Bogieblog

Roadside Garden Progress

I have not yet finished up the roadside garden, but it is getting closer.

Here are the plants I put in on 6/30/19

There are 4 peonies (Filix Crousse and Madame Emile Debatene), a Laceleaf Japanes Maple, and two Beleza Dark Pink Gaura's (the blooming plants). The Gauras won't make it thru the winter, but since they are in front they will be easy to replace.

A Buzz Hot Raspberry Butterfly Bush at the other end

And in this shot from the side, you can see the Autumn Fire Sedum that is to the far right.

On 7/3/19, I got a couple of tall Phlox (Niki) from a nursery in Wilton to add. I also side dressed everything with compost (not mine, it was bagged).

And on 7/9/19 I got some mulch put around the plants that are there (no additions since the phlox)

Okay, I just remembered that I hadn't taken a picture of the new Buzz Midnight Butterfly bush that I put in on 7/3/19, so now you see it in the mulch (the one on the right).

I still need plants for the area between but that will take some time to find what I want (I don't know what I want, but will know when I see it/them). I do know I want a small shrub that will balance out with the color of the Laceleaf Maple so that is on my search list. And then of course a couple of smaller perennials to go around it.

And yeah, the inside "wall" will eventually be covered by mulch but for now I am loving the convenience of being able to step there to lean over to install the plants/soil/mulch. I thought I was just using up broken wall blocks while hopefully foiling grass and weeds from the lawn. But it was a small stroke of genius since they are lower than the wall, but higher than the native ground so just the right height for taking that step to lean in.

Computer Woes 2019

A couple of weeks ago my graphics card to my desktop went out. I managed to salvage it by removing it and blowing out the fan. I had no idea that it had a fan! I blew out the other two fans every 6 months or so, but the graphics card orientation prevented me from seeing that it had a fan also. I had bought the computer in 2012 as a refurb - I'm guessing with the 1 TB HD and the mid-range graphics card that someone configured it as a gaming PC and returned it for whatever reason. Anyway, it was basically brand new without a scratch on it. I knew that the graphics card fix was probably only temporary so I started looking at new computers. Sorry to say that most of them are downgrades from the 2012 computer. I also looked at refurbs, but those are hit-or-miss and nothing good was around.

Well, last weekend it came to a head when the graphics card went out for good. I went to Concord and got another card, but insatllation did not help so I'm guessing the overheated card took out part of the mother board. NOw, this is an issue because without my desktop, there is no wifi, so no internet even from my laptop (very slow laptop might I add), and only cell tower for the cell phones. ARGH! Back to BB in Concord hoping to find a computer at least as good as what the old one was.

Well, for well over a grand, I could get a gaming machine, but no, I don't need that much "stuff". So I settled for a HP Pavilion 595 that was on sale (hey look, the price went back up so I had decent timing with that!). I could have gotten something cheaper that probably would have been fine, but I just couldn't bring myself to downgrade the processor that much (2012 computer had i7 and most selling today are i5 or even i3) and I wanted the 16 GB memory (most today have 4 or 8).

The graphics is integrated on the 595, so that is a downgrade, as is the power supply at only 180w (old computer had 300w) and the card reader is only good for 3 types (versus 7). But, those downgrades aren't as important as I didn't use them to their full potential anyway.

Download 2019 HP Pavilion Specs downloaded 7-12-19 - landscape A copy of the specs I downloaded from HP

After picking out the computer, they had to load everything, as well as transfer all my files from the old hard drive, so I didn't get to pick it up until about noon on Sunday. Then when I got home I had to get with Comcast to hook it into their system. Oh, and I had bought a new router a month ago (old one was from 2010 and no longer supported by cable company), just never gotten it hooked in, so we did that at the same time.

Then I spent a boatload of time downloading programs and getting email set up. In fact, last night I finally got the separate email program set up for the blog email. I'm sure I'll find more stuff that I need to download, and of course all my internet bookmarks were gone, so I'm slowly getting those that I use the most back and set up with remembering passwords.

Too bad I hadn't already gotten the router hooked in with Comcast so I could truly tell how much internet speed was a result of that versus the new computer (that, although virtually the same specs, would be faster by virtue of not having a boatload of junk files to sort thru).

Trouble the Dog

Friday was an off day, so I only put in 6.5 hours at work (I had been on work travel so needed to do some catch-up). Fortunately I was able to work from home so I jumped on my bike to head for  a meet and greet with some firefighters who participate in a program that we raised funds for.

At our June Chapter meeting, the HOG chapter had a guest appearance from Sheila, from the Kenneck Foundation, (also FB page) who raises funds to buy US made stuffed dogs and a Where There's Trouble . . There's Hope book for children experiencing traumatic conditions. These items are donated to police and firefighter departments to distribute in emergency situations. Chapter members donated enough to buy 10 units (plush dog and book) to donate to a local  station.

So, Friday afternoon those members available, rode to the Loudon fire station where we got to see the fruits of our donations.

