but the camera plus app has a night option that at least makes things visible if pixilated. The HDR gave them a little more distinction.

Day 139

Another busy day. Here's Rebecca Swain with her cake and Mrs. Chapman cap at the end of the bridal shower tonight.

Day 138

Dumplings from Loving Hut vegan restaurant. They weren't so good that I'd get them again but I'd like to go back to eat there again.

Day 137

Another iris started to bloom in our front yard. It's a different kind, more delicate looking than the darker ones. The camera didn't want to focus on it and I got tired of trying since I was actually hauling dirt around to start our box garden in back.

I'd say we're a few bags of dirt short but maybe I'll get some free compost from the municipalities I'll be passing through tomorrow. I really need to mix the diets better and break up the top soil that came out like clay bricks. The manure compost stuff wasn't too bad despite being similarly packed and wet. The peat moss and vermiculite hadn't even gotten wet or dried very fast. That wasn't so great because the wind had picked up and blew it around some.

PS Also finished a great mystery today, Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan.

Day 136

Mom finally managed to convince Dad to take her to buy flowers for the front flower bed. We managed to convince her they had to be shade tolerant plants this time. We got some impatiens and begonias (pictured here). She wanted petunias but the last five years they've just done badly, no spreading at all. Hopefully these guys will do better.

Day 135

Today's picture is a flowering vine wrapped around a tree on the way to the library. I'm not sure what kind it is but I thought I saw a similar flower when I was looking for shade tolerant flowers for our front yard.

Day 134

Happy Mother's Day! Here is Mom in the dress I made. Obviously I need more practice but it actually is pretty close to the original. I wish I had taken pics of the different stages, at one point it was about two feet too long in front and back. Mom was half a foot shorter than me when standing so it was super too long. I'd like to try to make a more fitted dress in the future. It's hard because Mom just sits or lays so dresses never sit really well on her.

Day 133

How many goslings can you see? This picture is from earlier when I went to feed the geese before the concert. Today I watched Mom while Dad went shopping and I cleaned the living room so we could have dinner tomorrow. Also, I made a dress for my mom but I didn't take any pictures. It was rather funny at times so that's a shame but I'll try to get a picture of her wearing it.

Day 132

After Mom's shoe appointment we walked down to the river to see the baby geese. We fed them some cereal and bread. They were getting really close to Mom's chair but then a dog came and scared them all into the water. They came back eventually and we were really tempted to try to snatch one up so Mom could see and cuddle it but the mom goose gave the warning honk and told them to get away from us. :p

Day 131

Barbara and I went to the River City Brass concert at the Carnegie Music Hall. I picked her up at school then we parked at church, walked down to the Greek food festival and got some yummy food, then walked around the museum a bit before going to the music hall to finally use the free tickets I got last year at a free day at Phipps.

We got to pick whatever seats we wanted with our ticket vouchers and got the front row to the right of the stage. See how close we were? It wasn't the best view of all the musicians but we could see the trombones and whatever the front row instruments are well. :)

There was a Japanese film crew there so we could end up on Japanese TV. They were filming for a show about interesting jobs Japanese people have and were profiling one of the players.

Day 130

There are tons of roses along Brownsville Road that I never really noticed. This was the first rose I noticed on my walk to the bank from the library after book club. Afterward I saw half a dozen bushes of them at least. They were all too vibrant already for any editing.

Day 129

An abandoned shed or garage in the alley, comparing May 1st to the 8th. You can see how much growth has occurred in just a week. You could easily pass it now and not notice a building there! The weeds are really taking over the alley.

Day 128

I'm tired and this refused to post on twitter or show up in drafts so I could easily resend it. Stupid twitter app, you don't work nearly as well as the apps made by non-twitter companies.

Here are the oak leaves all grown up, except maybe they'll get a little darker or waxier. I swear they grew up in like 4 days last year, not two months. I gave up picturing them daily since there was very little change since April took a turn for the cooler than March. I should post the two or so weeks I did early on, but not tonight, I'm sleepy and have lots to read still for book club tomorrow.

Day 127

We planted this iris two years ago from a bulb with leaves my Aunt Mona sent or brought from her garden in Iowa. The first year we didn't expect anything since we just planted it but the leaves stuck around okay. Last spring we thought they'd flower but no, we just got new leaves. Barbara said it was normal for irises and lilies to need a year to establish themselves before they bloomed. This year it seems like overall the bulbs didn't grow back that well (I assume squirrels or whatever got all the tulips, daffodils, and crocuses that Mom planted years ago) but this iris and one at the opposite end of the garden both seem to have split into three plants with just the original growing a flower stalk. Maybe some of the other plants will flower later in the summer.