The Perennial Flower Bed Awakens

It seems like the temperatures this spring have been more erratic than usual. We have had a couple of days of near 90º followed by days in the 40ºs. Most days are somewhere between those two numbers, closer to the 50ºs and 60º. There was very little snow this winter, and very little moisture in our area this spring. 

The first grouping of photos from my perennial flower bed were taken on April 22nd.

The pasque flowers (2 of the 4) I planted last spring survived the winter. My big, older pasque did not survive the summer/winter. 

When I looked at the flower bed the week before, I did not see any peony shoots and was thinking that gifted plant did not survive the lack of snow/moisture this winter. But 3-inch shoots were appearing on April 22nd. The Columbines were making an appearance, also.

I went back to check the progress on May 2nd.

one of the Columbines

the peony shoots have doubled in height

the pasque keeps blooming

This is why I was concerned about my peony plant! These are a neighbor's peony bushes. Her bushes have been growing for at least six years longer than mine.

I don't have any tulips as the rabbits get them before I get out to spray. Because of my broken elbow and 'useless' left hand, I have not weeded or transplanted or planted anything new this spring. It is early as most of the flowers arrived in the greenhouses late last week. As I write this, we had frost/freeze warning two nights last week.

I took a picture of the hyacinth blooming at City Hall earlier in April. A colorful reminder that spring is coming!

Cabaret with Miss W

 November 25th Miss W performed in Our Songs, The Lincoln High School Cabaret. Twelve songs were performed by the 19 high school kids who auditioned and were selected. 

She was a member of the three songs performed by the ensemble and had two other numbers.

she had the third solo in the song

her solo in "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma

"Footloose"

having fun with "Footloose"

her duet "Stepsisters' Lament"

song from Cinderella

I love her facial expressions

finale "Be the Hero" from Big Fish

She asked Grandpa to take her to lunch that day. Then he surprised her with flowers after the performance.

Proud Grandparent moment!

Just an FYI: There were 5 songs (and choreography) to learn for this chorus event. She performed four songs in the Fall Choir Concert on October 24th. I am keeping track as she has two more performances in 2025.

Another FYI: Yes, we go EARLY to get a good seat. We're retired! We have nothing else that is more important!

Kansas Wildflowers

 Kansas is the Sunflower State. I was expecting to see fields of sunflowers, as in the grain. Instead, this is what I saw. 

Sunflowers, wild and like the weed, growing in ditches and unfarmed areas, but never at the location of a geocache. I really wanted photos of sunflowers. 

On our last day of geocaching, we headed down a minimum-maintenance road looking for a geocache at a bridge. Now, a bridge on a minimum-maintenance road can mean water, mud or even washed-out roads, or other unexpected obstacles. Since we were back in hill country, we could not see our destination, but Hubby forged on. We found the geocache and were able to turn the truck around and head back to the highway. The reward for driving the less-traveled road was Kansas Wildflowers!

Common Sunflower (with unidentified bugs)

Biennial Beebalm

Biennial Beebalm

Chicory

Periwinkle Blue Chicory

White Chicory

a bumble bee at work

Morning Glory

Blue Morning Glory

Firethorn (at a location in Leavenworth)

Goldenrod (also in Leavenworth)

Red Clover

Russian Sage (also in Leavenworth)

Sawtooth Sunflower

Sawtooth Sunflower

Kansas Road Trip, Days 2 & 3

 The plan to continue collecting Kansas county geocaches was to drive east, north, west, north, east, etc. getting as many counties as possible before meeting OUF in Kansas City on Friday evening. 

The plan was to find geocaches along the route, not too far off the highways if possible. So many of the roadway geocaches were missing/not found by previous geocachers. Finding virtual caches (because there is no container) was at the top of our list.

Veterans Memorial caches were also on the list

colorful roses at the Veterans Memorial in Iola

When possible, we also look for Welcome to... geocaches. We have more than 200 found and signed geocaches from our travels on the Welcome to... list.

We were traveling along the Santa Fe Trail for part of our road trip. This cache was at a well.

Palmya Well was dug by hand when the town of Palmya was established in 1857. The well served travelers on the Santa Fe Trail as well as the townspeople. The well is 2.5' in diameter and 56' deep, and about 17' of water.

prison at Leavenworth

Urban geocache containers go missing often, but this one was present.

a neighborhood garden

mural near our second geocache find in Leavenworth

We looked for a challenge geocache at a park along the Missouri River in Leavenworth. Although the cache owner said it was just replaced, we did not have any success finding it.

the location was scenic

the park was between the Missouri River and the railroad

colorful mural at the rail yard

Hyde Park in Kansas City

a street light in the middle of the intersection of two streets

Installed in the 1920s at Linwood Boulevard and The Paseo, Kansas City’s first controlled intersection signaled the city's growing reliance on automobiles.

Designed by architect Edward Buehler Delk — best known for the timeless design of the Country Club Plaza — the 17-foot-tall traffic light became a local landmark due to its unique structure and placement.

Remarkably, this historic traffic signal remains operational today.

one of our BBQ dinners Friday night

one of OFD's BBQ choices

County caching in Kansas is complete! All 105 counties have at least one found and logged geocache. The difference in colors signifies the number of geocache finds. The two darkest colors are counties with 51 (lowest brown county) and 166 in the upper brown county, which is home to Mingo, the oldest active geocache in the world.

There was only one road detour that affected our planned route, adding approximately 50 miles. Oh, and there was the one geocache on 6 miles of unpaved roads that filled the truck box with fine chalk colored dust, only to not find the geocache. The description led ME to believe it was in a cemetery on a rarely traveled road, but the coordinates were not in the cemetery. So that drive was for naught and resulted in a disgruntled driver.

We logged 43 geocaches in the 21 counties. Seven states have found & logged caches in every county: South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona.