All About Pocket Knives

In response to the above Hydrangea posts, I took these shots in our pool area last night. It was pushing 90° yesterday, and an after work dip was refreshing.

1967redrider wrote: ↑Fri Jun 06, 2025 12:43 pm In response to the above Hydrangea posts, I took these shots in our pool area last night. It was pushing 90° yesterday, and an after work dip was refreshing.

Beautiful flowers, and it looks like you have a really nice pool there with plenty of greenery around.

Beautiful hydrangeas! They really put on a stunning show.

Those are sometimes called “mophead” hydrangeas, which can be either blue or pink depending on whether they are planted in acid or alkaline soil content. In fact the color of a given plant can be manipulated by soil additives. They’re a different species of hydrangea than the Oakleaf hydrangea, which is easy to tell by difference in the plant’s leaves. Also the oakleaf hydrangea flower color is not affected by the soil they’re growing in.

Ken

Thanks, Ike and Ken. It's my weekend escape when we're not at the farm.

A few pics from a recent hike in Wisconsin, on a bluff along Lake Michigan on one side, and Birch, Hemlock, and wildflowers on the other side in beautiful sunny 50 degree weather.

Cool landscape, Ike.

Quite the show Homer.

It's hard to know deer Tom, they walk onto our front concrete porch to see if anything suits their fancy and occasionally they take a few bites for testing purposes.
We planted oak leaf hydrangeas 6 or seven years ago and they ate them. Oak leaf hydrangeas are supposedly deer proof, as they are toxic to animals and humans.

Some species of hydrangeas are now supposed to be color fast regardless of soil acidity?

Just a few more planters attached to the back deck to get going refinishing has delayed.
My tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini , collards, and cucumbers suffered somewhat from the refining of the deck. Maybe some pictures of the plants if they recover. Tomatoes will be okay, only one has green tomatoes on it.

The Cockscomb flowers now have a proper home that the white tails will leave alone, let’s see if I can salvage this years crop. I took Ken’s advice and did 50% finished compost 32 cu ft),10% whole ground corn meal (6 cu ft) and the remaining 40% in local topsoil (26 cu ft). The little bits of vermiculite on the surface is from the potting soil used to start the flowers.

wlf wrote: ↑Sat Jun 07, 2025 4:54 pmIt's hard to know deer

I agree Lyle, I’ll report back with success or failure. Nice beds and gardens my friend, beautiful!

Thanks Tom
I dig some holes and Jan grows flowers. I do some vegetables.

Great gardens! Looks like Homer’s Oakleaf hydrangea is really putting on a show!

Got more stuff blooming here too. In the garden, and in the pastures.

Ken

More native Texas wildflowers. Hummingbirds and butterflies love them! Took these pictures today.

Ken

Awesome flower pictures, Ken! Hopefully we will continue to get some rain and everything will stay nice and green.

Very nice, Ken.

Just looking through all these beautiful plant pictures.
You guys have some outstanding green thumbs. Very nice!

And for those of us without green thumbs, God made the cactus .

I built a new shelf in my Carport to hold some of them and i thought why not mix it with one of my other passions.

Today's Birthday Boy, Chris, is sending me a special WV plate that I will add to the right side of this shelf as soon as it make it's way across the big pond. Told you I'd find a Special place for it.
Looking forward to it. Thanks Chris, and I hope you had a wonderful day today.

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Looks awesome, from a Mountaineer.

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 3:41 am More native Texas wildflowers

beautiful Ken, gorgeous flowers.

Thanks everybody. I agree with Tom. God does great work!

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 11:01 pm Thanks everybody. I agree with Tom. God does great work!

Ken

Your so right Ken, he really does. As a young person I never appreciated the whole truth in the old saying about "Taking time to stop and smell the Roses." Over the years I have been lerning more and more to take pleasure in the small things of beauty that surround us and often go unnoticed.

Like:

The Sounds of birds, music, the ocean, water falls,
The Beauty of plants, flowers, stars, sea shells, snow flakes,
The Smell of honeysuckle, tea, coffee, BBQ, pizza , Pop Tarts in the morning, food all together
The Sights of an old friend, your home town, a cool Truck or Car, your spouse, your home
The Feel of a nice pocket knife in your hand, a babies soft skin, sand between your totes, a hot shower
The Taste of ice cream, chocolate, pies, a home cooked meal, fried Chicken
And one of my favorit things in the world is when my dogs greet me when I come home. I sure hope there are dogs in heaven to greet us when we get there.

And all the other millions of things we often forget to notice.
I have a good wife, 3 wonderful children, pets, a house, plants, food, a Hollywood Swing, the AAPK & my Friends here, the list goes on & on. I am Soooo "RICH" (Blessed)! And it's really not about the money.
It's about appreciation.
Your right Ken, God does a great work!


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Friend Tom I too am blessed, everything you said is spot on, we'll said friend. God bless you and yours .

Thanks Buddy!


I changed the hanging decoration that will be between the 2 WV plates from a bucket with a cactus in it to this old oil lamp that I picked up in my home town of Cumberland, MD last year. I think it gives the WV theme more of a "Trains & Coal Mines" feeling.

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So this was about a week ago. This about a hour ago. Hydrangeas do not like hot sunshine.