Just a Flesh Wound

Yesterday evening, I gathered the ingredients to cook a batch of dog stew.  (If you haven't read the post where I told you about how I cook for my dogs, click HERE.)  I thawed and cooked the meat, then I chopped some liver and added it to the pot.  While this was simmering, I chopped turnip greens to add to the mix ... I use whatever green leafy vegetables I have on hand, and I was given some beautiful turnips on Sunday evening.

Combine a momentary lapse of concentration while chopping the greens with the fact that I keep my chef's knife razor sharp and ... you guessed it ... I cut myself.  I grabbed my paper towel to catch the blood,  and put on my glasses so I could see to assess the damage.  I had sliced the side of the tip of my left index finger very deeply, almost off, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I needed to go to the emergency room.

Our youngest daughter is an ER Tech at the hospital, and we were fortunate that she was working last night.

This is our daughter, preparing the tray of tools and supplies.

The physician's assistant initially thought that he could stitch the sliced section back into place.  After he numbed my finger and did a more thorough evaluation, he realized that the piece was not viable ... and my finger would heal well without it ... so he snipped it off.  As he was doing this, I was thinking of the classic line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "It's just a flesh wound."  (be sure to read that last part with a thick English accent.)

We headed for home at 10:30pm, three hours after arriving at the ER, with my finger in a large bandage and freshly-filled prescriptions for a pain killer and antibiotics in hand.

My husband and I had never seen our daughter at work, nor had we met any of the people she works with.  It was a little embarrassing to meet them under these circumstances.  What was even MORE embarrassing is that I realized when we were halfway to the hospital that I had left my stupid-temporary front tooth at home.  (I'm in the process of getting a dental implant to replace a loose crown, and I have a missing upper front tooth for the time being while the bone graft heals.  I told you about it in THIS post.)  While at the ER, I tried not to laugh or smile ... with my hillbilly/hockey player teeth.  :)

My finger hurts, but it definitely could have turned out much worse.  Drugs help, and I won't be driving anywhere for another day or two while I'm taking them.

This morning, I had to get right back to it and finish the batch of dog stew that started this.  Rest assured, I was extremely careful while chopping the rest of the turnip greens and kale. 

Here I am stirring the dog stew, trying to keep my bandage clean.

After I finished cooking, I got out my first aid supplies and replaced the large hospital bandage with one that is less cumbersome and is a bit easier to live with. 

Gauze, covered with vet-wrap (that I have on hand to bandage the dogs.)

I am very thankful that I didn't hurt myself worse than I did. That knife is my favorite knife and it is very, VERY sharp. Ironically, I keep it this sharp so it cuts easier and is safer to use.

My plans for this week, which initially included sewing and garden work, will have to change.  Without the use of my finger, I cannot sew ... and I have to keep this covered and clean and dry, so there will be no projects that involve dirt.

Here's a challenge ... as you are typing your comments, try to do it without using your left index finger ...

just like I had to do while writing this post.

Open Garden Preview ... Flowers and Fog

Today is the day ... my first Open Garden day of the season!  It has taken a lot of preparation for me to get to this point, with more to do later for the garden to look like the image I have of it in my head.  Even with the weeds and mayhem around them, the roses rise above and put on a spectacular show.

Foggy mornings are magical times in the Rose Field. The mist mixes with the fragrance from the roses, and the scent is almost beyond description.

Shailer's Provence, The Bishop (two versions), Blairii #1, Geschwind's Nordlandrose in the background ... and many others.

Here is a group of photos, shot while standing on the bench beside the Rose Field, panning the camera from left to right to try to capture the panorama.  (There are too many roses in each frame to attempt to list them all.)

The large rose in the center of this photo is my beloved Banshee ... which will probably be in bloom in a week or two.

I used Photoshop to stitch the photos together ... you can click on this to make it full size.

In addition to the overwhelming spectacle of the rose garden as a whole, there are little bits of beauty tucked here and there ... we just have to look closely.

I am very excited to open my garden today!  I love sharing the roses with everyone, even though I am very, very tired ... visitors energize me and fuel my enthusiasm for what I do.

It's show time!

Rose Vignette

It's much easier to sell the type of roses I have when there are actual flowers on hand to show.  This is a no-brainer here ... with the garden all around us.  At a plant sale, it's a bit tougher.  Photos just aren't the same as holding the actual flower to see its color and smell its fragrance.

I cut some roses this morning to bring along with me to the plant sale.  I plopped them on the bench so I could take a couple of garden photos ... then I noticed what a lovely, informal vignette they created.  Here are 'Shailer's Provence' (left) and 'John Hopper' (right) with a tiny peek of 'Marie Pavie' behind.

Gotta go ... now I'm running late.

Open Garden Preview ... Roses in the Front Border

With all of the things I have going on this week, I shouldn't be spending time outside taking pictures of the roses ... but I can't help myself.  Many of the roses in the Front Border are blooming their little brains out!  The weeds are awful, but I'm not going to dwell on this right now. 

This is the garden that greets visitors as they enter our driveway.  It contains the first roses I planted when we moved here five years ago.

The east end of the border:  1. Indigo.  2. Shailer's Provence.  3. Marchesa Boccella.  4. Kathleen.  5. "Grandmother's Hat".  6. "Unrootable Red China".  7. Souvenir de la Malmaisson.  8. Felicia.  9. Dr. W. Van Fleet.  10. "Caldwell Pink"

Dr. W. Van Fleet

Look how many buds there are on Dr. Van Fleet!

Wanderin' Wind, a Buck rose

Souvenir de la Malmaisson

"Unrootable Red China", a found rose which is actually quite easy to propagate.

Felicia.

