Lost Roses

Christmas tree as memorabilia cache?

2012-01-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

It's a snowy evening. Christmas was two weeks ago. I should take down the Christmas decorations.

But like most of you, I hate doing this. Really, it was hard enough to get all the trimmings up. I think I spent the better part of two weeks to get this accomplished and I'm beginning to suspect it may take me that long to put it all away.

I like looking at all the "stuff" on the tree. I treat my tree just as much as a memory box as I do an ornament holder. I have lots of things on there that I like. Here's an old pair of baby stockings made in the late 1800's that a grandparent wore as an infant.

I found these in a box of old family stuff hidden away in a closet where no one ever saw them. So I put them on the tree each Christmas. I've attached a tag to them citing their provenance so my kids won't wonder "where those came from."

I also use keepsakes from important events as ornaments. These are from Sweet Son and Darling Daughter-in-law's wedding 11 years ago. The bird's nest with eggs were on each table, and the bubbles were in a tulle-wrapped bottle with an angel motif.

I also like to remember my awesome brother who died just before Christmas two years ago. I have his photo in a tiny Christmas frame and I like to look at it.

There are lots of regular ornaments too, some whimsical, a lot shiny, and just plain pretty. The seashell reminds me of all the Mexican beach vacations we've taken over the years.

I seem to have a thing for flamingos too. Here's a miniature of the big lighted one that lives on my back porch.

I also like to pick up these glass ornaments that are so breakable but so pretty. Here's one of them.

Okay, enough reminiscing. Time to put it all away and be surprised next year when I unpack it all over again! Oh, before it started snowing today I did take down the outdoor lights and reindeer and lighted willow twigs and the wreath and the rope light encircling the porch post...gosh I think I'm too tired and will postpone all this till tomorrow.

Flowering haystacks?

2012-01-05T21:44:00.007-07:00

Try to imagine these blue flowers sticking out all over from this haystack. Wouldn't that be odd? I just watched Red Riding Hood which is a movie that got really bad reviews but the cinematography looked pretty so I watched it. One of the first scenes showed these funny conical haystacks jammed all together in a field. What I couldn't get past were all the blue flowers sticking out of the hay. Really? I've seen a lot of haystacks but granted mostly going by at 70 mph but I still think I might have noticed if they grew blue flowers.

I could hardly concentrate on the movie (good thing) worrying about this and I even watched the deleted scenes and got an even better view of the haystack flowers. Now that I think about it it would be nice if these were real and not part of a fairy tale movie. I'd slow down to at least 55 mph to look at those.

And imagine how Claude Monet's famous painting could be a lot more colorful.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:58:00.006-07:00

I'm not taking my Christmas decorations down yet. The Magi haven't arrived. The Stock Show hasn't even started. In Denver we get a free pass for leaving our lights up through the Stock Show but probably even I won't wait that long. Last year my daughter never got around to taking her tree down at all. Merry Maids dusted it occasionally. These trees will stay up all year and I'll just remove the golden magpie and his gold-dusted nest and call it Summer in the Rockies. Happy New Year!

First week of summer

2010-06-24T22:06:00.006-06:00

After the initial flush of spring weeding and planting now suddenly it's summer when I sit back and enjoy the results. If weeds are popping up I'm ignoring them. Besides, I'm tired when I come home from work. I can manage to pop the top off a cold beer but that's about it.

I'm fond of Black and Blue salvia and managed to find several plants at Lowe's this year that weren't dead yet. I can achieve that myself as the summer wears on.

My tiny terrace is packed with lots of pots, bird baths and all sorts of junk. I enjoy it all. I don't have a theme with the colors or the plants, but I like a pop of bright orange here and there.

Oh, and peach and pink. That rose is Zepherine Drouhin. Hibiscus courtesy of the grocery store.

Back in the day I wouldn't have dreamed of putting orange flowers in my garden but I have no such qualms now. I guess if there's a color theme scattered M&M's would be it.

The lower yard is mostly green. I love the lawn, but I no longer love mowing it. A guy does it nowadays.

Another one of my adorable grandchildren sailing a boat in Grammy's miniscule pond while I sit back and enjoy the first week of summer.

Forgetfulness

2010-06-21T23:08:00.005-06:00

I never can remember the name of this rose (I also can't remember to post to my blog). So I've renamed it Shell Pink. Shell Pink is just a regular rose which this year thinks its a tree rose. I rather like that. Any tree rose I've intentionally tried to grow has always died so now I'm pretending that this was on purpose. It smells heavenly.

In the back yard this is as good as it gets for the rambler rose, Paul's Himalayan Musk, which is growing up a pine tree. Not so magnificent but a pretty good show for a rose that's about as big as a half-dollar. I've managed to cram back into the pine branches the wayward canes that slap the lawn-mowing guy across the face. I know he'll appreciate it.

Here's one of my darling grandchildren. He's a month shy of being 4 years old. Of the five of them he was the only one who wanted to help Grammy pull weeds at the back of his house to plant a pumpkin patch. Though he really doesn't look too happy about it here. I was probably hogging the hoe.

His oldest brother (age 8) agreed to water the pumpkin hills every day. Hope he doesn't suffer from forgetfulness like Grammy does.

Amur may be "no more"

2009-11-22T22:30:00.004-07:00

Remember how disappointed I was the last few years because my Amur Maple wouldn't turn red in the fall? Well, it did this year. Glorious, huh? I was certainly pleased over my late bloomer. And it only took four years.
Even the fallen leaves in the birdbath below the tree were beautiful.

We had 16 inches of snow fall over a couple of days in late October but the tree held up.

But last week we had another snowstorm, only 10 inches this time. But it was a much wetter snow and most of it came in the night while I was asleep and not out there knocking snow off the maple's branches.

Uh-oh. This can't be good. Not sure it will survive this but at least it finally turned red before it ends up dead.

LBBs

2009-08-20T22:05:00.006-06:00

One of the leaders on birding field trips I used to go on would mark down any birds that he couldn't get a good glimpse of as LBBs -- Little Brown Birds. I have my fair share of little brown birds in my backyard at the feeders and at the bird bath.

Look at us, we're just little brown birds.
Not me! Check out this red breast.
That's not bad, but we'd rather have some REAL color, like that guy in the yellow and black.

Or even that noisy blue fellow. But no, we're destined to be just little brown birds. At least there are lots of us.
But even a crowd is no match for a squirrel who wants our dinner.
Call in the big guns!
And their brothers.

You all do what you need to do, this little brown bird needs a drink. And peace and quiet to enjoy the garden. Even if we are little brown birds.
With thanks to the house finches, goldfinches, bluejays, and magpies. And no thanks to the squirrel.

Fairies and such

2009-08-16T21:34:00.005-06:00

When my Adorable Granddaughter and her friends play, they make fairy gardens out in the flower beds and under the bushes. Well, grandma likes fairies too so I thought I'd give her the ingredients for a fairy garden for her next visit to my house. I gathered together all these tiny implements and added them to a few items that I've collected from garage sales, including the mixing bowl I put the sand in.

I added a gnome. And there's a hoe, little shovels and rakes, and a watering can. At this point I wanted to play in it, too.

Adorable Granddaughter has her ideas about what a fairy garden should look like. First you take all that stuff out and add flowers.

And a lizard with a watering hole, and can't forget the fairy doll.

All done! But oops, there's no room for the little house. Which worked out nicely, since she took it home with her to use in her own fairy gardens.

Since Adorable Granddaughter's visit, I haven't noticed any fairies around but I did see a mermaid.

Things I ignore....

2009-08-11T22:25:00.015-06:00

There are parts of my garden I never pay any attention to. I might give them a glance now and then and think, "I ought to do something about that" but I never actually do. This first tangled mess is off to the side of my front porch. The ground slopes away here and nothing I like ever grows successfully in this spot. So the volunteer morning glories have taken over, backed by the obnoxious 4 o'clocks. The morning glories are not Heavenly Blue so I despise them. I'm not sure what those tall spikes are in back but I do remember planting a Mock Orange here once. Surely that's not it, my nose would know.

Then there's a bed of Snow in Summer, or is it Snow on the Mountain? I'm never sure till I look it up, but I don't really care either. It's also called Bishop's Weed. Which fits in perfectly with the theme, since that's Yellow Archangel in the back. One of those plants you wish you'd never laid eyes on one time and thought it might be a good idea. It's not. At least both these culprits are confined in this bed and any seedlings that escape promptly get mowed. In keeping with the religious theme this is also the final resting place for a succession of gerbils, pet rabbits, and cats over the years. I guess this is actually the burial bed - no wonder I ignore it.

Okay, this is a little embarrassing and I swear I'm going to cut this volunteer hollyhock down soon. It's starting to swat at my car as I drive into the garage.

I could pretend this corner looks pretty good at times, but that wouldn't be true. There seem to be volunteer bushes growing here, though the huge pussywillow in the back was planned. I have to admit I never thought that stick of a plant would get so big. I used to plant tomatoes in a couple of wooden barrels that you can barely see but I kept forgetting to water them so I quit.

Here's my biggest disappointment of the year and much as I'd like to ignore them they're front and center and I see them every day. My gauras - Whirling Butterfly. Remember how pretty they were a couple of years ago? Age hasn't improved them and nary a bloom in sight this summer or last. They'll be history in the fall.

In the back yard I have this 12 foot square that used to be a sandbox for Dear Son. He's 30 years old now. Nature has taken over. She apparently thought that Russian Olives would look nice here and also a huge weed that gets about 6 feet tall and has sticky burrs and woe to anyone who brushes up against them. I felt really bad for this phone company guy who had to get his ladder in there the other day. Well, I didn't know he was coming, did I? Hope he didn't trip over a rotted wooden post with a martin house on top that I know fell over in there a couple of years ago.

One day last spring The Dubious Gardener sent over a tree man to trim some limbs and while he was at it "tear that ivy off the house". I might have been more upset about that except I accidentally tore part of it down last year and then the rest of it started falling down. I hardly ever walk around to this side of the house and when I did the other day I was surprised to see Virginia Creeper taking over. It's not ivy and I'll soon be yanking it off the overhead phone lines but I might ignore that too. Wonder if the phone company man can?

Not bad....

2009-08-04T21:29:00.003-06:00

...it's only been a little over a month since my last post. Which means I missed July. But I have a good excuse. It's summer in Colorado which means the relatives come visiting, and I got a double whammy with relatives from both sides of the family. It was lots of fun and only slightly hectic.
It's a good thing it rained so much or my garden might have felt neglected. This is my new favorite garden ornament, an Everlasting Allium. Pretty cool, huh?

The canna lilies that I bought at Home Depot are blooming their heads off. I have three in the little pond and these two in a corner. Everytime a bloom fades there's another one waiting in the wings. I'm thrilled.

Here's a closeup of the red one. Those emerging buds look a lot like birds-of-paradise, don't they? I love this carmine-red color.

I found this yellow jug at a garage sale on my way to work last Friday. (I'm always late on Fridays). I thought $5 was a decent price for it.

I think the Nicotiana Sylvestris looks like candles in the dusk. Or maybe like clusters of candelabras. I'm really fond of these towering flowers. I don't have as many as I used to because my little maple tree is getting bigger and shading more of the front bed. But these few really make me happy.

Pathetic

2009-06-24T23:05:00.006-06:00

My daughter thinks I'm pathetic for neglecting my garden blog. I agree. So at the risk of not getting 8 hours of sleep tonight (when does that happen?) I'll attempt to redeem myself and post a few photos. We've had an amazing amount of rain in June - almost 4 inches - which for our semi arid climate is pretty much like a rain forest. It also means my plants won't start dying of neglect for at least another month.

For years my garden colors were mainly pink, blue, and white. Now all I seem to want is a riot of color. Maybe it's all those vacations in Mexico. Here's what I found at Lowe's last weekend - a Gerbera daisy called Lollipop. Bright enough?

And a complimentary lantana...how's that for a match?

I found these cannas at Home Depot. Must have been a fresh shipment as they were in great shape. I read that cannas are marginal plants for ponds and can take water up to 6 inches. Hope that's right. If not, well they look pretty now. And I don't think there's room in the pond for much more. But those water lettuce can start multiplying any time now.

I found a great green-glazed strawberry pot at a garage sale for 6 bucks. I was thrilled. But I probably shouldn't have planted these purple petunias in the pockets since I can no longer see the planter. Or the lovely blue salvia in the top that a friend gave me. Who knew those petunias would do so well after I squeezed the life out of their rootballs trying to smash them into those little pockets? I'll plan better next year - or not.

Belated elf

2009-01-14T21:43:00.006-07:00

La Gringa had one of these posted on her blog and I thought it was so funny I had to make one, too. Christmas may be over, but the elves don't know it, and besides, it's still snowing.

Cow Snow

2009-01-09T21:39:00.005-07:00

We have a saying in the Denver area: If the air smells like cow_ _ _ _, it’s going to snow. True. That’s because fifty miles north of us is the small town of Greeley that claims the largest beef processing plant in the country. Have you ever smelled a feedlot? When the prevailing winds shift and come from the northeast, those are upslope winds that bring the biggest snowstorms. And the smell of cow manure. So if we smell Greeley that means snow.

Today it sure smelled like Greeley, but the flakes were few and far between. And it was preferable to the smell of jet fuel which is what we usually get at work. We’re across the street from a busy regional airport. No wonder I want to come home and smell the flowers. But there aren’t any.

Come to think of it, maybe we weren’t smelling Greeley after all. The National Western Stock Show started this week. All those stockmen brought a lot of cattle to town. In fact, they parade them down the streets of Denver to kick off the show.

About 30 Longhorn cattle from the Searle Ranch in Monument are driven by cowboys on horseback up Wynkoop street towards 17th Ave for the beginning of the National Western Stock Show Parade on January 15, 2008. (Post / Helen H. Richardson)

I’m probably not going to the stock show. I went once about 20 years ago. But I'll salute the spirit of the festivities with my version of a cowgirl outfit from Halloween a few years back.

Yee-Hah!

And it still smells like Greeley outside.

10 months...but who's counting?

2009-01-03T00:31:00.007-07:00

I can hardly remember how to make an entry on my blog, but it's starting to come back to me. It seems that I've taken almost a year off and while I've been occupied with other things, you all have been gardening and visiting each other and with any luck (and lots of time) I might actually catch up on some of your activities.

My garden was lackluster this past summer and Christmas is over but I can combine a bit of both in the photo above. Remember my Pink Flamingo ? He became a part of the holiday decorations this year. Two visitors to my house recently commented that the flamingo is the ugliest thing they ever saw, but I'm enamored of it.

Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays was over I decided I should do a jigsaw puzzle. Years ago my mother-in-law used to have a puzzle in progress every Christmas Eve and we'd all contribute to putting it together. That memory surfaced recently so I found a puzzle in the basement that I'd gotten at a garage sale. See the missing pieces? But there's also an extra piece that is a duplicate of another one. But it was worth fifty cents anyway.

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Hip-hop

2008-03-23T23:27:00.007-06:00

The Easter bunny has come and gone, though I noticed he left a few of his cousins still nibbling on my grass. My presence doesn't seem to bother them, though since I haven't been out in the back yard since about November, I don't know why it would.

When I got back from Mexico I found all the snow had melted and it was rather a shock to see all the leftover perennial foliage lying flat as a pancake. They've sprung back up now, but they're begging me to get out there, trim them back and start cleaning up those beds. All in good time. I'm still trying to get used to Daylight Savings Time.

Here's a few puny tulips popping up. I know many gardeners plant tons of them; I have about twelve. When they bloom I'll wish I had lots more, but in the fall I won't care. The scilla surprised me one morning with their beautiful blue flowers - that happened just before our last snowfall but they didn't mind.

The sight of these sent me hunting for the crocus that I naturalized in the front lawn quite a few years ago. There are fewer every year which is okay with me because unfortunately it was the yellow ones that seemed to thrive and they looked a lot like early dandelions. I can't find any this year. Maybe that's what the Easter bunny's cousins have been nibbling on. Hip hop.

Home on the range

2008-01-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

These deer grazed in my dining room for a week after Christmas. I took down the outdoor decorations right away but never got around to putting them in the storage room until I got tired of tripping over them. I really hate putting Christmas decorations away. So it's a good thing I never finished putting them all up to begin with. The tree had lights on it and some pretty beaded tinsel but that's as far as it went. And the tree came pre-lit so that hardly counts. I was busy, now I'm just lethargic. Some of you may think that's not so different from my normal state. You might be right.

It was even more difficult to maneuver around these candle houses and trees that made it from the front porch shelf to just inside the door and no further. I did make a path through them so I could go out and get the mail every day. It was more interesting to watch home fix-up shows on HGTV and think about replacing these 1950's (excuse me, I meant mid-century) tiles with nice updated 12x12 inch ceramic ones. That's not going to happen though.

Outside, the garden is just as uninspired as I am. Snow, ice, and desiccated leaves and berries are the only things on show. A few seed catalogs have landed in my mailbox but I'm not likely to order any. I just like looking at them.

The squirrels may want to slow down but as long as there's food to be raided in the feeders, they're busy. I see a snowflake hanging on that branch that I forgot to put away. If I leave it out there long enough, the squirrels will probably chew it up and I won't have to worry about it.

Good thing I'll be going to Mexico next month so I can be officially lazy. Before then, my main ambition is to catch up on all your blogs!

Yeah, I've been sick...

2007-12-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

...for three weeks. But now I feel better. And I'm way behind on getting ready for Christmas. I hurried to put out this gardening Santa I found at a garage sale last summer. Besides holding a topiary tree (not something I'd carry around) he's also got a wicker watering can, a shovel and ....what's that...a hoe! This gardening Santa was obviously meant for May Dreams Gardens but since I don't live next door to her to pass it on, he'll have to decorate my table.
Before I got sick I put up a few lights on the back patio, and while I was at it, I decided to tie up my Skyrocket juniper so the winter snows won't break the branches down. What better way to tie it up than with a string of twinkle lights? Protection and decoration all in one.

It snowed a little bit. The squirrels were busy scavenging on the ground below the feeders.
Oh-oh, let's get out of here, the big guys are coming!
Only a flock of magpies would make the squirrels scatter. They are pretty big birds.

The magpies, like the bluejays, pick up and "weigh" each peanut to see if they're getting the heaviest one with the most nutmeat inside. Picky, picky, especially since they'll end up eating everyone of them.

I couldn't get more than a few magpies in one picture. But there are about twelve of them that strut around the yard looking for peanuts I've flung out in the grass. Oh, look at all the leaves that have come down since I did fall clean-up. Those will be there till spring.

The bluejay doesn't usually take a back seat to any other bird, but this one is biding his time and waiting for leftovers.
Meanwhile, my neighbors wanted to know if they could decorate the Blue Spruce in my front yard. They have one too, but it's too tall and they'd have trouble stringing the lights unless they had a bucket truck, which they don't.
Looks nice, huh? But every time they turn it on, it trips a breaker and all their lights go out. I guess you shouldn't string 15 sets of lights together without expecting that.

The color of the sky rivaled the lights on the tree. What a dramatic sunset.
Now I'd better go decorate my own Christmas tree.

A day late and a bloom short

2007-11-15T21:59:00.001-07:00

Actually, I'm more than a day late - since I've never participated in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day before. In the summer, I'm just too busy sitting on the porch looking at the garden to run around cataloging everything in flower. And I catalog at work all day anyway. I content myself with looking at all the other bloggers' blooms. So I figured November would be a piece of cake - the only blooms I have are dessicated. Like this poor Siskiyou Pink guara hanging its head in the grass, with only a few stray leaves to keep it company.

But wait, here's something that still has a breath of life in it - Homestead Purple verbena.
And a couple of miniature white roses, flanked by their dead cousins.
This is all too morbid, let's check inside the house and see how the carry-over plants are doing. This fern and a few others of its kind live on the patio in the summer, providing a lush background for the Pink Flamingo. This one has to move soon, it's in the Christmas tree spot.
I'm not keen on variegated leaves but I bought this Calathea because the undersides of the leaves match a pot I own. This is the only sunny window in my house and in the morning this plant reminds me of the view inside a kaleidoscope. I liked it better outside and I think the plant did too.

I predict this fern won't make it through the winter. I'm getting really tired of picking up dead, dry leaflets off the carpet.

The bamboo is looking none too happy. I don't know what's the matter with it. Probably a lack of humidity like all the other plants I brought indoors for the winter.
And this behemoth in the kitchen skylight is really annoying me. There's one like this hanging over the basement stairwell too. Do you know how hard these are to water? I need a solarium, or a greenhouse. A conservatory would be lovely. Heck, I'd settle for a big bay window. I need to get lucky and win the lottery.
Speaking of luck, it's run out for this gardenia. Remember I paid $1.00 for it at a garage sale? It had two blooms and I certainly got my dollar's worth out of smelling them. I brought it into the house before the first snow and it proceeded to get spider mites. It's back outside. The weatherman says the second snow is coming for Thanksgiving. This gardenia is history, just like the turkey will be on Friday.

Veteran's Day

2007-11-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

A veteran ancestor from Civil War times...

....and a grandchild whom I hope grows up in peacetime.

Piece of cake

2007-11-03T21:05:00.000-06:00

Most of my leaves have fallen. There was a cold front that moved through with some fierce winds a few days ago that sent Mother Nature's tattered leaves swirling down. Today was sunny and warm; a good day to attach the mulcher to the mower and hit the back yard. Here's before -

And after.

I love those crispy leaves, but they can't stay - at least not in their present state.

Shredded by the mulcher, they'll decompose slowly into my grass.

This tree is my top shedder. Lots of leaves...

Gone. Shredded. While some of my neighbors raked and used their blowers and piled up the black leaf bags on the curb, this took me the same amount of time that I normally spend mowing the grass, and I get to reap the bounty of mulched leaves enriching my lawn. I was back in the house watching reruns of Project Runway in no time.

This look will never hit Project Runway, but as promised, here is the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots. Fortunately, she and her head were reunited after death. Note my nametag which I wear everyday at work. It normally says Mary so I just had to add Queen of Scots and no one asked me who I was supposed to be. Handy.

Looking rather serious, but you would be too if you were a ghost. Though you can see she was reunited not only with her head but with her little dog who was in the folds of her skirt as she was beheaded. There was a bit of splashback on her poor Skye Terrier (err, 20-year-old Pound Puppy I found in the basement).
Here's what I got for my trouble. It is a lot of bother being beheaded.

Confessions from Halloween

2007-10-29T20:18:00.000-06:00

Remember the fire in the backyard at Sweet Son and Darling Daughter-in-Law's house? The grandchildren were afraid of the burned-out parts of the yard until their mom spruced up the remains of the juniper bush for Halloween. Cool, huh?
Now, on to my confessions. What is it about people who toil in offices that makes them dress up like kids on Halloween and go to work? It's a tradition at my home away from home. One year I was a lion tamer, and not a very good one, as evidenced by the bloody scratches on my face. When you pressed a spot on their paws, the lion and tiger growled and their eyes glowed green. These scared the grandchildren.

Another time, I went as Sacajawea. Bird Woman, get it? I carried that damned bird around all day.
It was more fun being a cowgirl. My stick horse whinnied and moved his head up and down to the theme for The Lone Ranger. Never thought I'd get sick of hearing the William Tell Overture.
The Gypsy fortune-teller did a lot of business another year. My "crystal ball", when rapped smartly, made eerie noises, glowed, and gave answers to questions.
My farm wife costume featured a clucking chicken in a basket. When set on the floor, and a button was pressed, she made agonizing clucking sounds, and laid eggs. The grandchildren love this toy. Oh, I had my gardening clogs on.

I found a Chinese coolie hat at a garage sale so I had to play the part. The hat was really hard to keep on my head, and it kept landing on my computer keyboard.
Last year I was just about out of ideas so I came as a tourist just off the plane in Hawaii. I actually own those glasses and use them occasionally. I told you these were confessions.
And what's on for this year? It has something to do with a Mary Queen of Scots costume, a small stuffed dog, and some fake blood. Remember, she was beheaded. I may not post a picture of that one or visit the grandchildren on my way home. Happy Halloween!

Average first snow date...

2007-10-21T13:20:00.001-06:00

...was two days ago. I haven't really been holding my breath. But waking up this morning I could exhale, and then go turn the furnace on.

I think the contrast of the white snow makes my recalcitrant Amur maple leaves look a little redder than they really are, dont' you think?
Trick or treat? I'll say "treat" - it's moisture anyway you look at it.

Last spring I planted a Skyrocket Juniper in a big pot at the edge of the terrace. Yesterday as I was doing some preparation for winter I was trying to decide whether I should wind some twine around its branches to maintain its shape. Thanks to this snow, I find the answer is yes. I want it to look like a skryrocket, not a snowy starburst. I think I'll wind some white twinkle lights around it. That will still keep the branches pointing skyward, and I'll have a leg up on Christmas decorating!
I spent part of the day putting garden ornaments into the garage out of winter's way but a bunch of ~~ornaments~~ junk stays out all year on the somewhat sheltered table and shelf on the back porch. But look closer.... These two House finches found it somewhat sheltered also.
In typical Colorado fashion, the sun soon came out and the birds hit the feeders again.
Joined by their buddy, the Red-shafted flicker. A handsome fellow, and happy for some suet.
Happy October, or as we are calling it here, "Rocktober". In honor of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, heading for the World Series. It will soon be Snovember.

Flame in fall

2007-10-18T22:01:00.000-06:00

What gorgeous fall color. This is a Flame Amur maple and I bought one two years ago for my front yard. But mine doesn't look like this.
No, it looks like this. Does that look like "Flame" to you? Where's the bright red leaves? This is the second autumn I've eagerly awaited a fiery display of crimson, only to have my hopes dashed.
I even planted a Burning bush near it a few weeks ago to give it some encouragement. I found a specimen with a bright red leaf on it at the nursery. That should help, right?
Umm, no. The one red leaf fell off immediately and now there's only a handful of sort-of-reddish leaves. The Flame maple couldn't care less what its neighbor is doing.
It taunts me. A few russet-colored leaves is the extent of my fall brilliance. I've asked everyone what the problem could be. I'm told it takes warm, sunny but dry days and cool but not freezing nights to bring out the color. We've had that kind of weather all fall. It seems the real problem is that not all Flame Maples are created equal. I have an underperformer. The lesson is to buy the tree in the autumn when you can see what color the leaves have turned. Well, no one told me that while I was buying my tree in late spring.
I'll just turn my gaze to the backyard which doesn't pretend to have any red leaves, just lots of on-the-ground leaves. I'll get to them in a couple of weeks. Besides, I like to see leaves swirling around. What's more evocative of the season? (Besides red maple trees). After Halloween I'll get serious about raking them all up.
Some real flames in fall were an unwelcome surprise at Darling Daughter-in-Law and My Sweet Son's house a couple of miles away. The electrical transformer on the power pole blew out and threw sparks all over. Which quickly ignited the backyard. Juniper bushes are not only highly flammable but threw flames high enough to scorch the top of a 40-foot tree in the next-door neighbor's yard.
This was a 6-foot privacy fence. The firemen stopped the flames just short of the house.
Darling Daughter-in-Law surveys the damage and decides that, except for the immediate terror of getting my Five Adorable Grandchildren to safety, this was a fairly efficient way to clear the back half of their property for a vegetable garden. Only a mother of one-year-old twins, a three-year-old, a five-year-old, and a six-year-old could react with such equanimity.

So much for flames in fall. Give me only red trees without the flames...please.

Home again

2007-10-07T14:22:00.001-06:00

Don’t you hate coming home from vacation and there’s no food in the house?
After getting in late on Saturday night, I got up Sunday morning and all I could find was potato chips and ice cream for breakfast. Then it took me approximately a week to unpack (not quite true, the suitcase is still on my bedroom floor) and to catch up on emails and projects at work. But we had a good time in Oregon and saw many strange things. The first was this dinosaur. I think it’s a weeping spruce.
We went slogging through a forest to see a waterfall. The trail was slippery and wet but you can see no one paid attention. Except me. I have a fear of broken bones.

What’s this I see? A little fairy kingdom? These mushrooms were so adorable I wanted to snap them off and eat them like M&M’s but I resisted.
We went to a winery next. We always had to do wine-tasting close to our destination for the day so I could easily take a nap afterwards. When I spotted this place I thought I was in Tuscany. Not that I’ve been there, but I read that book about Bramisole.
The winery wants you to think you’re in Tuscany too. Rolling hills, grapevines, and lots of lavender.
After my nap, I strolled around the yard of our friend’s house on the coast. Steller’s jays hang out in the rhododendrons next to the window of her dining room, which she opens several times a day to fling peanuts to them. I really like their light blue eyebrows.
In the front yard, a Manzanita with odd, peeling bark.

For excitement, we rode this dune buggy thing called a “sandrail”. The young man who was our driver apparently thinks the laws of gravity do not apply on the steep dunes. I discovered I prefer not to be that excited. Or that sandy.
Heading up the coast, the ubiquitous beautiful views.
It was really windy, or maybe I was thinking about the hair-raising ride I took on the sandrail.
This Western gull decided to make himself comfortable on the balcony of our motel room.

Heading across the state to the Columbia River Gorge, we stopped at this casino. I lost 80 bucks here on a nickel slot machine. How can that be?

It was typically rainy while we toured the Gorge. 1.1 inches of rain that day. And breathtakingly beautiful.
Every structure is cloaked in moss.
This is Multnomah Falls. I really wanted to climb the trail up to that bridge but the Dubious Gardener has his limitations. He wondered if there was an elevator. Maybe next time.
Back in Colorado, and it’s getting very fall-ish. See how pretty my neighbor’s tree is? He’s lucky he doesn’t have to rake all those leaves. They blow across the street into my yard. Home again.

Hip, hip, hooray

2007-09-19T22:18:00.000-06:00

Pretty much the same old stuff is blooming in the garden, but I did notice a haze of reddish-orange as I looked out my bedroom window this week. What do you know, rosehips. These are from an Alba semi-plena rose that blooms once a year in June. I think the hips look cool but I know you're supposed to do stuff with them like make herbal infusions and tea and what have you. I've never really done that and probably won't. I read on a website that rosehips are good for circulation, heart, and bones. Also fluctuating hormones. I thought the author of that article could probably use some herself, as she went on to say that rosehips also protects and enhances our ability to love ourselves and others fully. Oh my.

