Tag: FOTD

Cycle of Life, FOTD

Cee’s fun Flower of the Day prompt challenges us all to see the beauty on nature. My post today takes this a step further in showing the cycle of life in a day lily. They are called day lilies as their bloom last only a day to a day in a half but the life cycle of that bloom is well over a week if not two.

The Life Cycle

The life cycle is not long for those like me

for we start very small as you can see.

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My siblings and I, we number at six

On the same long shoot that looks like a stick.

With each passing day we grow to our size

Stretching our pods with goals to maximize.

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The sun is so warm and helps us to grow

We all hope to open and put on a show.

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Some of us grow slow and some grow fast

But the life of our bloom is one that wont last.

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First bloom of the season

The life cycle is short, but shed not a tear

For behold we will come back year after year.

For those of us who so enjoy your flowers, it does get sad at the end of the season when they go to sleep or die. But we are renewed in hope knowing when spring returns they also will return.

Enjoy the beauty, love and peace of flowers and remember to share their beauty and kindness with others as they share theirs with you.

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Flower of the Day, 7/1

Enjoying Cee’s FOTD brings out the beauty of nature. So many lovely things to see. We have always heard the line “grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the fence” so today I feature redness on the other side of the fence.

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“Don’t fence us…Out”

Verbena is always a favorite for its variation in color and bright happy look. Spread kindness like the flowers spread happiness and watch the world change for the good.

Happy Kind

FOTD, June 21

Cee’s wonderful prompt of Flower of the Day gives us such great opportunities to see the many flowers others post from all over the world. It is such a fun prompt for me.

My flower today is my lilies – my red ones are now opening up fully, I have them in two separate spots in the yard. But coming soon are my daylilies. The buds are really full this year.

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Come join in and show us the beauty you see in flowers and such. And as always, remember to be kind.

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FOTD, June 15, Lilies

I love this time of year where I can share my love of flowers with others who also love flowers. Cee has a wonder challenge with Flower of the Day where we see all sorts of plant life, such a fun challenge. Today, I am sharing my lilies. My white are open, and my red ones are just starting. I purchased some yellow one this year and they are open as well. My day lilies are just now starting to bud so those will be beautiful mid summer.

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And I remind you as always, the value of kindness is a value that can never be measures.

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Waiting on Cristobal, FOTD

Growing up in south Georgia and north Florida, tropical weather is a norm. But now that I live in the Midwest, it’s kind of a weird phenomenon. Watching the clouds start rolling in last night against the setting sun were beautiful. The colors seemed to glow.

When looking at the radar this morning, I knew I had time to grab some quick photos before possible damage and then take all the hanging planters down as well as the bird feeders. The winds from the second storm coming from Nebraska on the tails of Cristobal seems to have worse wind potential and I down want plants flying about. Below are a few of the prettier flowers plus my lilies that are just opening. Hope that can stand the torrents. Come join in with Cee’s Flower of the Day.

And one last closeup of a ant wanting one last taste before the storm hits.

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Remember that all of us are going through storms, some small, some huge. Never underestimate the value of kindness to help us survive life’s storms. Sometimes when we show kindness during our own storms, relief and peace can then surround us. Try to always be kind.

 

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Flower of the Day, Peonies

I am a day behind on Cee’s FOTD, Peonies, as that was yesterday but I had my fence flowers I wanted to show off yesterday as I finally got them planted. Her flower today is a gorgeous Iris. This is such a fun challenge and I need to take more pictures to have in my archive so when snow is on the ground I can still play with flowers. But today, it is my peonies. I started with one plant and now have three in the same area. I didn’t know they would do that.

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In past years, when that would be in full bloom and smothered with flowers, the stems had a hard time holding up the weight of the blooms, so this year I added tomato cages to them to see if the support would help. We have not had a storm come though yet so we will see but the cages are hidden form the size of the bushes.

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Such wonderful flowers. I would bring some inside but the ants love them too and are all inside the blooms. They don’t seem to damage the blooms so I leave them be.

And as always I remind you to be kind whenever you can. Sometimes it is real hard but we must try when we can.

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Ain’t Old Yet!! FOTD

Even though there may be gray hair on the head and wrinkles on the face…which I earned with life…I ain’t old yet.

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Picture courtesy of Grandma Illustrations

After the nightmare of trusting the wrong company to put up a fence for me, them backing out half way done, then sending a single guy who tried to work with the mess they created…then putting the lattice sheets 8″ too high per county code, it is now almost completely corrected, and I did it myself. Ordered a drill from Amazon. I had posted earlier how they put the post in, left all the dirt in the yard for me to move and then the post were not all the same height, which means they are in the ground at different depths. Good grief! When the guy(and I) started adding the lattice, we saw the post were not even either. Below you will see the misaligned posts (thank goodness I am using plastic lattice), The front board height that I corrected next to height he had used, and the the boards not being the correct length on the inside and just put in haphazard.

My drill came Friday so Saturday I went to work and got the front sections to the correct height, which also meant I had to rehang the lattice sheets. But it is done. This morning after video church service, I put out my concrete block planters and added the flowers. Looks pretty good – not bad for a 69 year old turtle! It is not perfect but better than it was. And it serves the purpose of no have the dogs on a chain.

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I am enclosing the pictures of the flowers that are in the block planters to tie in the Cee’s Flower of the Day. Since the dianthus around the mailbox did so well last year and came back beautifully this year, I felt like that is a less expensive planter situation and less likely someone to want to walk off with you planter of flowers.

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In all this mess, I am at lease beginning to see the light of my vision and when the plant hangers are up and the gate is complete, I will repost those. The gate will make you laugh. And we all need a little laughter now a days as the US is imploding on itself.

In  the chaos of life and stress we are all facing remember the value of kindness, a much needed value for right now…and always.

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FOTD, May 25

Cee posted a beautiful purple iris for her FOTD post and my iris are sad this year. I had major construction to the steps around my iris bed and you know some workmen have no clue. Ah well, we will see if they make a comeback. In the mean time I will share my columbine that I swore last year was pink.

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Since the blooms hang upside down, I wanted to catch one picture looking into the bloom. You know how on your phone you can take a selfie by flipping the direction image of the camera, I tried that to see what I would come up with and it turned out kind of neat with the bright sky in the background.

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While my iris are not doing well, I did found it interesting that my annual “Johnny Jump ups” came back…in pots where I didn’t plant them. Thank you, birdie.

Some calls these weeds but I actually planted these on purpose last year. They look like tiny pansies.

Flowers make me happy. When we are happy we are usually kind. Try to be happy all the time or at least try to be kind even when you don’t want to be. Kinds looks better on you than the person receiving the kind gesture.

How Humility Will Make You the Greatest Person Ever
There is no greater beauty that to show kindness to another being.

Flower of the Day, Coreopsis

When I went flower shopping, I wanted something bright as this weather lately has been anything but bright, and we are due another week of rain…enough already.

I love Cee’s challenge of Flower of the Day and we see so many beautiful post from everyone. Once I got home to put these in the ground I chuckled to myself and said had I see the color variation of this particular Coreopsis, I would have bought them any way as reminiscent of my college day and the bands I listened to. This color is “Jethro Tull” – what a hoot. A flower named after a rock band…or maybe the band named themselves after this lovely flower. What came first – the chicken or the egg…

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I love how the petals form a little tuber. I hope my hummingbirds like them as I know they are fond of tubers. And then the tiny little flower inside center section. Amazing.

As you go along enjoying the flowers, remember the joy they bring you share that joy and kindness with others. It may just make someone’s day.

Kind fire