A Week's Worth of Posts, All At Once

How can it be Saturday already?  Where did the week go?

I spent part of each day in my basement workshop.  Some of the rose cuttings in the north window are starting to show roots!  This is the roadside rose that I rustled last month ... I showed it to you in THIS post.

 

 

Most of my workshop time was spent painting the cabinet doors and drawer fronts from my brother's kitchen.  There are a lot of them, and the finish I want requires that each of them be painted multiple coats of two colors, both front and back, so it's going to take a while.  The top color is a custom mix of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, that I showed you in THIS post.  This kitchen is going to be so retro and happy!

 

 

 

Mrs. Wren is now sitting on five eggs in her nest in the pot in my greenhouse.   See her tucked WAY down inside there?  It's hard to get a decent photo because the white perlite bag is in the way in every angle but this one.

 

 

 

The new Romantic Homes magazine came out this week, and my friend Janet's shop is featured in a fantastic article, with photos taken by her son!  See that little greenhouse in the corner of her display window?  Yep, I built that.  No mention of this in the article, but that's okay ... I am thrilled that all of the hard work that Janet has put into her shop is being recognized on a national level.  Love you, Janet!

 

 

 

A strong line of storms passed through our area on Thursday.  Whenever things like this are predicted, I always worry about my trees.  Last time we had a big storm, we lost two of the large Oak trees in our front yard.  (See the damage in THIS post)  Fortunately, this storm passed just to our south.  We had rain, but little wind and no damage.

 

 

 

Thursday's sunset, after the storm was gone, was a beautiful one ... as seen from our deck, looking toward Hartwood Winery next door.

 

 

 

Friday dawned with a beautiful blue sky, puffy clouds, and cool, comfortable temperatures.  It was a great day to do something outside.

 

 

 

Normally, this means working in the garden.  This day, though, I decided that it was long past time to clean up my Mustang and get it ready for convertible season.  It was so dirty and dusty after sitting in the garage all winter.

 

 

 

With the car all washed and waxed and polished (and myself and The Husband cleaned up, too), we spent part of yesterday evening at the local Friday night classic car cruise in.  There was a fantastic selection of cars last night ... with the Mustangs making a respectable showing.  That's a 1970 427 Cobra Jet parked beside mine.

 

 

 

To end on a garden and rose related note ... yesterday morning, I saw my first Japanese Beetle of the year.  This seems to be a little bit later than usual ... beetles arrived on June 4 in 2011, and I didn't note the day of their appearance in 2012.  We have had very few beetles for the past three years ... I wonder what this year will be like?

 

 

 

There you have it, a whole week's worth of blog posts in one shot!  The weather today is almost a gorgeous as yesterday.  Am I going to work out in the garden like I should?  Nope ... I'm spending today with Deborah, and we are going to hang out and hunt junk all day.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Sextuplets, and More on the Way

Mr. and Mrs. Mockingbird have been tirelessly making trip after trip to their nest in 'Schoener's Nutkana' in my front rose garden, feeding their six babies ... who have grown so large that they now barely fit into the nest.

By next week, these babies should be big enough to fledge ... and Mama and Papa won't have to worry about guarding their nest and will let me work in my front yard in peace. 

In other news, there will soon be more baby birds here to coo and squeal about ... Carolina Wrens have made a nest in a pot in the greenhouse, and there are three eggs in it so far! 

 

I love wrens!!

 

The Week That Was

This was a really good week!  I'm getting back into my normal groove, and it feels great.

1.  Ruby is becoming more comfortable as the only dog in the house.  She and I are doing a lot more off-leash work in the yard, and she is actually beginning to develop an appreciable attention span!  Of course, she never has any difficulty concentrating on bunnies or groundhogs in the yard, as she watches from her perch on the church pew at the dining room window.

 

 

2.  The roses are still blooming their little heads off.  The hot weather last week accelerated some of them, and it still a glorious show in the garden.  This is one I eagerly anticipate every year, "Arcata Pink Globe".  This rose grows in the right angle where two parts of the fence connect, and it spans 16+ feet in each direction ... and it's about ten feet high ... totally COVERED in light pink, fragrant flowers.  (Hey, Karen, how is yours doing?)

 

 

3.  Here is another photo from the park the other day.  Each of these holes on the path into the nature trail were made by a cicada nymph as it dug its way out of the ground after its 17-year nap.  Gives you an idea of just how many cicadas there can be in a particular area.  Fortunately, they don't eat roses (or much of anything else, I understand) or do much damage to anything besides the tips of tree limbs where the females lay their eggs (they like oaks, especially). 

Cicada holes, and goose poop.

 

 

4.  Dorothy had a follow-up visit to the veterinarian yesterday afternoon.  She's been having urinary issues.  Yesterday's appointment was to check her urine to make sure that the special food and medicine is making a difference.  I'm happy to report that all is well ... her pH came down from 8.5 to 6.5, no more crystals, and no infection!  (This is her safe place in the exam room, on the corner of the counter behind the computer monitor.)

 

 

5.  While Ruby was playing the other day, throwing and shaking the crap out of her toy chicken, one of its legs fell off.  This reminded me that I have completely forgotten to tell you that my friend Kim's dog TJ is nominated again in the Therapy Dog category of the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards. 

It reminds me of TJ because he and the toy chicken only have three legs.

 

 

This portion of the process is more of a popularity contest endurance event.  The dog in each category with the most votes at the end of the voting on July 31 moves on to the finals.  Please click HERE to vote for TJ.  One vote per day per email address. 

