Yucca Flowers

Having been born and raised in New Mexico I was well aware that the New Mexico state flower was the yucca. I had a couple in my yard and always went out on the desert to see them when they were blooming. What a surprise to fine yuccas in Kentucky. On researching yuccas on the internet I found that there was a type of wild, native yucca in Kentucky. I was very pleased to see a clump of what I thought were yucca in the yard of the property we bought. I waited many months to see what the clump of spikey leaves would look like when it bloomed. Here is a few of the photos I took of the yucca blossoms. The have been so pretty.  In comparing them to the wild yucca on the New Mexico desert I saw that these were more white, and the long leaves aren't quite as sharp pointed as the desert yucca. Oh, yes, they are still sharp but not so needle sharp. Knowing that they are in Kentucky I have now seen them in lots of yards in our area but have not seen any in the wild as mentioned on some web sites.

 Here are a couple of photos of the New Mexico desert yucca that I am so fond of. As you can see the leaves are thinner and sharper and the flowers more of an ivery color with darker, kind of a dark purple section in them. But still the same basic bell shaped blossom. The last photo is of some of the hard, dried seed pods from some desert yucca. It's the same bell shape but dried to a shade of brown almost like a thin wood. They look great in dried arrangements.

 

Petunia's

Petunia's have never been my favorite flower but here in Kentucky I see them everywhere. So the other day I decided I would try some. I had a hard time deciding what I was going to buy as I didn't realize that there were so many colors. Other places I have lived there were only a few colors to chose from. Here there seemed to be dozens and dozens of colors. Solid colors and striped colors. I was drawn to baskets of black and pink petunia's. Had to have one of those. After looking at a lot of others I chose one that seemed to be a pale yellow with red tips on the petals mixed with white petunias. Then there were the purple and white striped ones mixed with dark red in another basket.  My cousin came to visit and pointed out that the pale yellow ones with the red tips looked like they were red hearts. Then my aunt mentioned that the red and yellow were the colors in the New Mexico flag. Maybe that is why I picked that one out. The black ones looked like black velvet. Wonder if that is their official name as all flowers seem to have a name given to them by who ever developed that particular color. I know the rose growers have all kinds of contests to see what new verities have been bred each year. I would think all flower growers do. 

Visitors

Had some visitors today. My Aunt Wanda, who was visiting her daughter, Denise in Dayton, Ohio. They drove down for the day. It was so wonderful to see them. Several times Aunt Wanda came to see me when I lived in New Mexico. For those that don't know I am on the right, Denise on the left and Aunt Wanda in the middle.

It was a very humid, muggy day but we went to Point Park in Carrollton where the Kentucky and Ohio Rivers come together. Kentucky River on the left and Ohio on the right.

From there we drove through the old part of Carrollton and stopped at the Carroll County Courthouse. The small rock building to the left was the jail built about 1830. 

Then we went to General Butler State Park which is sort of in the middle of Carrollton. We went to the lookout at one of the highest places in Carroll County. It looks like an old ruin but was build about 1930 by the Butler family as a place to have outings, picnics and such. You can see the Ohio river from the lookout.

We saw a couple of deer in the park. They were right by the road and didn't pay us much attention as they see cars all the time.

What I Saw Today

Yard Art - Or Not

Seems like a lot of people like to put little statures or plastic animals in their yard. The previous owner of the house we bought a few months ago left several of these. I first pic shows two frogs. the one holding the leaf was in plain sight when we moved in. I decided to dig up a large, half buried flower pot on the edge of one side of the yard and found the laying down frog buried beside the pot. Guess they didn't like little froggie. I do.

The owl and the deer we found under a pile of junk in one of the sheds out back. The owl has a hole in his base that lets him sit on a fence post. It is one of the ones that the head is on a swivel and when the wind blows it moves. With the sun behind him he looks almost real. But the birds don't think so. I have seen them sit right beside it on the fence.

I think these are called gazing balls. Seems like a plant nursery I used to work far sold them. Never cared for them but couldn't bring my self to throw them out. the wheel was laying on the ground and when I picked it up I found a little rose bush struggling to survive. It has stood up and put on a couple of blooms since I took the wheel off of it.

I wouldn't have moved this big concrete basket either. In fact it will probably sit there forever. Aparently there used to be a tree there as we found a big tree stump under the basket when we were trying to figure out what we might do with it. The little boy with his dog on a bench didn't come with the basket as they turned out to be plastic.

 Now this squirrel and rabbits were mine and came with me from New Mexico.

Oh and this rabbit is real yard art. He even runs around the yard.