I do fully love this verbena bonariensis which I finally grew this year after wanting some for just ages. Sorry I waited so long. This stuff is great. Look how airy and tall it is and it enhances just about everything, including the Graham Thomas rose that seems to have quit blooming on this pillar.
Another great plant coming into its own this time of year is Northern Sea Oats, which I bought by accident a couple of years ago. I planted it near the little pond. Yeah, that's a battery-powered turtle that swims in the pond. My grandsons love it.
Look how pretty these sea oats tassels are. I think they're going to turn a bronze color judging by other gardeners' blogs. I think mine did last year but I can't remember.
Another look at Heavenly Blue morning glories on the arbor. I've said how much I dislike the purplish-colored ones that seem to be the mainstay color of the volunteer morning glories. Well, an interesting thing -- I didn't water these for a couple of days and I noticed when they opened for those two days they were definitely purplish. I was horrified and quickly watered them. The next day they were Heavenly Blue again. Some weird garden karma going on.
Well, I'm off to spend a week in Oregon where I'll have some Marionberry pie. These are some strange sort of blackberry that I never heard of till I went to Oregon for the first time. Marionberries are advertised everywhere there, and the farmers in Oregon grow 30 million pounds of these a year. Makes me wonder why I'd never heard of them. Google says they're becoming legend at Trader Joe's and Starbucks. That could explain it. I don't drink coffee so I don't frequent Starbucks, and since Colorado doesn't allow alcohol sales (except 3.2%) in grocery stores we don't have Trader Joe's.
I do like clam chowder too, and Oregon is a great place to taste-test it up and down the coast. I heard about a new place in a converted gas station that supposedly has the best chowder in the state. The Dubious Gardener and I will be trying that. It comes in this bread bowl.
Speaking of bread bowls, I have to go try on clothes and see if I can find anything that fits and is decent enough to take on vacation. I can't wear my normal garden attire, though I'd like to.

Happy gardening till I get back!

Garden Blogger's Book Club

2007-09-12T21:52:00.000-06:00

A Hoe Lot of Trouble: a Nina Quinn Mystery
by Heather Webber

First of all, what the heck is that picture on the front of the book supposed to represent? A topiary bunny with stomach trouble? It looks like an ad for Tums. I don’t get it.

I don’t need to be a cataloger in a public library (which I am), to know when there’s a subtitle like “a Nina Quinn mystery”, it means there are more of these books featuring this woman. Aarrghh! Nina and I didn’t get along very well from page one. Who chops up pictures of their philandering husband in a garbage disposal? What’s the matter with using the paper shredder? I guess that was supposed to set the tone for us that Nina is charmingly non-conformist and we need to cut her a lot of slack for her impetuous ways. I found her really annoying.

I also didn’t see much gardening going on except for a few references to Taken By Surprise, her so-called garden design company. And what about the hoes? I thought this story was about missing hoes. No, it was about a greedy developer trying to buy the farmland belonging to the family of Nina’s long-time friend Bridget, who has homicidal tendencies and fakes a pregnancy. Where’s the gardening in that? She does make a reference toward the end of the book about the landscaping in the greedy developer’s subdivision: “Trees dotted the sidewalks and canopied the street. The lawns were exceptionally well-kept, and flowers, everything from geraniums to petunias, were bright and cheery.” Whew, geraniums to petunias! That’s quite a range.

Coming to the end of a good book makes me sad. I was extremely happy to finish this book. To be fair, the author seems like a very nice woman; I went to her website to see what she is like. May is her favorite month, she likes to watch The Amazing Race, eats extra-butter popcorn, and her favorite day of the year is Thanksgiving. I like all that too, so I can relate. But I don’t relate to formulaic mystery writing. When we hear about the escaped pet snake in the first chapter, we know the snake will play a role in the ending. When we find out early on that homicidal Bridget is pregnant, or that stepson Riley (or is that the snake’s name - I can’t remember) has a fixation on guns, we know that will play a role in the ending. Nothing is allowed to happen in a formula-written book that does not have a bearing on the final denouement, and that’s what I hate about them. Nobody wanders off-plot and does or says anything that doesn’t pertain directly to the story. But hey, that’s just me. According to Amazon.com everyone loves this series and can’t wait for more. I’d rather sit on my back porch and stare off into the distance.

Oh, I didn't actually throw the book in the trash. It is a library book, after all!

Swinging

2007-09-05T22:11:00.000-06:00

That was a big, heavy box the swing came in. Two guys from Lowe's put it in my car but I couldn't get it out. It was jammed in tight against the back of the hatch and I couldn't lift it over the bumper to drag it out. Without the services of an undergardener, I have to be inventive. So I opened the box in the car and hauled it out piece by piece.

Once I threw out all the foreign-language instructions, all I had to do was figure out which part went where. Since I only needed the swing parts and not the free-standing frame or canopy, the assembly went smoothly. Then I got out my trusty drill, the only power tool I own that I'm not afraid of.

Since there were two existing hooks in the ceiling, I figured I had it made. Just add one more hook to compensate for the longer length of this swing and I'm home free. Add one rickety ladder to reach the ceiling and drill a hole for the hook. Luckily for me my sister happened to stop by and held the ladder.

Oops, design flaw. I neglected to visualize that the porch post would be in the way. Darn! My sister says good luck and beats a hasty exit.
By now I'm hot and sweaty so I take a break and walk around the yard before I continue my efforts. Down on the lower patio, I check out the Sweet Autumn clematis to see if it's tumbling nicely over the retaining wall. It is.

Buddha is calmly overseeing things as usual. Am I going to try to winter over that bamboo? Probably.
What's this? An interloper! Well, he can carry on with whatever he's doing, I have to finish re-positioning that hook.

My neighbor checks in to see what I'm doing and insists that she can do a better job of fixing the hook than I can. I let her. Finally! It swings and it doesn't hit the post. My neighbor goes home triumphant.

The swing will also lie flat like a bed. And this is fairly simple to do except for the finger-pinching part.

This is where I was going to take a picture of myself relaxing in the swing. But that would have meant bringing out the tripod and figuring out how to set the camera to self-timer. That wasn't going to happen so this is the best I could do.

A swing with a view. Treetops and lanterns and lots of birds flying overhead. This is while I'm swaying lazily back and forth.

What a heavenly feeling! Almost like the Heavenly Blues that I can gaze upon while I swing the rest of the summer away.

Heavenly Blue

2007-08-31T22:17:00.000-06:00

Summer is complete - the Heavenly Blue morning glory is starting to bloom. This is the first one. It's so high up on the trellis that I had to stand on my tiptoes to get this picture. I think this is the quintessential morning glory. I know there's purple, pink, white, red, bi-colored, and even chocolate, but to me this China blue color is the essence of morning glories, much as fire-engine red is to geraniums. I'm a happy gardener.
At work today, the Neophyte Gardener mentioned that Lowe's has all their garden furniture at 75% off (she's no neophyte at finding bargains). That makes this $99.00, 3-person cushioned swing/lounge just $25.00. But I don't want it for three people, no sirree. This baby converts to a flat bed. I can just imagine lying on this comfy cushion idly swinging back and forth while I contemplate weeding or perhaps mowing.
I don't want the cover, or the frame. I just need the swing part to hang from the hooks already installed at the end of my patio. That means I need some chain, and maybe another hook since I think this swing is wider than the old wooden one. Which fell apart after I neglected to put it away for the winter (20 years in a row). And just how do I install a new hook into that beam in the roof? And I'm going to have to find a new spot for the gas barbecue. This is beginning to sound like a lot of work. But wait! It's Labor Day weekend so this is the perfect activity. Happy Labor Day chores to all of you!

Summer Killers and Red Cloud

2007-08-24T23:04:00.001-06:00

Chuck B. at whoreticulture calls certain plants summer killers. When we see these, we know it's about over for the garden. Chuck is in California. In my Colorado garden Blue Mist spirea bursting into bloom is the first hint the lush days of summer are numbered.
But what strikes terror in my heart is Sweet Autumn clematis. Don't they look like little snowflakes?

Innocent looking, arent' they? I've actually been waiting three years for this plant to re-bloom. It used to cover the roof of a shed on the patio below, until a snowstorm flattened the shed. It broke my heart (and my back) to dig out and haul this 20-foot vine to its new home on the railing, hack it back to 12 inches tall and patiently wait through "first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap". It's leaping.

Chuck's summer killer is fall-blooming anemone.
Look at that yellow eye, mocking the sunshiny days its very presence will bring to a close.
I'm not even picking the flowers in my garden for bouquets. I let them bloom while they can. Instead I found this rosy pink baby's breath at the grocery store for $4. Have you ever seen this? They're not the washed-out pink ones that grow in my garden - these colors range from light pink to a deep carmine. I looked it up on the Internet and it looks like a variety called Red Cloud. I really like it. That purple and green thing is a super shooter water gun that I bought to harrass the squirrels but it won't shoot. Darn. I have to take it back.
Even though it was 55 degrees when I left for work this morning, there were a bunch of garage sales. I was late to work. I found this gardenia for $1. I'm pretty sure the gardenia will be dead within a couple of weeks but I guess the pot is worth a dollar. You can't grow a gardenia in Colorado and I'm darned lucky this one had an open bloom. A couple of the buds are already brown, but there are two green ones that might (possibly) open. That's if I don't mist the leaves or touch the blossoms, keep it evenly moist, give it plenty of humidity (ha ha) and indirect sunlight, don't keep it too warm, and make sure there are no drafts. This gardenia is history.

But, oh, the scent! I've about sniffed all the goodness out of it. And look at those creamy white petals. Don't they look like little peaked snowdrifts?

Henry was no fool...

2007-08-17T23:24:00.001-06:00

"Summer afternoon – Summer afternoon…the two most beautiful words in the English language."
Henry James
British (US-born) author (1843-1916)

After three evenings of rain, it was actually a little chilly tonight. If you can call 63 degrees chilly in the middle of summer. But it gave me a hint of what's to come, and I decided to look back at what was - last winter.

This is the large blue spruce in my front yard, note the neighbor's white SUV parked on the street in front of it... Same tree last Christmas, big white lump to the side is neighbor's SUV.

The front bed yesterday.....
The front bed in December.

Steps leading down to the lower garden...
Those indentations in the snow are the steps in December.

Rocker on front porch....
Rocker on front porch at Christmas.

Front walk a couple of weeks ago...
Front walk at Christmas.

Wrought-iron railing above lower garden in June....

Wrought-iron railing last winter.

Terrace garden in August....
Terrace garden in December.

Adirondack chair in lower garden in June...

Adirondack chair in same spot at Christmas.

Guara lining driveway in July...

Guara under drifts of snow along driveway on a sunny day in December.

Rose of Sharon in August...

Rose of Sharon in December.
Looking east from my driveway toward neighbor's SUV...

Neighbor's SUV put to the test.
Faux Gloire de Dijon rose in streetside bed...
Tip of faux Gloire de Dijon poking up above drift.

Okay, that was a little frightening, wasn't it? Repeat after me, "Summer afternoon, summer afternoon"......

Time to chop

2007-08-11T13:13:00.001-06:00

The hollyhocks are done. See, there’s one lone pink one up at the top and the rest have all finished blooming and gone to seed. The leaves are all rusty and nasty looking.

Remember what it looked like before?