 

 

 

TJ was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in July 2010, and he had his left front leg amputated the next day.  Osteosarcoma is an aggressive disease, and the average survival time for a dog in his situation is less than 12 months ... TJ has just celebrated 35 months cancer free!  I love this dog as if he were my own ... since I just lost my Daniel to a different type of cancer, this is a cause that's very close to my heart.

 

Spread the word, share the link on FB, put it your blog, pin it on Pinterest, tweet it to the world.  Let's do what we can to put TJ into the finals so he can meet Betty White at the awards ceremony in October.

 

 

 

6.  The Mockingbird eggs in the rose in our front yard hatched this week.  I had a perfect opportunity to take a gorgeous photo of the little darlings, but I couldn't do it without someone to watch my back.  Mama and Papa Mockingbird were showing no mercy, as dive-bombed my head whenever I went near the nest.  As soon as the rain stops, I will ask The Husband to give me a hand.

 

 

 

Speaking of rain ... it is supposed to rain here all day.  Sounds like a perfect day to spend some quality time with my sewing machine.  I have martingale collars to make for our Greyhounds Rock booth at the Ashland Strawberry Festival tomorrow.  (This is typical for me ... leaving things to the last minute.  I'll get it done, though.)

 

Happy Friday, Everyone!

 

A New Routine

Ruby and I are starting a new routine.  Both of us need to get more exercise, and I can't think of a more pleasurable way to do this than by going for a daily walk together.  Living out in the country like we do, it's not like we can just go out the front door and put in a couple of miles.  Our road is narrow and busy, and a long walk in the grass on our own property practically guarantees that at least one of us will pick up a tick.  We are fortunate that there's a great county park about a half mile up the road.
 
I park my car at the farthest point in the park, at the bottom of a hill by the lake.  That way, the beginning of our walk is uphill, and we go downhill on the way back to the car.

We saw geese and swans on the lake yesterday.  (Discovered that the HDR setting on my iPhone isn't all that great in bright sunlight for things that are moving.)

Weird double image of swans

 

 

A mixed flock of geese.

 

 

Ruby and I were on the quiet park road for the first part of our walk.  There's almost no traffic in this part of the park, particularly on a week day.  She and I kept up a pretty good pace as we climbed the hill, and I was really puffing by the time we reached the top.  I honestly thought that I was in better shape than that.  I'm strong and can lift and carry, but I guess this proves that I need some help in the endurance department.

Mama and Papa Canada Geese, with four goslings.

 

 

Millions of tiny tadpoles at the edge of the lake.

 

The park has a well-maintained nature trail that winds through the woods on both sides of the road.  The one side is fairly sunny (and has more poison ivy on the edge of the path than I'm comfortable with.).  We took the shadier path down the hill and back to the car.

 

 

 

It feels really good to get out in the sunshine and work up a sweat like that.  Ruby seems to enjoy these walks as much as I do.  (I will let you know when I get to the point where I can scale that hill more easily.)

A Lovely Combination

When I was planning my first rose garden, the rose border in our front yard, I used the roses I had on hand ... 40 widely different roses, with no obvious cohesive theme.  How to arrange them?  In the case of these two, I simply put together two roses named after a famous couple ...

 

 

I think they are happy to be reunited.

 

Ruby and Roses II

Ruby's most recent portrait spot was on the sunny side of 'Alexandre Girault' on Sunday morning.

 

 

Based on this expression, can there be any doubt that one of her parents was a Border Collie?  (We will never know for certain, though, since she came to us as a rescued stray.)

 

Ruby wasn't the only one modeling in the roses.  A young lady from the local high school came with a photographer friend of hers, and they used the roses, fence, barn, etc., as settings for her senior pictures. 

 

It stormed here overnight, and now the weather is supposed to be cooler for the rest of the week ... perfect for emptying the greenhouse and planting as many roses as I can in the new garden.  I'm motivated, so we'll see how much I can get done.

 

Sunday Snapshot ... Open Garden Day

My garden will be open today, from noon to 5pm.  The weather is going to be perfect, and the roses are absolutely gorgeous ... I'm biased, though, you understand.  Almost every rose in the garden is in full bloom right now.  Our long spring, with its adequate rain and mild temperatures, allowed the roses to put on lovely, healthy new growth.  Every one of them is totally FILLED with flowers.

Here is a little sneak peek at what you will see if you come to visit:

1.  Old Garden Roses suckering and totally obstructing the paths in the Rose Field.  Hard to complain when they are as beautiful as this.

2.  Roses in trees.  These are once-blooming roses.  Every year when they flower, I see that they have climbed higher and filled more of their trees than the year before.

'American Pillar' in a cedar tree.

 

 

'American Pillar', close up.

 

'Paul's Himalayan Musk Rambler' in a mulberry.

 

3.  The Rambler Fence is at peak bloom right now, and it is an absolute spectacle.  I have been a bum and let the roses go for the past two years.  They are growing like thorny haystacks on the fence and are creeping along the ground through the weeds.  All this growth has fueled a profusion of flowers like no other.  (and the fragrance!!!) 

From foreground to background, the roses on the fence are:  'Jean Guichard', 'Leontine Gervais', 'Awakening', 'Albertine', "Peggy Martin", 'Rene Andre', 'Aviateur Bleriot', 'Paul Transon', 'Alberic Barbier', 'Silver Moon', and 'American Pillar'.   (The roses are planted 24' on center ... do the math, that's almost 300' of fence packed with thousands of flowers.)

It's warm and breezy today, perfect for spending an hour or two walking and talking and visiting the roses.  (I hope to really get busy with my camera in the next few days, documenting this season's flowers to put together a virtual tour ... so those of you who cannot visit in person will get a taste of what it's like.)

Happy Sunday, Everyone!  It's a beautiful day to be in the garden.