"Grandmother's Hat"

Kathleen

Marchesa Boccella

Shailer's Provence

A vignette I really liked.  1. "J. E. Murphy's Pink Tea".  2. Moonlight.  3. Shailer's Provence.  4. Mary Washington

Moonlight

"J. E. Murphy's Pink Tea"

"J. E. Murphy's Pink Tea lost a couple of key canes last year, and it's a bit lop-sided right now.  The weeds are almost attractive.  Let's not call them weeds ... they're "indigenous ground cover.  :)

The first flower on "Haywood Hall"

There are so many buds on "Haywood Hall".

Carnation

Madame Joseph Schwartz

Maggie

Maggie is so fragrant!

Champneys' Pink Cluster

"Mrs. Woods Lavender Pink Noisette", also known as "Mount Vernon Noisette"

A beautiful striped bud on Honorine de Brabant

Canes of Shailer's Provence and Moonlight sticking through the fence and arching into our pasture.

My truck is loaded with roses (I did that last night), and I will be out of here soon, on my way to the plant sale at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.  It will be three days of non-stop rose talking ... and I imagine I will be pretty spent by the end of each day.  But I love it!

Will I see you there?

Rescue Mission in the Greenhouse

Yesterday morning, while I was standing at the kitchen window looking at the greenhouse, I noticed some movement inside of it.  I could tell it was a bird flying back and forth ... lost in the window-filled space, unable to figure out that the door was wide open.  I put on my shoes, grabbed my camera, and headed out there to see what I could do.

There were TWO robins in there!  Both of them must have been there for a while and they were SO tired and frightened.  They each sat very still while I took their picture ... then I realized that I could probably just reach out and catch them to put them out the door.

That's exactly what I did.  One at a time, I pinned each robin against the window, got a firm grip on it, and I carried it to the door and let it go.  (Unfortunately, you'll have to imagine what this looked like because I couldn't hold the bird AND get a picture of it.)  I looked all over and didn't find any sign of a nest ... they must have been in there hunting bugs.

Now I know why they call them 'bird brains'

It's Official!

Up until now, we have technically had Ruby on a foster/trial basis ... knowing full well after that first day that we were definitely adopting her.  We brought her home without signing actual adoption papers so we could see how well she got along with Daniel, and to make sure she didn't develop a taste for cat. 

As we figured, she fits perfectly in our family ... Daniel loves her and the cats have learned to tolerate her.  I can't really imagine what it would be like around here without her.

We received Ruby's adoption papers in the mail a while ago.  Last week, Ruby and I went to visit my sister to sign them and make this adoption official ... my sister volunteers with Blue Ridge Border Collie Rescue, where Ruby came from.  When Ruby was in their foster system, my sister knew that she would be perfect for us ... and she is!! 

Ruby is a happy, happy dog, and she makes everyone around her feel as happy as she is. This little mixed-breed dog with the sweet smile and huge heart has burrowed into our lives, and all of us are better for it.

Welcome home, Ruby ... even though we both know that you've been home all along.

Weekend Highlights

This weekend was packed with places we HAD to go and things we HAD to do!  I had planned to go to an auction on Saturday morning, but I blew it off.  I worked at home instead.  Saturday afternoon, The Husband and Ruby and I worked the afternoon shift at the Greyhounds Rock booth at the Lake of the Woods Dog Festival.  Immediately as the festival ended, we packed up our things, hit the road to deliver Ruby home, and we set off again ... to the NPC Max Muscle Virginia Classic where our Daughter #3 was competing.

She works SO hard, following a strict diet and exercise program, to get into shape to compete.  It paid off, because she placed FIRST in her class!!  Way to go, Sweetie ... your dad and I are very, VERY proud of you!

Sunday was one of those days where I had to hit my marks all day long.  First up ... breakfast at IHOP with Daughter #3 (a no-holds-barred breakfast off her diet to celebrate her win the previous night) and Daughter #1 and her family.  Caleb is almost 8 months old now, and everything he touches goes straight into his mouth.

While we were at breakfast, a customer stopped by the house to pick up a replacement rose that I left for her ... the one she bought last year was accidently mis-tagged.  (No questions asked, she got the correct replacement ... that's how we do things around here.)  When I got home, I saw that she had brought me two BEAUTIFUL peony flowers.  I love peonies as much as I love roses.  This one is Kopper Kettle Itoh ... the copper/apricot color with subtle stripes is gorgeous, and it smells HEAVENLY.  Note to self:  must see about adding some Itoh peonies to the garden next year.

At 1:00, Ruby and I went to spend an hour at HealthSouth, our hospital's rehabilitation facility, for the second part of her therapy dog test.  The objective is for us to interract with patients and their families in the presence of a therapy dog evaluator.  As we expected, Ruby loved all the people, sitting politely to be petted and loving all the attention.

Here is our group, after we finished our visit.  This is a great group of dogs and humans!  Notice TJ, our Greyhounds Rock spokes-dog, in the center ... his human Kim is our evaluator.

I finished the day with a few hours of shopping with Daughter #3.  Her new body-building body doesn't fit into her jeans, and she is on the hunt for ones that DO fit.  Our first stop was Goodwill, at her suggestion, and she scored a pair of jeans that we can alter to fit her perfectly!  I bought a dress for myself and some Waverly curtains that will most likely end up as chair seats.

This week will be a blur.  I have the plant sale at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday ... the photo they use on their plant sale page is one of me ... I was surprised to see it because I don't know when it was taken.  Hartwood Roses is opening for the season on Sunday, May 6.  (More on this in a day or two.  Follow Hartwood Roses on Facebook for the latest info first.)  I have LOTS to do to prepare for both of these events ... so I should turn off the computer and get to it.