The Beauty Of The Changing Seasons

[Lady Cannafan]

Wish you had been here Heirloom. I did get my grilled tomatoes, at the folks house. They have many ready for eating.
They do some of their outdoor cooking on an antique old gas stove converted to propane that they have on the back covered deck.
I commented on how much I loved that stove, many times including today.

So, my Pops...My Dad...My hero...My buddy...says "You want one?" And I said "Sure, just as soon as I'm rich and start hitting the antique auctions." He says, "Follow me".

In his old barn is an antique Clark Jewel, 1920's gas stove with porcelain doors, knobs....etc. This is what it looks like, a pic stolen from Ebay (might be slightly different)

Now, why didn't I post a pic of the one he's giving me?.......well my Pops knows full well how much I enjoy tinkering and tearing things apart and fixing things, he taught me most of that when I was a child. Along with Uncles and Brothers.

This stove is in about a gazillion pieces. It is complete, not missing any doors or anything, right down to original nuts and bolts. LOL

The person he got it from tore it completely down to recondition and do sand blasting, etc. etc. He never got around to it, and gave it to my Dad. Now it gets to be my personal project. I couldn't be more excited! And he knew I would love the opportunity to get this cleaned up and back together for my own use.

I love my Pops.

So, I did get some pretty awesome pictures while I was there. I'll upload in a bit.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Yeah, how many times can this happen to a person in one day?....ya just gotta ask yerself.

What do you see in this picture?

At the base of the door, stuck ever so neatly to the beam is a hornets' nest in my Pops' Barn. The service door cannot be opened, he gets in using the sliding door and says the bees don't mind him at all...."Just don't piss them off"..he says. Yeah, I get that!

Here's the bigger than a basketball nest they left from last year under the eave of one of his outbuildings:

 

[Lady Cannafan]

My folks have a pond at their place too, but it is a very small one. However....they have the most abundant array of dragonflies there. Incredible colors, including some white ones. I've never seen a white one until this year. They didn't stay still for me, but I managed one almost white....I loved the blue hues more:

And a different style:

This little moth just posed so nicely. Even turned and looked at me.

A bright colored lady bug in the midst:

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Well the challenge of the close up on Green dragonflies, odonates...odes...whatever we want to call them today, has been completed.

In all honesty, it became rather bothersome between the green one and a blue one.

I took all of the porcelain parts of the antique stove out to scrub baked on cakes of cooking residue and other such messes off them. I used two old large coolers. I did not realize just how challenging this stove was going to be until I brought it all here and began to TRY to reconstruct. This will not be an easy or quick task by any means.

While I'm scrubbing and scraping away for the first hour or so, a blue dragonfly kept me company. I think the blue ones are female and the green are male. She stayed very close, even landing on my arm a couple times. They are such curious and friendly critters. She had me giggling.

I went in the house to cool off for about an hour and went back out to continue. The Mrs. had gone, but the Green dude made himself known immediately. First he landed on my hand rag. I think Denim agrees with him:

I got a couple shots of him hiding next to me in the grass. It looks like it's smiling at me...or snearing....I dunno...:

From there he got rather playful. He landed on my head, stayed there quite awhile. Even while I was moving.
Then he plopped onto my glasses, I didn't let him stay there.

Then he rested on my cooler while I was splashing water around.

It made the heat bearable, having fun with the dragons.

 

[Lilred]

I have never seen so many on the fern....they love it

 

[Lady Cannafan]

That's too cool Lilred!

Those are going to turn into beautiful butterflies. I usually only see them around here on milkweeds.

Thanks for the pics.

 

[Lilred]

Went out to check on my garden after sundown and found one of these hopping around my front porch. I have them all over my yard...coming out in force at night. I wish I had caught my cat fighting a rat snake this morning on the porch....my son just told me about it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using 420 Magazine Mobile App

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Went out to check on my garden after sundown and found one of these hopping around my front porch. I have them all over my yard...coming out in force at night. I wish I had caught my cat fighting a rat snake this morning on the porch....my son just told me about it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using 420 Magazine Mobile App

Dang, you and I both. I have hundreds of little toads about the size of a fingernail everywhere I walk on my lawn. I'm sure I've damaged a few because I couldn't see them. They are so funny looking with all the bumps on them.

Would have loved to see the rat snake. Maybe you'll get another chance.

 

[Lilred]

I don't know what these are called but they are beautiful

Is there something I need to be doing to these

I am new to all this...remember that when I give my limited advice

 

[Lilred]

I am new to all this...remember that when I give my limited advice

 

[Heirloom]

You can 'dead head' the flowers, that is pick the spent blossoms to promote more flowering.

 

[Lilred]

You can 'dead head' the flowers, that is pick the spent blossoms to promote more flowering.

I do that with my merigolds...now I will it with them.

I am new to all this...remember that when I give my limited advice

 

[Lilred]

Should I be feeding them....cuz I don't give anything in my yard food except for my garden items

I am new to all this...remember that when I give my limited advice

 

[Heirloom]

My personal rule is, if it doesn't produce food, meds or something I NEED, it's on it's own. I won't spend money on landscaping/vanity. Just my personal quirk.

Mulching is an easy and sometimes free way to provide better soil conditions and nutrients for those plants you can't afford to feed. When you pop the seed heads and spent flowers put them right under the plant. Mix them in with whatever litter is already there. Compost on the spot, like a forest floor.




On a personal note, how's things with the car situation and all that?

 

[Lilred]

I found me a nice Honda accord.....I hate payments but had no choice...come tax time I will pay it off and be done with it. Until then I will just make these small payments...150...and tighten our belts. But here in the south we have to have a vehicle. I miss up north for the rail system.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

I took a walk through a little park before work on Saturday and found some sweet pea flowers. I never noticed this spider, it was so well camouflaged that it blended right in. Until the little bee landed. Apparently the bee didn't see it either:

Believe it or not, the bee actually got away.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

My Tiger Lily's are blooming. I love these flowers!

And look who came to lunch while I was standing there, within about 3 feet:

Guess she couldn't see me because of the camouflage t-shirt I had on.

 

[SweetSue]

That had to be an amazing moment Canna. Wow! What wonder. You must give off the most loving energy to attract such wildlife.

Loved the spider pictures. Timing is everything, isn't it?

 

[Lady Cannafan]

That had to be an amazing moment Canna. Wow! What wonder. You must give off the most loving energy to attract such wildlife.

Loved the spider pictures. Timing is everything, isn't it?

Thanks Sue. Not sure what I'm giving off to attract these critters, but it's okay by me. My formerly elusive green Dragonfly has gotten so friendly that I expect him to be there when I go outside now. He even chased off a bald faced hornet for me while I was up on the ladder yesterday. I kid you not.

He looks at me like he's saying, (in a singing child's voice) "Whatcha doin'?"

I have one more round of roof/gutter repair today, so I hope the company is as good as yesterday.

Here's a couple more shots at the little park I forgot to upload yesterday. Landscape type, there was no shortage of wildflowers there in front of the lake:

 

[SweetSue]

Oh thank you Canna. Thistles are one of my favorites. Do you have goldfinches harvesting them?