It was  a great day for a ride, and I was glad I got to participate in this worthy cause.

UFO or Maniacal Firefly

Friday night I went out on the back porch and noticed a red glowing dot hanging out just off the railing, down the ramp several feet away. What the heck?

Was it the worlds smallest UFO maybe? Maybe a firefly that was a mutant or evil?

Then I realized that one bloom from a firecracker plant was catching the light coming from the kitchen window just right so it seemed to glow.Here is a picture taken tyesterday morning.

I had filled a couple of my planters on Sunday, just before leaving on a trip for work. I had set the planters down the railing so they weren't under the porch's roof eave, for nature to water them while I was gone.

The Clematis are Putting on a Show

Year 3, with its rain, dark skies and cooler temps seem to be to the liking of the clematis

This one is especially gorgeous

The second clematis is not quite as showy, but I think it will catch up

I'm sure it helps that I put up the oblisks toward the last of last summer, so now they have something to climb.

Helping out at the National HOG Pin Stop

Last week was motorcycle week in Laconia. National HOG has an official pin stop at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway during the entire week. This is a place where HOG members can come and upon showing their HOG card, pick up a special commemorative pin.

National HOG had asked our Chapter for volunteers to help man the tent. I volunteered and worked last Saturday afternoon. The first two paictures are from prior to my shift

The guy in the blue shirt, to the right of the table is on of our Chapter members. The people in pink-ish shirts are National HOG people.

The guy in the prior picture was kind enough to grab a picture of my in action

At the end of the day, we got a group picture of those who worked the tent in the afternoon. The tall guy and the guy to the left are bigwigs in the NHOG organization. The two gals work several of the events for NHOG, and the guy at the right worked the table that was giving away free water bottle to those that showed their HOG Credit Card (no, I don't have one so didn't get a water bottle).

Here are license plates from bike sin the parking area that are a long way from home.

Don't see many Boss Hoss's anymore

Can you find my bike?

Taken while I was eating lunch before my shift

This will be the easier picture to find my bike in

A little help in finding my bike - to the left of the red one

Had a great time at the pin stop and hope we get invited to help out again next year!

Sunrise in Goffstown

This year we have regularly gotten fantastic sunrises and Thursday I stopped to get some pictures.

Iris Time 2019

Irises came out in full force last week. All pictures taken 6/12/19

Iris blooms were not the only pretty things in the yard

False Indigo

Variegated Weigela with purple Japanese Iris

Clematis - Nelly Moser

Nine Bark (could be Coppertinal or might be Cetnerglow - I have both)

The rhodies that were damaged so badly this past winter. The one on the right turned out quite beautiful if you could ignore the lack of leaves

The left one still shows a lot of damage, but there are green leaves developing in ht e"dead" areas and the bottom still bloomed very nicely

And last but not least, a butterfly feeding off a rhodie bloom - from the one that was most severely damaged.

UPDATE 11:08 am 6/16/19: Forgot to give you a picture of the garden next to the driveway:

Rocking it

Last weekend I had torn the rock wall beside the tent garage apart to aid in clearing out vines and detritus (including glass, cans and black top :0). I got the rock wall put back together - which is a lot harder than tearing it apart. The last time I messed around with large rocks, I was a lot younger and in better shape overall, so getting the rocks uphill was a challenge.

Here is a cropped picture of the original rock wall (from 2016) so you can see only the rock placement

Looks a little better organized now - definitely not a professional job, but I'm happy with it.

Then I started laying landscape rocks to hold a garden bed in front - where the poison ivy was smothered. Over the last couple of years I have gleaned free landscape rocks from CL,  but I didn't have quite enough to finish these 2 courses (past the telephone pole). Actually, I had enough for the top course, but not the bottom - fortunately the local Aubuchons had some perfect matches so I wasn't worried about it. However,

I wanted 3 rows of landscape rocks and Aubuchons did not have very many of those matches, so I was unable to put a matching white band on top. So I went to Concord to grab another color so it looks intentional that I put in different colors (as opposed to being, well, cheap).

Then I decided, 4 bands would be better and I loved the "palomino" color of the new rocks (my choices were palomino or and orangish bay) so here is what it ended up being

Now the white looks weird to me. I'm hoping that grass will soon cover it enough that it looks okay. Or, I can stain the fronts later. Or, I can take out the 4th row. I like the presence that the 4th row gives as a focal point (3 rows kind of get lost with the large rock wall behind). However, that could change whenever I get some shrubs in there so it is still fluid now.

And, last night as I got ready to come in, I found that my first iris has bloomed

Phone camera didn't quite get the focus right, but it was the end of the day and the skies have been hazy from the Canadian wildfires. Here is a picture at 7 pm on Friday that shows the effects of the smoke - way before sunset.

No more work on the yard today as I have a HOG chapter meeting later this morning, then I have to get to mowing.

Memorial Day 2019

Simple message - unfortunately I don't know who to credit