Warning: This Post is All Over the Place

Sitting here trying to make sense of all of the photos I have taken recently, and it can't be done.  I'm rarely without access to something that I can use to take a picture (two cameras, my phone, or my iPad), and I have been known to take dozens of seemingly-random photos on a given day. 

Can't make these weave a cohesive theme, except that this is all stuff that I saw over the past couple of days.  There's a lot of stuff here for you to see this morning ... you may want to refill your coffee cup before you get started.

The weather has been cloudy and cooler than normal for the past two days.  Two thunderstorms on Thursday night dropped a lot of rain ... after which the sky was a beautiful shade of pink.

All that rain made the soil very receptive to weed pulling ... which is what I did all day on Friday.  My Rose Field is horrible (I'm not overstating the situation by using the word "horrible"), and I am beginning the process of reclaiming it by starting on the center aisle.  While I worked, I was distracted by dozens of butterflies flying around me ... attracted by the thistles there that are taller than I am.

 

By mid-afternoon, I had cleared my way about halfway down the center aisle.  Where there was once fallen roses and weeds as high as my shoulders, I now had the beginnings of a real live path again.  It's not pretty yet, but it's passable and I'm energized by the progress and will keep at it when I can ... I let this once-beautiful garden get into such a sorry state ... and I'm determined that one day it will be beautiful again.

Now that it's August, there are only a few roses blooming ... most of the garden is in between cycles, and everything is gearing up for the fall flush.  I did find a few roses with photo-worthy flowers on them.  It's important for me to concentrate on whatever I find that's beautiful while I work, so I stay motivated and energized to keep on with the awful job of pulling and cutting all the weeds.  At least the weather was relatively nice, and I really like working outside ... even if it's a nasty job that I'm doing.

'Country Doctor' ... I didn't see the tiny spider on the bud until I was editing the photo.

 

'Renae' on an arch in the Rose Field, blooming despite the sorry conditions.

 

'White Cap' is my BEST climbing rose!

 

 

We caught Groundhog #4 on Friday afternoon.  It was an adult, and he/she went to live with the others at the abandoned house down road.  I didn't bother to bait and reset the traps on Saturday.  While I worked in the Rose Field, The Husband was mowing for most of the day ... so the remaining groundhogs laid low because of all the noise and commotion.  I will be setting them today, though.

 

 

 

 



 

Speaking of The Husband, he is currently working on a portrait of a friend's granddaughter.  Here is the artist at work, putting the finishing touches on the underpainting ... soon to begin adding details and highlights to make this portrait come to life. 

 

 

 

I had to run to Lowes for something on Friday, and I did a bit of window shopping in the tile department while I was there.  I found the most beautiful watery blue glass tile mosaic sheets!  Mind you, I nave no projects here that I can use this on ... thought I'd pass it along in case any of you are looking to add some sparkle and color to one of your projects.

 

 

 

Japanese Beetles are still here, though I think their numbers are dwindling.  It's been a longer Beetle Season than I remember in recent years, hopefully they will be gone in another week or two.  I left them alone this year ... too much other stuff to do to spend precious time knocking beetles into buckets of soapy water.

 

Japanese Beetles on 'Perle d'Or'

 

 

My Hummingbirds are still draining my one-quart feeder every two days.  I could stand at the kitchen window, or by the feeder on the deck, and watch them for hours.  It's amazing how close the little critters let me get, as long as I'm standing still.  Took this photo with my iPad ... I was close enough at the time to almost reach out and touch the feeder.

 

 

 

The pets here are always a source of cute photos.  Dorothy and Alice like lounging on windowsills ... the ones here are 12-inches deep, so there's plenty of room for them to stretch out.  Dorothy's favorite place is her shoebox in the dining room window.  Alice is usually on the cat bed in the family room window ... for this photo, though, she was keeping me company in the sewing room.

 

Dorothy loves her shoebox so much, I don't have the heart to move it.

 

 

Cute cat lounging on a cat pillow ... perfect!