Now there’s a big bare spot, but maybe the liatris that I found under the hollyhock can have half a chance to grow. It’s survival of the fittest in the front bed. The amur maple was leaning on the hollyhock, and the hollyhock was shoving the Russian Sage out of the bed, so now equilibrium has been restored.

What remains of the giant hollyhock.

And speaking of giants, the common mullein grew 8 feet tall this summer. That doesn’t bode well for the coming winter. If local lore is to be believed, as the mullein grows, so goes the snow. Deer browse the tips of mullein during heavy snowfalls in the mountains and plains so the mullein must grow tall enough to stand above the winter’s snow. Actually we got blasted with snow this past winter and last year’s mullein only got about four feet tall. So much for that old folktale.

Here’s the mullein – the giant spire to the right of the arch. The finches picked all the seeds off the top, so like leftovers at the dinner table, I got rid of it.

Speaking of dinner, I finally got a tomato. Doesn’t look like I’ll have many more so I’m darned proud of this one. Especially considering I don’t really remember watering it more than a few times. It has those dark splits at the top but there’s enough juicy tomato below so that a BLT is on the menu for tonight. Time to slice.

Bird bubbler

2007-08-03T23:28:00.000-06:00

I shouldn’t have stopped by Lowe’s last weekend, but I had a sudden urge to buy another birdbath. I have one out front, and two more on the lower level of the back yard, but I can’t see any of them from my favorite chair on the back porch, which is a higher elevation than the rest of the garden. And I spend most of my time in that chair (lazy gardener). I wanted a birdbath with a bubbler since moving water attracts more birds. Lowe’s just happened to have this one at half-price, $27.49. I couldn’t pass that up.

This small terrace is the view from my chair. Now I don't have to crane my neck to see birds drinking.

These are my customers. Their feeder is about 3 feet away from the birdbath. Sometimes it takes birds awhile to get used to something new in their environment. I watched and I waited.

Finally, here he came!

Moving water apparently attracts the neighbor’s cat too.

A couple of days later, the hibiscus bloomed again. Three blooms at a time is about as good as it gets, and makes a nice frame for the birdbath fountain.

Aren’t they exotic? I think they’re a nice complement to the pink flamingo of my previous post.

While my daughter was visiting, we waited and waited for the Stargazer lilies to bloom, but they decided to open the day after she went home.

And this photo is for my darling daughter, who just lost her 10-year-old Manx cat. If there’s a heaven for cats, it must be a garden. And Hades, despite his name, is free to roam in it forever.

I Couldn't Resist

2007-07-29T01:31:00.001-06:00

So the other day I was reading Gardening While Intoxicated posting on Garden Rant and found that Elizabeth, who is a serious gardener, sheepishly admitting to owning a Pink Flamingo. Apparently it’s not her idea to have it in her garden, but she’s been overruled. So when I, a frivolous gardener, stopped at a garage sale Saturday morning and spotted this garish pink metal one that lights up at night, I knew it would be perfect for my back porch.

There really isn’t anything else to say about this, is there?

Except see how brightly it glows at dusk?

Also see how expensive it was? Could I resist this at $4.00? No. Well, maybe I should have!

At Home > Home Accents > Tabletop Accents & Figurines
Seaside Treasures® Animated FlamingoPrice: $69.99, Sale Price: $48.99

Book club

2007-07-23T22:37:00.001-06:00

My Summer in a Garden, by Charles Dudley Warner, the June/July gardener's book club selection, shown on my unmade (of course) bed, where it resided for the months of June and July.

I indicated to Carol that I found this book to be a snoozer. And it was - in a good way. The flowery prose of the late 19th century inevitably makes our 21st century text-messaging, keyword-searching brains rebel. But once into the flow of the tale of a summer in Charles’ garden, the rhythm was easy to pick up, the long (and longer) paragraphs easier for the eye to scan. I felt right at home in that garden, and the comfortable, inexorable cycle of gardening is what lulled me to sleep each night as I read this book.

Didn’t it seem like a curmudgeonly old gent wrote this? He hated children, his neighbor’s cow that often wallowed in his garden (imagine that!), cats and chickens, and he belittled his wife. In fact, Warren was only 41 years old when he wrote this, which gives credence to my theory that people used to behave (and look) much older than they actually were. 60 may be the new 40 now, but back then a 40-year-old could easily pass for a 60-year-old codger. But since most of the book was written tongue-in-cheek, the reader has to assume that this book was meant to be read then as we’d read Dave Barry now.

I guess my favorite part of this book was Charles’ hatred of “pusley”, “a fat ground-clinging, spreading, greasy thing” which I can only assume is purslane. It’s nice to know some things never change, while others did. His antiquated views on certain topics are merely something to wonder at now, but a fact of life in his day. And his way with a phrase is what kept me engrossed and occasionally laughing out loud, such as “the cucumbers cumber the ground – great yellow, over-ripe objects” which put me in mind of May Dreams’ squash, as did Charles’ raptures over his new hoe. There were lots of other great passages but I couldn’t highlight them since I got this book from the library and they probably wouldn’t appreciate it. I don’t want to go back and re-read the whole darn book to find them again, amusing as it was. I’ll just finish this with Charles Dudley Warren’s observation that “a garden is an awful responsibility.” But he found a most amusing way to deal with it.

Here's my own summer-in-my-garden latest photo, the Rose of Sharon, which decided to bloom just in time for my daughter's visit.

It has an abundance of pretty little flowers, in pink of course. I have friends who've recently planted the blue ones, but I haven't seen any pictures of theirs yet and of course their plants are still quite small.

Not like this behemoth that would like to reach the height of the now-defunct basketball hoop. My neighbor's house in the background is higher on the hill than I am, and you can just see the roof of my garage on the right to get an idea of the height. I've had to trim this bush to the ground several times over the years because heavy snows tend to smash it flat and then the limbs grow all twisted instead of springing back into shape.

While I was waiting for my daughter to get off the plane, I took this shot of the greeting area at DIA. Nice fountain under the "circus-tent" roof, and a long line of variegated something-or-others all lined up in their pots. Charles Dudley Warner would be amazed.

Tagged

2007-07-14T23:46:00.001-06:00

Bev in Colorado tagged me for a meme - 8 random things about me. But first here's a picture of my 6-year-old granddaughter touring the garden today. She found a paper parasol on the porch and decided it would be perfect for a stroll.

Now for the meme:

· There isn’t a day that I don’t eat chocolate.

· I’ve been going to the same dentist since I was 18 years old. I’m now 60.

· I love music but it makes me sad – I rarely listen to it.

· I worked in a carnation greenhouse when I was a teenager. Nowadays when I order an arrangement of flowers for any occasion, I always specify “no carnations”.

· I’ve read thousands of books in my lifetime. I generally have two or three going at once at any given time. I get worried if I don’t always have a supply of books and I tend to stockpile them.

· I can’t find anything in my house unless it’s something I use every day. This is one of the great frustrations of my life. I’ve lived in this house for 30 years and things rearrange themselves when I’m not looking.

· One dark and rainy night about 10 years ago my daughter and I experienced a “raining frogs” phenomenon. Hundreds and hundreds of them hopping across a mile-long stretch of interstate outside Tulsa. We couldn’t avoid them and the highway was slick with squished frogs. We’ve never convinced anyone that this happened.

· I have 317 species of birds on my life list. The thrill of seeing a new bird always stops me in my tracks, but my favorite bird is in my own backyard – the ubiquitous American Robin.

My backyard birding companion - the neighbor's cat - watching himself for a change instead of my birdfeeder.

My daughter is coming for a visit. I need to find the vacuum cleaner, take the Christmas tree out of her room, and do a bit of "light housework". So I won't be posting for the next week or so but I'll be checking in occasionally to keep up with what everyone is doing. Oh, I'm supposed to tag 8 other bloggers to post 8 random things, so this means you!

Then and Now....Shade and Sun

2007-07-07T23:38:00.000-06:00

Now...
I love Lavatera. This one is in the back yard and I can't remember its name. I call it Pretty Pink Eye (not cunjunctivitis). It's from the mallow family, which also includes Rose of Sharon, hibiscus, and hollyhocks. You know I love hollyhocks.
Then...
July 2006. Do you see a giant hollyhock? I don’t either. There is a little wimpy one barely visible in front of the purple liatris. It had been attempting to bloom for a long time in the shade of an overgrown upright juniper.

Then...

A month earlier I'd had the juniper taken out. The bare dirt shows how much area it took up. And it was taller than the house.

Now....

The hollyhock took full advantage, wouldn't you say?

Then...

See the feverfew in July 2006? (the white clump behind the geese). You can’t see the pink lavatera but it’s visible in the second picture above, at the front edge of the bed, seeking one of the few sunny spots the juniper didn't hog.

Now...
Look at the lavatera this year. It spread back into the feverfew because….there's sun. (The purple verbena didn't magically appear, I yanked out last year's Yellow Archangel -nasty stuff- and planted Homestead Purple this spring).

It was fun to compare pictures from last year to this year. I also solved a mystery. Every time I look out the living room window I wonder what the funny looking clump of grass is under the giant hollyhock this year. After viewing these photos I see that it's last year's purple Liatris clearly visible in the second photo. Good thing the camera remembers, I sure don't.

Shooting stars and a savage garden

2007-07-04T22:44:00.000-06:00

I missed the fireworks tonight but I have my own starburst display in the front yard. The Whirling Butterflies (gaura) are shooting out right and left, reminding me of those cool starburst fireworks that rain down from Fourth of July skies.

The slightest breeze sets the blossoms fluttering on their long, wand-like stems, imitating a cloud of white butterflies flitting across my yard. This guara is called Geyser White.

What do you do with a day off in the middle of the week, with two days of work behind you, and two more to come? A holiday in the middle of the week doesn’t lend itself to serious pursuits like heavy-duty gardening chores. No, much better to fritter the day away, which I did, with this book.

A Savage Garden? How can that be? Finding the answer was a pleasant summer read - a delicious trip through a mysterious 15th century garden (which is much more than it appears to be) in the heart of Tuscany. Complete with a 400 year old mystery, a World War II murder, and a young scholar trying to unravel numerous threads; it was like reading The Da Vinci Code, only without the religion, and with a garden as the main character. I liked it.

Occasionally I got up and wandered around and pulled a weed or two, and petted a neighbor’s cat that prefers my back porch during the day. I was treated to the sight of four fighter jets flying in formation overhead, and later the deep boom of fireworks. I can no longer see them from my back porch as well as I could 30 years ago before the trees got bigger. Just a hint of shooting stars overhead.

