You Choose

I can't stand it any more. I was mulling over the latest interview, waiting for my head to explode, when I remembered a story. There was Jesus hanging on the cross. No, not the Jesus that mows your lawn, the other one, the one whose name you use when you hit your thumb with a hammer. Well, he's hanging on the cross calling for Peter. Peter's yelling back and hurrying his way to the cross. "Peter," Jesus calls again. "I'm here, I'm here" Peter calls back. "Peter," Jesus cries, "I can see your house from here!"

Late summer pics

I have no clue what the first flower is. We've moved it three times. The last time seems to have worked. This is the first year it's flowered. The sea of hosta started out as a bunch of three stem cuttings we planted to cover a bare patch. Pat told me what the purple flowers are but I forgot its' name. Pat was surprised that they flowered twice this year. The purple looking flowers at the bottom are turtle heads. They started out as six small plants a couple years ago.

So, who do I talk to?

Since the feds are throwing money around like Robert Mugabe, I'm wondering if Pat and I qualify for some kind of crop subsidy. We do have grain of some sort growing in the back yard. I'll promise the feds that all the money they give us will be spent in the back yard, so it'll help the economy.

Ligularia

Ligularia is last bloomer of the summer. The bright yellow orange flowers are striking against the deep greens in the yard. We don't dead-head the flowers anymore and have a nice nursery of small plants. We can transplant them in about two years. Two plants that we started from seeds three years ago flowered this year. Bees swarm over the flowers. They seem impervious to me taking pictures.

Sedum

We finally found a spot for the sedum. We've moved it around for the last couple of years. This year we concentrated it on the back yard berm. It really took off. The kind we have has a red tinted white flower. While the hosta seems to attract only those big bomber bees, the sedum attracts all kinds of flying bugs. You can hear the buzz from the wings. Since Pat and I can't leave well enough alone, we're going to spread the sedum out across the width of the berm.

Some more hosta

The last of the hosta is blooming. Odd as it may sound, the first hosta up in the spring is last to flower. This crop of hosta (if you have a better term, please tell me) is not some exotic cultivare. This hosta comes from the mother-in-law, Shirley, in Elmhurst, Illinois and a friend who hates hosta. It is a medium leaf green with a lavander flower. The bees swarm over the flowers from dawn to dusk. They are so interested in the flowers that they're not even bothered when I'm taking pictures.

For Katie

Yep, paint drying.

Oktoberfest in Cleveland

It's Labor day and Pat and I have spent the last two days gardening. Of course we couldn't leave well enough alone, so we moved hosta and ligularia around. Even Pat and I need a break from gardening. In Cleveland on Labor Day there's Oktoberfest. Yea, I know it's September and 90 out, but if you push those things out of your mind, you got Oktoberfest. Accordions, polka, grown men running around with short pants and suspenders, sausages, beer, wine and more beer.

The county fair grounds are only about 15 minutes from the house. On the way there, I'm wondering how many people are going to be there? It's 90 out and September. It just seems a little too hot and a little to early for Oktoberfest. Man, was it crowded. As soon as we got out of the car, you could here the music. German and American flags were flying everywhere. So what happened? Did all the other countries take all the nice colors and leave the Germans with what they got. Or maybe it was penance.

We found the wine kiosk as soon as we walked in. There was a half price sale for Cub fans. As we wandered around, we heard om pa pa bands in every building. The music all kind of blended together. It sounded like the theme from Hogan's Heroes. We wandered into another building and I had a Julie Andrews nightmare moment (that's my Sound of Music joke).

The real treat was the weiner dog races. I have never seen these many little yippers. They were everywhere. Man was it fun. Oh yea, there were these guys wearing inner tubes dancing on top of a building. If I wasn't more interested in Pat than German all those years ago, I might know what the sign says. For all I know it says, funny dressed guys dancing.

There was something for just about everyone. These pics are for Wayne in Omaha.

Maybe I'm too far removed from the land of my ansestors to get it, but this guy was having a good time.