Documenting the Seasonal Disappearance of the Barn

Our barn is 200 yards away from our house, toward the back of our property.  We have a lovely view of it in winter when the trees are bare.  It is especially beautiful in the early morning light.

As spring progresses, and the trees leaf out, the barn begins to disappear.

This next photo was taken earlier this morning.  The barn is almost gone.

Don't dispair ... the barn will be back this fall, once the leaves have fallen.  Until then, we have a beautiful view of the spreading boughs of our ancient pecan tree.

Can you tell how much I love looking out the window?

Climbing Rouletii ... Blooming Its Brains Out

Despite the weeds and my current lack of a decent camera lens for close-up work, I ventured out to try to capture the beautiful spectacle that is Climbing Rouletii in full bloom.  (I ordered my new lens online yesterday morning, and I was notified yesterday evening that it has shipped ... so I won't be lens-less for a whole lot longer.)

I bought this rose four years ago, as a small rooted cutting.  I grow it on one of the arches in the Rose Field, and it is one of the largest and most vigorous roses in my whole garden. 

Climbing Rouletii is almost always the first rose to bloom here.  It starts with a few tiny pink flowers here and there.  Within a few days, the entire bush is covered with flowers ... there has to be at least a thousand of them right now.  Each flower is only about an inch and a half in diameter, but the effect of hundreds of clusters of them is amazing!

Climbing Rouletii is in a part of the Rose Field that is really bad shape right now ... honestly, it's one of the contributing factors in the awful appearance of that area.  I didn't get around to pruning it last year, and it's escaped from its arch and is flopping all over the paths and its neighboring roses.  While it is blooming, I will forgive Climbing Rouletii's wandering nature, because it is beautiful beyond belief ... even in this condition.

Climbing Rouletii is a rose that only blooms once per year.  I love roses like this, because they put all of their energy into one huge show every spring, then they recede into the background and gather strength to do it all again next year.  This rose has the extra added feature of its unusual, lacy foliage ... which is wonderful as filler in arrangements throughout the year.

When the flowers have faded, I will have to do some major surgery to get Climbing Rouletii back on its arch.  The canes I remove won't go to waste, however.  They will be a beautiful element in the flower arrangements that we plan to make for the tables for our daughter's wedding reception ... and propagation material for new roses for the nursery next year.

It's a beautiful, sunny, cool morning ... perfect for working in the garden.

It's a Rainy, Random Morning

Today is a rainy day.  The garden can use the rain, and I am thankful for it.  The rain also keeps me from working outside, which is probably a good thing.  It has been a short eight days since we returned home from our vacation, and I am already tired again.  This is my busiest time of year at the nursery, and this year we have the additional work of wedding preparations added into the mix ... one month to go until the wedding day!

Our pavilion, the site of the wedding ceremony, is getting a new set of steps ... now we have to regrade the ground.

The first thing I noticed as we pulled into the driveway as we got home from our trip was that I had blooming roses!  There were a few flowers on Applejack and Ellen Poulsen in the front garden.  In back, Climbing Rouletii and Old Blush were just beginning to open flowers ... they are practically in full bloom now.  During the past week, many other varieties of roses now have flowers on them and there are thousands of buds which promise flowers to come.  It is very, VERY exciting.

This clematis, named 'Vino, is in full bloom.  This flower is larger than my hand!

I wish I could show you my usual close-up photos of these flowers that I am gushing about, but I cannot do that right now.  I dropped my camera while we were in Tennessee, and I jammed my good lens.  The camera is fine, but the lens is toast.  I could probably still use it by focusing manually, if this camera had a focus-assist thing inside the viewfinder like my old Canon film camera does.  With my poor near vision, there's no way I could focus manually without it.  Later today, since I can't work outside, I will go shopping and treat myself to a new lens.

Climbing Rouletii has hundreds of flowers right now!  Each of these little flowers is about the size of a half-dollar coin, and the plant is completely covered with them.  (This photo is from last year.)

It is a big job every spring to make the rose gardens presentable.  This year, the job seems almost insurmountable.  The weeds got a good foothold last summer, and conditions this spring have been perfect for explosive growth.  I'm afraid the Rose Field won't be presentable (or passable) until later this summer.  I should offer garden guests a machete if they are heading back there.  The best I can do is to try to make the areas that provide a setting for the wedding look as good as they can, and I will get to the rest when I get to it.

