Thirty Days of Mr. Rogers ... Day Six

Mr. Rogers says, "Discovering the truth about ourselves is a lifetime's work, but it's worth the effort.

Our view of sunrises is limited, and it is a rare morning when I can capture images like this.  The horizon is blocked by the trees that line the east side of our road.

"Who you are inside is what helps you make and do everything in life"

We have more of a chance to see beautiful sunsets.  There is an open view from the back of our house westward over the winery, with woods beyond in the distance.  I love to sit on evenings like this one and watch the colors develop and fade as the sun sets.

Me:  We all evolve as we get older.  I have always thought that the insides of people don't ever really change ... instead, the extraneous parts of ourselves fall away and the true essence gets distilled and grows into a more major part of what we see in our older-self personality.  If you've always been a good, positive person, that goodness becomes even stronger and the positive energy that results is infectious and magnetic.  If you tend toward being a negative, judgmental person, chances are that you have aged into a someone that is surrounded by negativity and discontent.  If this negative nature sounds like you or someone you know, I don't think the situation is hopeless.  I also believe that there is always time to make a conscious change in life, and set off onto a healthier, more positive path.

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During the month of November, I plan to share wisdom from Mr. Rogers with you each day (from the book "The World According to Mr. Rogers") ... Mr. Rogers's words accompanied by everyday images from life here at Hartwood Manor ... this place that I am blessed to call HOME.

Sunset

This evening's sunset was beautiful.  I decided to play around a bit, and I captured this image of the sunset reflected in my glass of wine from my neighbors at Hartwood Winery.

As I was walking back toward the house, I saw this reflection in the window.

I hope you take time to notice the beautiful things that happen around YOU.

Warning: This Post is All Over the Place

Sitting here trying to make sense of all of the photos I have taken recently, and it can't be done.  I'm rarely without access to something that I can use to take a picture (two cameras, my phone, or my iPad), and I have been known to take dozens of seemingly-random photos on a given day. 

Can't make these weave a cohesive theme, except that this is all stuff that I saw over the past couple of days.  There's a lot of stuff here for you to see this morning ... you may want to refill your coffee cup before you get started.

The weather has been cloudy and cooler than normal for the past two days.  Two thunderstorms on Thursday night dropped a lot of rain ... after which the sky was a beautiful shade of pink.

All that rain made the soil very receptive to weed pulling ... which is what I did all day on Friday.  My Rose Field is horrible (I'm not overstating the situation by using the word "horrible"), and I am beginning the process of reclaiming it by starting on the center aisle.  While I worked, I was distracted by dozens of butterflies flying around me ... attracted by the thistles there that are taller than I am.

 

By mid-afternoon, I had cleared my way about halfway down the center aisle.  Where there was once fallen roses and weeds as high as my shoulders, I now had the beginnings of a real live path again.  It's not pretty yet, but it's passable and I'm energized by the progress and will keep at it when I can ... I let this once-beautiful garden get into such a sorry state ... and I'm determined that one day it will be beautiful again.

Now that it's August, there are only a few roses blooming ... most of the garden is in between cycles, and everything is gearing up for the fall flush.  I did find a few roses with photo-worthy flowers on them.  It's important for me to concentrate on whatever I find that's beautiful while I work, so I stay motivated and energized to keep on with the awful job of pulling and cutting all the weeds.  At least the weather was relatively nice, and I really like working outside ... even if it's a nasty job that I'm doing.

'Country Doctor' ... I didn't see the tiny spider on the bud until I was editing the photo.

 

'Renae' on an arch in the Rose Field, blooming despite the sorry conditions.

 

'White Cap' is my BEST climbing rose!

 

 

We caught Groundhog #4 on Friday afternoon.  It was an adult, and he/she went to live with the others at the abandoned house down road.  I didn't bother to bait and reset the traps on Saturday.  While I worked in the Rose Field, The Husband was mowing for most of the day ... so the remaining groundhogs laid low because of all the noise and commotion.  I will be setting them today, though.

 

 

 

 



 

Speaking of The Husband, he is currently working on a portrait of a friend's granddaughter.  Here is the artist at work, putting the finishing touches on the underpainting ... soon to begin adding details and highlights to make this portrait come to life. 

 

 

 

I had to run to Lowes for something on Friday, and I did a bit of window shopping in the tile department while I was there.  I found the most beautiful watery blue glass tile mosaic sheets!  Mind you, I nave no projects here that I can use this on ... thought I'd pass it along in case any of you are looking to add some sparkle and color to one of your projects.

 

 

 

Japanese Beetles are still here, though I think their numbers are dwindling.  It's been a longer Beetle Season than I remember in recent years, hopefully they will be gone in another week or two.  I left them alone this year ... too much other stuff to do to spend precious time knocking beetles into buckets of soapy water.