Green light, glowing flowers

2007-06-26T21:07:00.000-06:00

Do you get those late afternoons when the setting sun’s rays seem to cast a green glow over everything? It reminds me of photos people take while scuba diving (not me) when they aim the camera up through the green depths toward the sun. There must be a name for it but I don’t know what it is. Actually, when I mention this to people, no one knows what I’m talking about so it may be early signs of glaucoma, but it sure is ethereal-looking. Anyway, we had an evening like that last night, after a blistering 100 degree day. The colors of the flowers were pretty much glowing so I took some photos of my giant hollyhock.

This hollyhock was a spindly creature for years, (yes they self-sow everywhere) growing in the shadow of an enormous upright juniper. The overgrown juniper dwarfed the house, and tried to lay claim to the driveway space too, and when I could no longer get the car in the garage without scraping the sides, the tree man came and took the juniper out. I should have done it years ago. Now there's a baby flame maple there, which isn't big enough to cast much shade.

The hollyhock breathed an almost audible sigh of relief, sucked up all the sunshine, and decided to reach for the sky. This year it’s 7 to 8 feet tall with the girth of a mighty oak. My neighbor was over the other day, did a double-take and said "what the hell's that giant thing?" as if I had surreptitiously planted it under cover of night. Really, it's hard to miss.

Half the fun of hollyhocks is seeing what color they will be when they bloom each year. It’s never the same in my garden. Most of them (planted years ago as a mix of white, pink and red) turn out a deep maroon color which I’m not crazy about, but my brother-in-law in the desert thinks they’re fabulous. I always hope for pink, and a cherry pink as long as I’m hoping. Hoping and wishing seemed to pay off this year.

Another stand across the yard shows definite apricot tones, with a few white ones thrown in.

These remind me of the flowers we used to make in school when Sister wasn't looking. We used a couple of pieces of kleenex, though I don't think we had apricot-colored tissue back then.

In the back yard, this hollyhock obligingly self-sowed in just the right spot. Ooh, cherry pink! In the next few weeks, the leaves will be full of holes (earwigs and such) and rust will take over. I'll cut them down to the ground and a fresh green rosette of leaves will soon appear and there will be a second blooming, but nowhere near as glorious as the first.

This evening, no green glow and the temperature plummeted to 80 today so I could get serious about prying the weeds out of the cracks in the driveway. This job requires my favorite gardening tool - the kneeler. A beer helps give me a bit of a glow too.

Blogiversary

2007-06-24T15:09:00.000-06:00

In the fifth grade, Sister Mary Ethelburga came to class one day with a list of other 10-year-olds from around the country who wanted like-minded penpals. A penpal! What a thrill. We could find out how other kids lived in faraway, exotic-sounding places like Indianapolis, Yuma, or Baton Rouge. I’ve heard stories of people who remain penpals for life but I think my penpal lasted about 6 months. I’m sure that writing a letter was low on my list of priorities (after bike riding, reading Nancy Drew, and playing dolls) but Sister thought it was important to learn how other people lived and letters were a good way to share experiences with others. If only Sister Mary Ethelburga could see the blogging world today!

A year has gone by since I discovered garden blogs and began my own. I can’t remember how I found out all you people were out there talking about gardening (without me), but my best guess is that I probably Googled something that brought up one of your sites. Tentatively, I put up my first post the last week in June, and was thrilled when a few people started leaving comments. At first it was mainly Carol at Boxwood Cottage who kept me going, then Salix Tree joined in followed by Annie in Austin and then suddenly there was a whole community of gardeners I could visit with and view their photos of triumphs and tragedies. Gosh, this is fun, and no postage required!

When I joined AOL in the late ‘90s, I quickly found a gardening chatroom and learned I needed something called a screen name. I’d just read Thomas Christopher’s ‘In Search of Lost Roses’, and that seemed a natural for a “garden name.” Others in the chat room thought it meant my roses had died and that was okay since it was true some of the time. My participation in the chatroom was even shorter-lived than my penpal correspondence. While the topics were occasionally on gardening, most of the people who dropped in had the same question, “Uhhh, how do you grow pot?” While it might be a valid question, my interests were a bit more varied. And that’s where you all come in. Now, in the evenings after work, I can drop in on my blogging friends from around the country and around the world and take a peek into what they did today. You never fail to amuse, enchant, and inform me. Thank you all for being in the blogisphere!
Lost Roses in Mexico in February 2007.

Wicked, wicked ways

2007-06-14T22:17:00.001-06:00

"A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure, fills the eye not less than a lion, is beautiful, self-sufficing, and stands then and there for nature." - RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Not in my yard. These wicked little boogers irritate me no end. Fox squirrels are the largest North American tree squirrel and in my eyes, the most destructive. Why do they want to break my bird bath? I liked that birdbath. It had acanthus leaves on it and some other cool motifs. And they broke my favorite blue birdbath last summer.

Once they empty a feeder, they start chewing on the metal, glass, wood, or whatever it's made of. On this one they chewed the solder strips holding the panes together. What's up with that? My trusty roll of black duct tape bolstered the seams for awhile but the whole feeder is bent and chewed, metal and all, so I'm going to get rid of it. Besides, I need the duct tape to keep the passenger window in my car in place.
A friend sent me this big old goldfinch feeder for Christmas. Okay, it's not the most tasteful feeder I've owned, but it was quirky and bright and see how its stomach held the seed? Clever, huh? Well, first the squirrels disemboweled it.

Then they chewed its eyes out, and most of the face, with a few blows to the body and tail for good measure. I hung this feeder on a Monday and by Friday they'd done all this to it. I know that eating ornamental plants is common squirrel behavior, but what's with eating the garden ornaments? When I was a kid reading the Old Mother West Wind books by Thornton W. Burgess, I never noticed Happy Jack Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel acting like this. Come to think of it they didn't have bubonic plague either, which has been found in squirrels in Denver.

Well, I'd rather not think about that so here are couple of photos as requested by Zoey who wants to see just how scary the orange zinnias and the hot pink Zepherine Drouhin rose look next to each other.
A bit jarring, don't you think? I don't hate this, but it's not my favorite view. When I get tired of being unsettled each time I look at this, I'll move some purple and white containers in front of Zepherine instead. Or not. I am a lazy gardener when all is said and done. I wish the squirrels had as little energy as I do.

Other people's gardens

2007-06-10T00:50:00.001-06:00

In Colorado, June is the month for garden tours. And Saturday was my husband’s birthday so of course I took him out for a day of doing what I like – visiting gardens. We started at his house where his main pastime is mowing the lawn - he grows Kentucky bluegrass and little else but doesn’t mind seeing what other people are doing even if he doesn’t agree.

Our tour took us to an old Victorian-era neighborhood in Denver, where the lots are small and the houses quaint. It’s one of those areas which used to be an iffy place to live but in recent years has become gentrified at a rapid pace. The current trend among homeowners there is to replace all the grass with a patchwork of plants and shrubs which are hopefully low maintenance and drought-tolerant. I don’t think I can be convinced that maintaining 100 plants in a postage stamp-sized area is easier or more water-wise than having a lawn, but that’s just me. The house above was not one of the gardens on view, but was next door to one, and its "painted lady" architecture overshadowed our interest in the neighbor’s garden. And it had grass, which my husband approved of.

My husband does like ice plants (delosperma). He remembers being wowed by California’s abundant use of them on the sides of the highways in San Diego years ago and has been fond of them ever since. He doesn’t want to grow them, but he likes them. So when we saw this huge circular bed of them in a minimalist Japanese garden he wondered how a southern California plant could grow so well in Colorado. I told him that was thanks to Panayoti Kelaidis (a renowned plantsman at the Denver Botanic Gardens), who collected seeds from South Africa about 10 years ago and hybridized them into an ice plant that survives Zone 5 winters.

Never mind that I’ve had a patch of them growing in the front yard for several years, he was suspicious of my explanation so he asked the homeowner how she could grow ice plants in this climate. She said, “Oh, that’s because Panayoti Kelaidis introduced them here.” The dubious gardener and I continued our tour.

These folks claimed to have an all-edible front garden. How’s this for creeping thyme? The gardener had two huge patches of these, one on each side of his front walkway and as we approached them the thyme appeared to be buzzing and humming. It was. There were hundreds of bees swarming over the blossoms, belying the “vanishing of the bees”, at least in this garden. The description of the garden mentioned recycled rain barrels in the backyard but someone must have given him the heads-up that it’s against the law in Colorado to collect rainwater because they were nowhere in sight.

I really enjoyed the above garden. There’s nothing like a bright blue stand of Bachelor’s buttons to catch the eye, and flanked by a patch of Sweet William in varying colors, it was a pretty sight. Colorful poppies added to the mix. This garden also had a lot of the small yellowish-orange California poppies which had self-sown in every nook and cranny. The dubious gardener wondered what they were and when I identified them he said, “Looks like onions to me.” Actually he was looking at a patch of onions. We make a habit of misunderstanding each other. He liked this garden too except for the fact there was no grass.

Having been fortified by a quick beer at a metal sculpture garden (no pictures of that, the beer went to my head) we soldiered on to garden number 12, or 13, or 14. I couldn’t remember by then. But it had lots of roses. Apparently north Denver got even more rain than we did, because the plants are taller and the roses huge. Or maybe they just have more sun or are a bit more disciplined about fertilizing.

I liked the placement of this dwarf Blue Spruce in a green-glazed pot which was a nice complement of colors. The homeowner apologized for having very few flowers to show because her new puppy had spent the morning biting the heads off them. No problem. The dubious gardener admired her nice swath of lawn and complimented her on her good taste, and then, tour done, we headed back to our respective houses to - what else? – mow our lawns.

Great expectations

2007-06-07T21:02:00.001-06:00

Pretty little thing, isn't it? This is Paul's Himalayan Musk, one of the great rambler roses.

See how tiny this fully opened bloom is in my hand? See how badly I need a manicure? (I think I had once for a wedding in about 1990). See the roses threading their way through to the top of this pine tree?

1990 is about the same year that I planted Paul. I was swept away by Wayside Gardens' description that it was not for the faint of heart. They claimed it produced small, fully double, apple-blossom pink blooms on thin stems....so far, so good. They went on to say it blooms in great clusters on this huge rambling rose. Does this look like great clusters? Granted, I probably shouldn't have picked a pine tree for Paul to ramble through. What grows well at the foot of a pine? Vinca, I suppose, but not Paul's Himalayan Musk.

My rose above (at dusk), and Wayside Gardens rose below. Hmm, I see a big difference! Well, it's only been in the ground for 17 years, maybe a few more will do the trick.

Oh well, gardening is all about great expectations, isn't it?

