We picked up some free tress recently from the local Conservation Service and state DNR. This pecan sapling took a couple of weeks to get going, but it now has some strong leaf growth. According to the experts, you need two pecan trees to produce pecans. Don’t know if we’ll get another one growing or not.
Philly steak
It has been over a year since we were able to see Maj’s sister. That changed when we met for lunch at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse in Noblesville, Indiana. Noblesville is northeast of Indianapolis but is really part of the Indy Metro area. BJ’s is part of a national chain.
We had a wonderful time “catching up” on the news from my sister’s family and we shared our family news too. It’s amazing how much has occurred in the past year and a half in our families.
The restaurant is spacious, and when seated we noticed extra partitions between booths. The food and service was excellent. The menu featured tons of options, and many different beers. We ordered something we had never seen before: a flight of margaritas! Served like a flight of beers, it had four different margarita samples. We agreed the strawberry sample was our favorite.
The flight of margaritas
The food and service were both excellent. The portions were very generous, and all three of us enjoyed our meals. The most enjoyment of this luncheon came from our being together again. Now that things are at least somewhat back to near normal, we hope to get together each month.
This rose has a hitchhiker on one of its petals. What looks like a small bee is actually a hoverfly. No, it is not a sweat bee, although many call it that. Hoverflies only have two wings. (Bees have four wings) It does like sweat on humans, and is also a great pollinator.
Sher and I were enjoying sitting on the swing enjoying the multitude of birds feeding at our feeders. We were seeing Cardinals, robins, sparrows, wrens, Grackles, Blue Jays, starlings, doves. and nuthatches. Turkey vultures were soaring on thermals overhead, and we even saw a couple of chimney swifts, the cigar with wings insect catchers. Squirrels were chasing each other up and down and around trees.
There he is, in the center of the shot.
Look closely, you can see chipmunk looking out of the wishing well at us/you
Then out of the corner of her eye, Sher spotted movement. She poked me and pointed. There running across the yard and not 6 feet away was a cute little chipmunk. We have never seen one in our yard since we moved here. The cute little guy romped around for awhile checking out the tree, wishing well and the whole area. He acted like this was his first time in our yard.
Yesterday and last night Indiana suffered through some damaging severe thunderstorms. We were fortunate in that we suffered no damage, yet there was a very large tree down the block that blew over, fortunately missing any structure.
Our wheelbarrow was empty yesterday before the storms came through. This is what I found at 8 AM this morning.
Baseball size hail was reported (and photographed) near Indianapolis, and as of this morning there were still thousands of customers without power, and a few tornados reported as well. The good thing is that rain was needed. We officially recorded 3 inches, while some Southern Indiana counties recorded 7 + inches.
No green and white street signs on a pole for this intersection! This brick pylon with stone street signs is in the little town of Boggstown, Indiana, south east of Indianapolis.
Red Mills was a functioning grist mill from 1821 until the early 1970’s. Located in Shelby County, Indiana, the mill operated on Sugar Creek north of the little town of Boggstown.
For decades the mill had been a magnet to artists who used the mill as the object of countless paintings, both oil and water color. Sher and I had enjoyed lunch at a restaurant in Greenwood, and on the way home decided to take a little drive through the country. The attached photos are the result.
The scale shed received and weighed all of the wagons of grain brought to the mill by the local farmers. Today you can get to Red Mills by exiting on London Road off I-74, (east of Indianapolis) then head south. Soon you will see a brand new bridge on your right. Continue south and about 100 yards later you will make a sharp right hand turn and be at the Red Mills.
This guy was enjoying the morsels that had fallen out of the overhead bird feeders.
This is the same rose we posted a couple of days ago. This morning we noticed pinkish spots on the petals. Can anybody chime in and help us identify what’s going on with this rose?
One of the vendors set up at the same place as us last week had these for sale. He had made many different colors and we went for this cute pink and white.
