Catching Up

Haven't had much time to spend here lately.  So much going on for the next couple of weeks, and I'm trying to stay ahead of it all.

1.  My trip to Dallas was so much fun!!  I spent four days being immersed in all sorts of rose subjects, catching up with old friends, and getting to know a whole group of new friends ... and I met one of my rose heroes, Anne Belovich.  I have no words to express how much this meant to me.

This was taken in the beautiful garden where we had our welcoming reception on Friday evening.

2.  How appropriate is it that a rose I grew from cuttings that Anne sent me is the first one to flower in my garden this year?  I would like to introduce you to 'Dr. E. M. Mills', a super rare Hybrid hugonis rose bred by Dr. Walter Van Fleet in the 1920s.  (some of you may remember that Dr. Van Fleet is my very favorite rose hybridizer.)

3.  I hit the ground running when I woke up on Tuesday morning.  Greyhounds Rock has a booth at the annual Grapehounds Virginia event on Saturday, and I had things to make to restock some of our depleted inventory.  I spent most of my time on Tuesday and Wednesday working on a new item that I have designed ... leather wine glass lanyards with our hand-painted Greyhounds Rock greyhound silhouette on them.

Ruby wasn't very thrilled about having to be my model.

4.  I was in the kitchen at one point yesterday, and I saw a flash of red in the pecan tree behind the house.  It wasn't the usual red of the Cardinals that are a common sight here ... it was TWO Scarlet Tanagers!  I have only seen Scarlet Tanagers one other time.  I quickly snapped the long lens onto my camera, and I crept out onto the deck ... where I sat and snapped some okay photos of them.

I thought it was cool that I got both birds in this one shot.

5.  I can tell that spring has truly arrived, because Ruby is shedding like CRAZY!  She and I spent some quality time outside with the Furminator yesterday evening ... this was the result:

With all of this accomplished, I am disappointed to admit that I still have WAY too much left to do this week.  No time to spend savoring little victories, though.  Fortunately, I'm not playing catch up and I feel like I'm still in control ... we'll see how long THAT feeling lasts.

Staying Organized and Hitting My Marks

As we bid good-bye to April, I am keenly aware that the month of May will be a blur.

On Friday, I head to the airport in the wee hours of the morning to leave on a four-day trip to Rosedango, a weekend full of rose activities near Dallas, Texas.  I have been looking forward to this for months!  This is when I finally get to meet Anne Belovich in person ... she is one of my rose idols, and I am so excited.  (When you have a few minutes, you can see Anne's beautiful, inspiring garden through the photos of Carolyn Parker, HERE.)  

On Saturday, May 10, at 10am, I will be at Strange's on West Broad Street in Richmond to give a program about how to choose and care for roses.  It is free and open to the public.  Perhaps some of you local folks would like to come hear what I have to say?

The next weekend, May 17 & 18, is the Lucketts Spring Market.  I am working on preparations for this in between other things.  For example, this morning I made two more pillows out of the fabric that I dyed with chalk paint.

The hutch that the pillows are sitting on is another item that's destined for Lucketts.

Having a booth at Lucketts is a huge undertaking, and the effort needed to prepare will completely take over my life for at least the entire week beforehand ... considering there will certainly be finishing touches to things, and a LOT of pricing and loading to be done.  I am fairly well organized, and I'm good about writing things onto my To Do list (which is a mile long at this point), so I feel confident that things won't get too crazy.

I am leaving the next week and Memorial Day weekend open.  That is generally the beginning of full-bloom season for the roses.  Bloom season will probably be late this year, I think, by at least a week, maybe two.  It will be nice to have an unplanned week (if it stays that way) to work in the garden and get ready for Open Garden visitors.  (watch this space and the Hartwood Roses FB page for dates, posted as soon as I have a better idea of when the garden will be blooming.)

The next weekend is one that I have looked forward to since fall.  May 31 is the day of the Wine and Roses Open House at Monticello's Tufton Farm in Charlottesville.  This year, I am the rose speaker ... presenting a program on easy-care roses for Virginia gardens.  The event is free, with no registration required.  Plan to come see Tufton's beautiful gardens and, perhaps, learn a thing or two about how to grow roses in your own garden.  There will also be roses available for sale.

In order to keep all of this straight, and keep my sanity, I am having to be a total slave to my calendar.  By staying organized and working on things a little at a time when I have the opportunity, I hope that nothing during the month becomes a hair-raising emergency.  Wish me luck!