The weeds have grown at least 1000%  since I took this photo last month.

The plant sale at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond was a huge success, and an exhausting amount of work.  Over the course of the three days of the sale, I sold 99 roses, which was a record, and I talked practically nonstop giving rose advice and answering questions. 

This week marks the beginning of rose shipping season.  All day for the past two days, I have been processing and organizing all of the rose orders that were placed earlier in the year.  I had no idea it would take as long as it did.  Gathering and grouping the roses into each individual order took all morning and into the afternoon on Monday, so I only got seven of the orders boxed up and taken to the Post Office.  Yesterday, I began packaging roses at 9:30am, using three rolls of packing tape in the process, and I took a whole pick-up truckload of boxes to the Post Office at 3:00pm.  It feels really good to send these little babies off to their new homes, some as far away as Nevada, New Mexico, and Connecticut.

There are four potted roses in this box, and they will arrive safely at their destination in a couple of days.

Today seems to be a good day to be inside, catching up on things that I haven't done while I have been working outside.  I should do a bit of laundry, because my hamper is overflowing.  I plan sit quietly and visit some of my favorite blogs and catch up on what everyone is doing, since I haven't had the time or energy to do that recently.  Today is a day to recharge and regroup, and I intend to take full advantage of it.

Our Trip to the Smoky Mountains

Five days away from home last week, in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with my husband and our dogs, and six dear friends with their dogs,  was wonderful!!  I promised earlier that I would show you more of our trip, so here goes.

The cabin we rented was perfect!  All eight of the humans, and the seven dogs, were very comfortable.

We spent a lot of time around the dining table.

The dogs relaxed on their beds and blankets wherever they could find space.  Those who are familiar with greyhounds know that they are champion sleepers.

TJ, Emma, Asher, and Daniel in the living room.

Asher and Daniel sharing a dog bed.

Quinn thinks that he's not really on the couch if his back feet are still on the floor.

Daniel lost out on a dog bed this time, and had to be satisfied with the carpeted floor.

TJ claimed this chair as his own.

Audie, a Cesky Terrier, was the only non-greyhound in the house.

I couldn't resist taking Asher's picture, while he was lying sound asleep with his head on his toy and his tongue hanging out.

The humans and the dogs enjoyed the breezes and the view from the back porch.

The trees were lovely and green, the sky was clear and blue, and the mountains were a lovely shade of purple.

Taylor has taken Emma's blanket, and she knows it.

Emma spent a lot of time outside, gazing into the distance or schmoozing with the humans.

We made side trips each day to see some of the sights.  The aquarium in Gatlinburg was fabulous!  I'm always happiest in a new place when checking out the museums, and this aquarium is like a fish museum.

There were exhibits on all sorts of aquatic animals.  Here were some that fascinated me.

Mudskippers.

Jellyfish.

Who knew that Cuttlefish were so photogenic?

Starfish and Anemones.

The Penguins are always SOOO entertaining!

In one of the exhibits, a moving walkway wound through and underneath a huge tank with sharks and rays and schools of all sorts of colorful fish.

It was incredible to get THIS close to sharks!!

Another day, we went to Cade's Cove ... one of the oldest settlements in the region.  The park service has designed an 11-mile driving tour, with beautiful scenery, wildlife, and preserved homes and churches.

These cabins are on the grounds of the main visitors' center at Cade's Cove.

The mountain views were spectacular!

One of the stops was the Primitive Baptist Church.  I loved the inside!

So many of the graves in the church cemetery were those of children.  Life in this isolated region must have been so hard.

Whenever I'm in a cemetery, I'm always on the look out for tombstones with roses on them ... like this one.

... and this one.

We saw lots of deer ...

... and turkeys.

My favorite restaurant on the trip was the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge.

This really was a real mill once.  The signs we read said that it dates from 1830.  The food was SOOO good!

The three people on the lower left are a minister and a young couple who were getting married.

The Old Mill has a shopping district with interesting stores and galleries.  Outside one of the stores, this mama Muscovy duck was sitting on 14 eggs that she had laid in a flower box ... and the eggs were in the process of hatching when we saw her.

On our last night there, we went to see "The Soul of Shaolin", a wonderful martial arts show from Broadway.  The music ... the dancing ... the Kung Fu ... we thoroughly enjoyed the whole show.

I love vacationing with these friends!  We all have similar interests and we love each other's company.  It's good to be home, tho.  Daniel thinks so, too.