 

 

Today dawned bright and sunny, with a light breeze.  It's a beautiful view out the window, beside me as I'm sitting at the counter in the kitchen. 

 

 

 

Temperature is cool, and it looks like it will be a perfect day to get back to work in the Rose Field.  Having made such good progress out there for the past two days, I'm excited to get back to it and see what else I can accomplish. 

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone ... it's a beautiful one here in Hartwood!

 

A Random Sort of Weekend

Like most weekends around here, this one was full of random things that aren't very interesting by themselves.  When gathered together like this, I think you can see that it makes for a really fun few days.

On Friday, I had lunch and went shopping with a friend.  I'm on the hunt for a cardigan sweater -- one I can wear with practically everything and use instead of a jacket.  Sweaters are super hot right now, so you would think that finding one I like would be easy ... WRONG!  Everything is too trendy and we didn't find a single one that I wanted to take home.  I did find these babies, though ...

Leopard/Rose print rubber cowboy boots ... the only pair in the store ... on the clearance shelf ... $20!  I'm not sure there's any way to make me much happier for $20.  I wore them to dinner on Friday, and all day yesterday.  Aren't they great with jeans?

One day, I'll get the nerve to wear my jeans tucked into the boots.  For now, having them peeking out at the bottom is perfect!

Let's go from beautiful boots to something that is perfectly hideous.  This was what I saw while I was sitting in the drive-through at McDonalds ( medium Caramel Mocha, please).  As if red or black dyed mulch isn't bad enough ... now they have ORANGE.  The contrast between the sickeningly orange mulch and the yellow-toned shrubs was more than I could stand.  Who thinks this is stuff up?

The herbicide that I sprayed on the area that will become my Labyrinth Garden is doing its thing.  The grass and weeds in that area are looking pretty sickly.  I should be able to lay paths and edging later this week.  I may spray another coat on the areas that will become the rose beds ... just to be sure everything is dead.

The same day I sprayed the Labyrinth, I also sprayed the edge of my English Rose Garden ... being especially careful to keep the chemical well away from the roses themselves.

Weeds are still a bit of a problem, though some of them are lovely, and we really ARE making progress in eliminating them.  How can I get too upset by these white asters (though they are huge and everywhere) when the flowers are so irresistable to butterflies?  At one point while I was standing there watching them, there were FOUR Monarch butterflies on this one weed at the same time!

We had a Greyhounds Rock meeting this weekend.  Our "Take a Bite Out of Canine Cancer" event is four weeks away, and there are a thousand details still to be dealt with.  (and there's still time to register to attend.)

Taylor and Quinn are standing at the door, watching the neighborhood children play in the cul-de-sac.

I'm so glad that so many of you enjoyed my series about my visit to Hollywood Cemetery last week.  I had no idea that it would take four posts to show you my one afternoon's worth of sights.  If you missed any of the posts, here is a list of links:

Carved in Stone (cemetery monuments and sculptures)

Rockin' the Red Roses

In the Pink, and Yellow, and White

The Circle of Life

Butterfly Bait

For the past two days, we have had a bit of a break from the crippling heat and humidity that we endured last week and over the weekend.  I took advantage of the more comfortable working conditions, and I got a lot accomplished.  More of my pots are tidied up ... I have been spot-spraying Round-Up to keep the Austin Garden and the Rambler Fence from getting overgrown ... and I have begun to make a path through the horribly weed-filled Rose Field.  (No photos of any of this.  Sorry.)

As I walked to the Austin Garden, past the weeds in the Rose Field, one weed in particular caught my eye ... a giant thistle.  This thing is taller than I am.  Honestly, it's difficult to gather the motivation to deal with this thistle when the butterflies love it so much. 

I'm torn.  This is the only thistle, but I know that the seeds on this one plant have the potential to make thousands of plants next year.  The nature lover in me is looking at the benefit of this plant, as a source for nectar now and seeds for birds (especially Goldfinches) later.  I should chop it down and spray the remains with Round-Up ... but I don't always do what I SHOULD do.  We'll see.