A Visitor

The highlight of the last week was a visit from Jeff Hayes, a friend of Pam’s since childhood. A few other chores occupied us as well.

Jeff Hayes, his late wife Mary, and Pam had been friends since childhood. Jeff and Pam attended the same church and all three were in the same grade through school. Pam and Mary had traveled together in Europe before either married. Mary passed away about four years ago due to pancreatic cancer, a great loss to all of her friends. Pam established the Mary Lynn’s Memorial Garden in her memory. I have featured photos of the garden in previous posts; the name came from Mary Hayes.

Jeff lives in Florida but is considering a move back to Wisconsin. He was on a visit to friends and relatives who live near LaCrosse and was able to arrange a stop in NE Iowa on his way home. We were very glad to be able to meet with him and have a several hour conversation.

Topics discussed included the kids, our work on the house, friends Pam and Jeff have in common, and future plans. The weather cooperated with mild temperatures and no rain so we spent quite a bit of time outdoors in the shade. It was a very satisfying visit and we really appreciated Jeff’s effort to go out of his way to stop at 702 Main.

Other projects have been started; we started scraping paint on the front porch. Pam would like to have the porch painted by the 4th of July but much depends on the weather, which has been very hot and humid lately. (Much needed rain arrived on Friday and again as I write this on Saturday morning.) Scraping and painting will be the prime project for the upcoming week.

As with many projects, unanticipated sub-projects emerged. In this case I began removing a bunch of old phone land-line wire and cable TV cables from the outside of the house. These cables, some of them cut by previous owners and none in service, were attached to the outside of the house by stapes and cable clamps. A pair had been run up to the media room via the end of the porch. No use in trying to paint over or around them; just better to remove them now. There are more wires to remove on the west side of the house but that will wait for another day.

The heat limited our outside activities for much of the week but it did not seem to affect the flowering plants. This year’s star, so far, have been the hollyhocks Pam planted last fall. I had a photo of these in my last post but since then more blossoms have appeared and the hollyhocks look particularly attractive.

Each plant blossomed with a different hue. The shortest plant, with the deepest red flowers, came from seeds we harvested from a flower bed in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We hope these plants will self-seed and expand the flower bed over time.

Potted pansies on the front flower bed are also doing well this year. Visible from Main Street, this pot and other flowers in the bed add color to that side of the yard. Many of the hosta plants are getting ready to flower; photos of those will be in my next post.

Photo Archive

This weeks archive photos have a definite mechanical theme. They are from an antique tractor show I visited. Location was Janesville, Wisconsin and date was in the late 90’s.