Yesterday

 Blossoms and the view on a walk.

And then there was this bird condo,

New Faces in my Garden

 Monday brought out these new faces to smile at me.

First iris blooms.

Many more to open.

Funny thing about these irises, I have no recollection of where they came from.  They may have been here but in a different location and I moved them without knowing their color.  They are lovely.  More irises to open up soon including a white one from blogger Vicki.

This is a new flower for me and for this season according to the garden center where I purchased this.  Tag below. I planted it on Mother's Day and it had that bud.  It took this long to open.

Not sure why these wave petunias are speckled unless it was the spray from my insect repellant.  Black flies are bad this year.

Chive blossoms are always lovely.

I know these little flowers as million bells.

These volunteers just keeping coming up here despite the weeding. Name escaping me at present.  I have other clumps that have yet to bloom.

This is the first year for my lupine to bloom.  I think there's a white flower coming too.

And I planted dahlias last week and this one has broken through the ground already.  They love this soil.

Part 2 of These are Too Funny

 

Memorial Day

 In my town Memorial Day is celebrated on the 30th across the street on the Meeting House Green.  We will be in attendance to hear the speeches and music and watch the wreath laying at the memorials honoring those that served from this town.

On Thursday last week Dan and I did a drive around south of here starting in Keene, NH and heading south then east, then north before heading back home.  While we were setting out I decided it would be a great opportunity to check out other Civil War monuments.

Here are the ones we saw, stopped at and compared to the one above which is across our street.

In Marlborough, NH.

The Civil War monument predominates.

There were other memorials.

In Jaffrey, NH there was only a Civil War monument in front of the library.  Other memorials must have been elsewhere.

The statue looked very much like ours.

The third one we spotted was in Peterborough, NH.  This one was very different for several reasons: what it was made of, no mustache, and its location in front of the G.A.R. Hall.

G.A.R. stands for Great Army of the Republic.  It was an organization made up of veterans of the Union Army.  It disbanded once the last veteran died.

This hall looks like it has seen better days.  

The plaque called it The War of Rebellion.

The statue was the only memorial. The G.A.R. Hall now housing a distillery is not well cared for.  We had to slip under a chain fence to climb the stairs to see the memorial.  The property is full of weeds and tall grass.  Not very respectful.

Of the four statues I liked the Petersborough one the best though not its setting. The best setting is ours!

[When we returned home I wrote a letter to the editor of the Petersborough newspaper to bring their attention to how poorly the property is being maintained and how it shows a lack of respect for these veterans.]