 

Japanese Beetles on 'Perle d'Or'

 

 

My Hummingbirds are still draining my one-quart feeder every two days.  I could stand at the kitchen window, or by the feeder on the deck, and watch them for hours.  It's amazing how close the little critters let me get, as long as I'm standing still.  Took this photo with my iPad ... I was close enough at the time to almost reach out and touch the feeder.

 

 

 

The pets here are always a source of cute photos.  Dorothy and Alice like lounging on windowsills ... the ones here are 12-inches deep, so there's plenty of room for them to stretch out.  Dorothy's favorite place is her shoebox in the dining room window.  Alice is usually on the cat bed in the family room window ... for this photo, though, she was keeping me company in the sewing room.

 

Dorothy loves her shoebox so much, I don't have the heart to move it.

 

 

Cute cat lounging on a cat pillow ... perfect!

 

 

Today dawned bright and sunny, with a light breeze.  It's a beautiful view out the window, beside me as I'm sitting at the counter in the kitchen. 

 

 

 

Temperature is cool, and it looks like it will be a perfect day to get back to work in the Rose Field.  Having made such good progress out there for the past two days, I'm excited to get back to it and see what else I can accomplish. 

 

Happy Sunday, Everyone ... it's a beautiful one here in Hartwood!

 

Seemingly Random Photos

I have been holding onto a few random photos that I have taken and saved over the past few weeks.  I love each of the shots, but there doesn't seem to be enough to talk about individually to make a full post out of any of them.  

This was what the sunset looked like one day last week.  I shot this photo as I stood on our back deck, amazed as I watched the colors intensify and change as the sun got lower and lower in the sky.  This photo is straight out of the camera ... not altered in any way ... not even sharpened ... okay, I reduced the size, but that's absolutely ALL I did to it. 

I love the view out the windows from the back of our house.  This is what it looks like when I'm standing at the kitchen peninsula looking out the dining room window.

The stained glass that's hanging in the window is one of five identical windows that I bought on eBay a few years ago.  It is the source of the MacIntosh rose image that I use as my Hartwood Roses logo, on the header here and on all of my nursery materials. 

While I was looking out the window yesterday morning, this hawk caught my eye.  I think it's a Cooper's Hawk, which are seasonal visitors around here.  Seeing him sitting on the fence made me wish that I had a mouse that I could give him for breakfast.  (The rose behind him is 'Silver Moon'.)

Speaking of birds ... one afternoon a couple of months ago I was working on the greenhouse and I noticed a group of Turkey Vultures soaring over the vineyard at Hartwood Winery next door.  A couple of the 'vultures' looked a little bit different than the others.  A closer look revealed that the two odd-ball vultures were, in fact, two mature bald eagles.  It's not unusual for us to see a bald eagle here from time to time, but TWO of them is quite a sight ... and the fact that I was able to get both of them in the same frame using my point-and-shoot camera is a miracle.

You have to look closely, but there are definitely two eagles in this photo of what appears at first to be empty blue sky.

I have mentioned before that the most emotional part of our annual 'Take a Bite Out of Canine Cancer' event for me is Sunday morning's Blessing of the Hounds.  Our officiant is a cancer survivor (and the minister who married our daughter last summer) and I always cry as she addresses the gathering with a group blessing.  She then blesses every dog individually, asking their owners if they have any particular things they want her to pray for.  For Daniel and me, we needed peace ... since our Emma had died a short 4 weeks earlier.  (I showed you the photo a friend took of Daniel and me in THIS post ... and I now use it as my FB profile photo.)  What I didn't show you was this photo of TJ, our Greyhounds Rock poster boy and 19-month osteosarcoma survivor, with his owners Andy and Kim.

Finally, please consider this your morning reminder to click the link below to vote for our grandson Caleb in the Parents Magazine cutest baby contest.  He is now #112, up from yesterday's #260, which means that we still have lots more voting to do to get him to the top.  Between you and me, he is WAY cuter than the little girl that's in first place right now.  Run over and cast your vote (you can vote once a day), share the link on FB and/or your blog, and let's do what we can to put Caleb in the lead.

Click HERE to vote:

Sunset Over the Winery

Last night, as the sun went down over the woods beyond the winery next door, the sky was so beautiful.  It reminded me of the burning of Atlanta scene from Gone With the Wind.  I snapped photo after photo, and each one was more colorful than the one before it.  This was one my favorite.

I'm going outside to water my pots now.  I had hoped that Mother Nature would do it for me overnight ... no such luck.

Go over and visit with Karen at This Old House 2.  Her family said good-bye to their beloved Rottie last night, and I'm sure she could use the company.

(Written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog.)

Another Beautiful Sunset.

Last night's sunset was so beautiful ... I had to share.


Enjoy!

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)

Beauty After the Storm

Here's what the sunset looked like this evening.  I thought you'd enjoy seeing this.

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)