This is a tedder, for fluffing up hay so it will dry faster...

Gary baled the cut hay (which Dad did earlier)...Had to finish that before it rains again (tomorrow).

These tractors are the big boys' toys...Men are always looking for an excuse to use them...and haying and baling are "play" to them.

Posted by Hello

More daylilies (of a different color than the first I posted)...these are those next to my veggie garden.



Posted by Hello

Can anyone help me identify these flowers? Hummingbirds like them.

Posted by Hello

A frog and a toad now reside in our fountain.

Posted by Hello

These are irises that I transplanted. I read in a magazine that irises usually bloom in late spring or early summer, and that the best time to transplant them is during mid-July! And I had been waiting for it to bloom...So what I did was I pulled out some daisies from this spot and transplanted the irises. Hopefully they will bloom next year...

Posted by Hello

A forumer in asawa.org wanted some insight from Filipinas about their first winter experience. One suggestion I gave was to have a dark surface on which to catch snowflakes when the snow falls. He said it was new to him...so I am posting here some quite blurry yet clear enough to see such snowflakes. Best to catch them at a time when snow falls thinly (if they fall in clumps, they'll melt before you even get to see the individual flakes).

(CLICK on the photos to see larger images)
These are snowflakes caught the moment it starts snowing, with the surrounding air cold enough to not melt them while they descend. The snowmobile seat is still not fully covered with snow so it makes the individual flakes distinct enough to see the hexagonal pattern.

Baby racoons scavenging for food...they were attacking our garbage cans. No matter how angry one might be because of scattering of trash all over the place, how can he/she be when she sees these cute faces?

My first harvest of green peppers...

Posted by Hello

Additional new blooms (they're annuals from my Mom, but I don't know what they are)

Posted by Hello

Found this small nest (the hollow middle just about the size of a regular egg) on the lawn.

Tomatillas (husk tomatoes) are used for salsa, according to Mom.

The lilies along the driveway near the vegetable garden also have started to bloom.

False Sunflowers

As the name implies, these are like miniature sunflowers.



I gathered some and arranged them in a vase -- beautiful...

Zinnias...small yet lovely and dainty.

Delphinium

very striking cluster of purple flowers (Thanks to Bingbing for identifying the flowers!)

Bee Balm

Feathery soft layer of petals upon another layer underneath. Bees love them.

This is milkweed. We have 3 patches of them along our driveway and several patches more surrounding the fields. They smell so good I wanted to transplant them but Gary said they attract all sorts of insects.

Daylilies

This is another unidentified new bloom in my flower garden...Each flower is big, yet the stem is so short (if I cut a part of the stem with the leaves to make it longer, I cut a whole bunch of them!)...



So I cut them short, 5 of them, arranged them in a dome-like appearance, using a short vase which was a scented candle jar...(I did the same with the other still-unidentified flower on the left, which I surmise to be a California bluebell.)

Daylilies

These are daylilies (thanks for identifying, bingbing!)I picked from the roadside...



They close during nighttime.



So this morning I got out very early to go to the site (about 2 houses away from ours) and dig out some of them and transplant them into my flower garden. Taraaaa! 

UPDATE as of Jul 16: I noticed that the flowers did not open the next day; instead, it continued to wilt, while the other flowers in the bunch slowly opened and bloomed on the 2nd day after the first set. Maybe that was the reason for its name.

Can't wait for these tomatoes to be ready for eating...