Everything's coming up roses..and peonies..and poppies

2007-06-02T21:11:00.001-06:00

An abundance of rain this spring has been a boon to the roses. Here are some that are in bloom now. This is an overhead view of Betty Prior mixed in with Jupiter's Beard (Valerian) in the crowded front bed. I've said before I wish I hadn't planted this rose right next to the sidewalk. I'm constantly pruning it back so it doesn't snag the neighborhood kiddies on their Big Wheels. I wish all my roses bloomed like Betty does. Nothing stops her from now till frost, just bloom, bloom, bloom. Her flowers look like pink dogwood blossoms.

This is a long view of the crowded bed. It's hard to believe that a Blue Mist spirea will bloom in the middle of it all later in the summer, but it will. Oh, and asters too. This is a lot of stuff in one bed but before I removed the huge upright juniper last year that cast so much shade this was one of my few sunny beds so I had to cram, cram, cram.

A close-up of the yellow rose on the left side of the bed. I tend to give roses my own names since I mostly can't remember what I planted. Or for some reason I thought that little metal tag would always be visible (I think squirrels collect them). But this one came unidentified from Home Depot quite some time ago. At the time I was lusting for a Gloire de Dijon when I spotted this one which I thought was close enough (and much cheaper). So this one is called Faux Gloire de Dijon.

I call this one Shell Pink because it reminds me of the color inside a conch shell we brought back from Key West once. It's on the right side of the bed behind Betty Prior. My daughter sent me a collection of roses from J&P a few years back and I can't find the tags on any of them. This was one of them, and it smells heavenly (maybe I should call it Heavenly Shell Pink?)

Up near the garage Old Faithful lives up to its name. Usually it's a small manageable yellow rose bush but the abundant rains made it act more geyser-like. Fortunately for me I found a black iron rose pillar in someone's trash last week and now Old Faithful's canes are corralled instead of flopping on the grass. Note the Rose of Sharon bush in the left rear, more about that below.

Across the grass path from Old Faithful are Oriental poppies and peonies. I used to hate these colors together. It no longer bothers me, in fact I like it. I think I'd like to see some red poppies in there too.

I like the way the same variety of poppies have variations in color. The one below is almost red, don't you think?

These peonies were here when we moved in 30 years ago. They used to be in the back yard in a sunny spot. Over the years the trees got bigger and the shade got deeper so I moved them out to the sunnier front yard 15 years ago. I also planted a little dinky Rose of Sharon at the same time. Sharon's not so dinky anymore and she's shading and crowding the peonies. I don't know if I have the gumption to move the peonies again. After transplanting they might not bloom for another couple of years and I would be sad not to see them next spring.

I never did see any ants this year on the peonies. A common garden myth is that ants are necessary to "tickle the buds" into opening. Obviously not true, but it was fun to believe it for a long time and I still look for ants each year.

There's one in every crowd

2007-05-30T22:35:00.001-06:00

A few years ago my brother-in-law in the desert talked me into trying some miniature roses in the garden. My previous experience with them were impulse buys from the grocery store. They came with the pot wrapped in that colored foil that makes you think they're house plants. I put them in a sunny window and then came the spider mites. They didn't last long. So I was surprised to hear they are actually star performers in the garden. So back to the grocery store where I bought three more and planted them in a sunny bed in front of my house. This is one of them. The other two languished and eventually died, but this white one decided it liked being next to the brick wall and over the years has done a good job of aspiring to the size of a standard rose bush. It blooms faithfully all summer long.

But what's this? Suddenly there's a pink bloom standing out from the crowd. I'm used to roses dying back to the rootstock occasionally and then I have a different rose altogether, but this obviously hasn't happened here. I don't get it but I'm enjoying the oddity of it.

Meanwhile, while perusing blogs, I came across a post from Posie Gets Cozy. I don't bake. But that recipe made my mouth water and after spotting rasberries on sale at the grocery store, I knew I had to try to make these raspberry muffins. It would be nice if I had grown these luscious berries, but I didn't.

I dusted off the Kitchenaid and got to work. I quit cooking long before they came out with those giant-size muffin tins which are recommended for this recipe. So I found some foil "pot pie" sized pans and used those.

These are not bad considering I've forgotten everything I know about cooking. I shouldn't be eating these. Maybe that's why I quit baking to begin with. But a few more hours in the garden ought to work off the calories.

Hot colors, sleeping woman

2007-05-26T21:42:00.001-06:00

Finally, I got the patio pots planted. Some of those bedding plants had been on my porch for so long their roots had wound aroung the bottoms of the containers. I had to wield the scissors to cut and pry them out. These are my "hot" color pots. I want to see some pizazz when I walk out the back door and the pots are in my direct line of view. The tall yellow plant is Euryops, mixed with grocery-store zinnias, Laguna White lobelias, and a calibrachoa.

More of the same in another pot. See how the leaves have yellowed in the center of the white lobelia? I tried to tidy them up but it soon became obvious I'd have a plant with no leaves.

This is a broken strawberry pot. I have lots of broken clay pots, I just turn the broken parts to the back so only my neighbor sees them. You can see where I tried to reinforce the top with a piece of leather shoelace. That's annual Gypsophila "Gypsy" in the pockets. I usually put bright blue lobelia in there but decided to throw caution to the winds and try something else. Also I couldn't find the bright blue, only the dark blue.

This is the view of my hot colors "Mexican" corner. My dinky pond is in the background. I've given up putting fish in there as the raccoons will come snack on them at least twice each week. I bought a big plastic turtle that "swims" in the pond when you press a button. The grandchildren should like that.

The big plant on the left is common mullein (Verbascum). The birds sow this all over and I always hope I get lucky and a couple will sprout somewhere other than in the middle of the path. This one almost made it. The path is just a little narrower now. Mullein is probably a noxious weed in Colorado but I can't help but reap what the birds sow. And it's no wonder they do, one mullein can produce up to 180,000 seeds per plant and the seeds remain viable for 100 years. How do you beat odds like that? It comes full circle for the birds though. By the end of the summer they're busy swaying back and forth on the tall seedheads gleaning their breakfast.

The grasses in the pot are Stipa, or Korean Feather grass. I love to see the light shine through these early in the morning or at the end of the day. The silky tips of the grass look frazzled which remind me of how my hair looks sometimes when I wake up. It's amusing on the grass, but not on me.

Here's the sleeping woman. I bought this head at a garage sale a long time ago and each year she's lost parts of herself to frost and ice. Now she's only half what she used to be so I put her to sleep with her head resting on the groundcover. Not so sure the grandchildren will like this. Even I think it's a little creepy. Her "thyme" may have come.

Still falling down, but not the Ivy....

2007-05-24T13:53:00.000-06:00

.....now it's me. Vertigo. Last week, still not completely over the viral infection I've had, I flew to a conference in San Jose, California. Big mistake, as the combination of the pressurized cabin and the recent virus messed with my inner ear. This week I found myself light-headed and staggering to catch my balance. The easiest thing to do was lie down. Meanwhile, my bedding plants are lined up on the back porch, begging to be put in their pots, and I've "vanished" from cyberspace without a word of warning. My humble apologies to all, and as I regain my equilibrium just in time for a long Memorial Day weekend, perhaps I finally get to finish planting!

The fountains above are in front of the convention center in San Jose, a charming big-bucks Silicon Valley town that has sunk a lot of money into civic beautification. It was a pleasure to walk around and take it all in, and the downtown area had loads of lovely restaurants in which to spend my per diem.
My fellow co-workers and I had a great meal in this Italian restaurant but what really caught my eye was this smoke tree that I spotted in the back courtyard when I went out to sneak a cigarette in the parking lot.
I've seen one or two of these at home but this one really did look "smoky." Actually that is a puff of grey smoke in the top right corner. Never try to smoke and take pictures at the same time, though the theme was right.
Back at home, I found the Ernest Markham clematis blooming away near the front porch. Ernest isn't fond of growing up the chicken wire on the post and prefers to sprawl in the foliage below. I really need to get out there and tidy him up.
But all of these guys below are waiting to be put into pots on the terrace, so first things first. Last weekend, after I'd gotten home from San Jose and before I started falling down, I had a glorious two days to garden. But since I'm so far behind it was spent mostly on weeding, mowing, and exhaustion later.

While we've had abundant rain, the temps fell too. For the past two nights I've moved my fuschia basket into the garage to keep it safe from the high 30's it's fallen to overnight. But after this weekend I'm no longer pampering anything, after all, it's high time for warm nights.

Boston Ivy falling down..falling down..

2007-05-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

Sung to the tune, "London Bridge is falling down". I'm pretty sure the squirrels did this. They're always scrambling around in the ivy that covers one side of my house and up until a couple of weeks ago it used to cover part of the back.

Since the back of the house has all the charm of an apartment building, I kind of like the ivy softening the facade. But how am I going to get it back up there? I gave up climbing 20 foot extension ladders a couple of years ago. And what would I attach it to anyway? Not to mention that a Virginia Creeper has insinuated itself (those birds again!) into the same bed and threatens to take over. Invasive plants love my yard.

Well, as Scarlett said, I'll think about that another day. Meanwhile, this morning I was about to finish mowing my back yard when the self-propel feature on the mower suddenly quit self-propelling. Have you ever tried to push one of those self-propel mowers? It's now in the repair shop for the next two weeks which doesn't bode well for the length of the grass. However it might give me a chance to recuperate from the "cold" I've had for awhile which has turned into an upper respiratory infection. Maybe breathing in all that pollen and dust wasn't such a good idea! No wonder I feel like falling down.....

Serendipity

2007-05-09T22:08:00.000-06:00

The other day I was walking around the garden taking pictures of things I don't recognize. (No, not the bust of the Roman soldier - I remember buying that at a garage sale). This happens to me regularly. I blame it on the birds "dropping" seeds here and there. The bush above was quite a surprise. You can see it's rather large, about 4 feet tall, and I never noticed it before. Of course with the odd weather we've had I really haven't ventured into the back yard more than once or twice this spring, so it's had time to do what it wants.
Here's a close-up of the the bottlebrush-like flower cluster. It's sweet, don't you think? But I had no idea what the plant was. I figured I'd post it here and someone could tell me. I went to bed that night with the TV on. I had been watching HGTV when I fell asleep and the first thing I saw at 6AM was Erica Glasener on "A Gardener's Diary" pointing out a Virginia Sweetspire (itea virginica) that sure looked like my plant. Pretty odd, don't you think?

