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.