According to the USDA, this is a southern plant and it doesn't really grow in Colorado. But it looks to me like it could have sneaked in through the Oklahoma panhandle when no one was looking. Here's the USDA's dinky photo of Virginia Sweetspire. So what do you think? Is it the same plant or maybe it's another of those "false" ones? Or maybe it's just serendipity.

"Bring flowers of the fairest..."

2007-05-04T21:57:00.000-06:00

"....bring flowers of the rarest, from garden and woodland, and hillside and vale."

That's part of a Marian hymn, songs to be sung to Mary, the Blessed Virgin, and especially in the month of May which is dedicated to her. Being Catholic school brats, my classmates and I were well-practiced in these songs and they've been stuck in my brain ever since. We eagerly awaited the month of May when a lot of time which would otherwise be spent in class was devoted to rehearsing the crowning of the statue of the "Queen of the May". I think the most popular girl always got to place the wreath of flowers on Mary's head, but the rest of us sang our little hearts out. And we got to wear pretty dresses, not our hated school uniforms.

I still eagerly await the first day of May which brings so much promise of flowers, gardening, and the balmy summer months ahead. My own tradition in recent years is to come to work bearing flowers for all my co-workers.

When I'm lucky, like this year, I can find bunches of these spray roses, so everyone gets a stem with 3 or 4 buds on it. This time I picked two different colors, the hot pinkish-orange ones for the more volatile or exotic personalities, and the pale pink for the sweet, traditional dispositions. They make their own choice and I get a secret chuckle out of pegging each one accurately (or not). Of course, on any given day, I could be an orange or a pink, but on the first of May I'm a traditionalist!

And why am I four days late posting this ode to the first day of May? Because I caught a cold that very day and have been miserable ever since! Which didn't stop me from visiting a local nursery after work today. I gathered a few more bedding plants which are destined to be stored in my garage over the weekend since we're expecting freezing temps tonight. The unfairness of it all! But, the sweet promise of May!

Yellow devil

2007-04-28T22:03:00.000-06:00

Actually it's Yellow Archangel, but it's given me a hell of a time. I innocently planted this years ago wanting a groundcover that spread quickly. Well it spread all right. This is Lamium galeobdolum, and apparently there are some well-behaved varieties but this isn't one of them. It's listed as a noxious weed in the Northwest where it's overtaken large wooded areas. I can see why. All it has to do is spread a runner and there's another plant rooted.

It's supposed to do best in shade, but it hasn't found a spot it doesn't like in my garden. It overruns anything planted near it till its hapless neighbors are crowded out, deprived of sun and a space to grow in. If only my favorite plants were so tenacious.

Almost every bare spot in this bed held Yellow Archangel before I attacked it today. This isn't the last I've seen of it since it will re-grow from the smallest stem or root left behind. However, my weeding efforts are as tenacious as this plant and having gotten rid of an entire bed of spearmint invasion over the last couple of years, I think I'm up to the challenge.

These brackets are what's left of two large wooden window boxes that were on my front porch. I made them over 15 years ago and time and weather have taken their toll. I was pushing it by planting in the rotting wood last year and today I decided they had to go. When I got down to the brackets, it occurred to me that I could put a board across them and have a shelf for my birdhouses. But that's for another day. I'm tired and sore from spending 9 glorious hours in the garden today. 82 degrees! I can't ask for much more except maybe an aspirin. Come to think of it, Yellow Archangel was used as herbal medication in the old days, maybe I should go rescue a piece or two from the dumpster.

Blue and white

2007-04-24T21:46:00.000-06:00

Perhaps the Harmony Blue anemone looks a little more luminous with some frosting on it. The bright yellow daisy behind it is known as a "Crazy Daisy". It's on a stake which you plunk in the ground and attach a hose to. The daisy waves and dips and water flies everywhere. I didn't need the Crazy Daisy to get enough water today. It rained all last night and turned to snow today.

The new tulip bed with the little amur maple just before I knocked the snow off the branches this evening.

Meanwhile, inside, the normal accoutrements on my kitchen floor anytime it rains.
I really need to see about fixing that leaky skylight. Maybe after I get the garden in shape. It's going to be 80 degrees this weekend. Woo-hoo!

More on Harmony Blue

2007-04-22T21:21:00.000-06:00

What they say...
Northwest Horticulture
Anemone coronaria 'Harmony Blue'
Common Name:
Hybrid Anemone
Height:
10 in.
Width:
6 in.
Bloom Time:
Spring thru Fall
Flower Color:
Blue
Hardiness:
-20
Light:
Shade to Part Shade
Soil:
Loamy
Moisture:
Moist

The Harmony series has a dwarf habit, which makes it perfect for mixed containers. It is tall enough to stand out, but doesn't overwhelm the other flowers. Harmony will keep blooming until summer, and in milder climates if planted it will bloom again the next spring. Harmony is a beautiful dwarf series of anemone that is ideal for winter and spring celebrations such asValentine's Day, Easter and Mother's Day. This series needs partial shade.

And what it may actually do...
Notice how it says Bloom time: Spring thru Fall but in the description it mentions it "will keep blooming until summer." So which is it?

The anemone sure contrasts nicely with that pot marigold (calendula) in this website picture but I'm pretty sure calendula need full sun, so I doubt they would look nice for long in the "shade, part shade" that the anemone requires. Oh well, I've been fooled by plant tags and garden catalogue pictures before, but gee, I want to believe them so I buy them anyway! Thanks to Annie and Zoey for their help in trying to figure this one out.

New and blue

2007-04-18T22:32:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd better post these photos of a new blue anemone before I actually put them in the ground and probably kill them. The tag says it blooms spring to fall, I'm dubious. Looking these up on the Internet and in several resources I don't see any indication that they bloom except in the fall. I have the Whirlybird white anemone which does bloom faithfully every fall, the flowers are much smaller and more delicate than these big fellas. These blue ones remind me of an Oriental poppy in size and I like that dark eye in the center which is rimmed by flower eyelashes. The wind has blown fiercely all week and by now most of the petals have blown off. Sure glad I took a picture.

Last Sunday, before the wind drove me inside, I finally managed to dig, yank, and hack out a rose by the front walk which has been snagging the mailman for a number of years. It used to be Bibi Maizoon, a heavenly cabbage rose that I adored. But Bibi died back to rootstock one winter and ever after it bloomed once a year as a small, pale pink, open-faced rose. It was okay so I left it. But last year all it grew was a giant tangle of thorny branches and no flowers at all.

Once I got it out of there, I was able to see a nice little clump of Minnow narcissus which I had forgotten about. They're such tiny blossoms they were dwarfed under all the rose canes.
Out in the bed by the front walk these Darwin tulips are in bloom. I'm pretty sure these are Pink Impression, I vaguely remember planting some a few years ago. So these must be them.
The Canada Goose decoy guards the bed of tulips. I have a few of these decoys in the beds in the front yard. I don't know why I like kitschy stuff in the garden, but I can't seem to help myself. The garter snakes like to curl up under these. The rose in the rear is Betty Prior, gearing up to snag passersby. I have to keep the front side of it hacked nearly flat so the neighborhood children don't get scratched as they go up and down the sidewalks on their riding toys. Bad placement of a rose, but then I never thought it would thrive.
I did find some blue pansies to plant around my tulip bed. I'd seen a picture of this and thought it would be very pretty to accent all the bright colors with the more subdued blue. When I got to the garden center I was wowed by all the shades of the pansies, and I ended up with several flats full of jewel colors in my cart. Then I got a grip and reminded myself of my original intention. So out went the jewel colors and in came the blue. I'm glad I was able to restrain myself because I like the way this looks.

Ghost storm

2007-04-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

I said I wouldn't post anymore shots of snowy tulips and I'm keeping my word. This was the new bed last Thursday afternoon. I thought I was being clever and helping a few tulips and daffodils hold their own against the forecasted 12-14 inches of snow we were supposed to get overnight and into Friday. Coloradans battened down the hatches, the airlines canceled 140 flights at Denver International in anticipation of snowed-in runways, even the State Legislature declared it a snow day. And nothing happened. During the night the front took a 100 mile swing south of us, spawned a tornado in Texas, and generally wreaked havoc across the nation. But we were spared. Now we're feeling like weather wimps, but I think it's just post traumatic snow syndrome.

The next day dawned sunny and beautiful, a good thing for one of my nephews who had planned an outdoor wedding at a small bed and breakfast inn at Manitou Springs, nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak. The bride, in her long gown, had to clamber up those steep wooden steps to the top of a hill and descend down the other side into the garden for her wedding entrance. A spread of rose petals awaited her. And no, she didn't trip. Ah, youth!

Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods rock formations made for a nice backdrop. Talk about borrowing your neighbor's scenery to enhance your garden.

I hadn't been at the wedding five minutes when the strap on my shoe broke. See that one across my ankle? It came unglued, or unstitched or whatever it was that was supposed to be holding it on. Thankfully the shoes had wedge heels so I was able to pretend like I was wearing clogs. With a flopping strap. I was almost wishing I had a pair of flowered wellies in the car!

The Easter Bunny did it

2007-04-07T09:57:00.000-06:00

Since my last post, things were looking rosy outside. The snow melted, the sun shone. I took off the lawnmower blades (actually, my neighbor did) took them to Big Tool Box while they sharpened them while I waited, I changed the oil, mowed the grass (highest setting). That was last Sunday. The tulips and daffodils were standing erect again, having shrugged off the surprise snowstorm, and then the Easter Bunny paid me an early visit this morning. Those poor yellow tulips above don't look quite as happy as the day before.

They were looking pretty perky then. Ah well, fleeting beauty. That's spring in the Rockies. Our local garden guru gave us a "to-do this weekend" list in the newspaper. He says:

Prune hybrid tea roses, butterfly bush, and grapes as needed

Fork organic matter into vegetable beds

Top-dress perennial beds with compost

Aerate and fertilize lawns

I've pruned the roses (well, some of them); the butterfly bush seems to be squashed behind the Rose of Sharon and I'm not sure what to do about it; fork organic matter? Not today. Same with top-dressing. The aerator guy came last week and it's really too soon to fertilize the grass no matter what the guru says. Do I want to kill myself mowing that verdant lawn? Do I really want to encourage it this soon? I don't think so. Besides I've seen his garden. He has no lawn, well, maybe two long strips.

While I was mowing last weekend, I checked on the Nepeta "Six Hills Giant" which I cut back drastically a few weeks ago. This plant has been growing next to the driveway for years. See that crack in the concrete? Six Hills likes to throw runners out there too, so it looks like I grow flowers in the middle of the driveway. When my son was a teenager he drove over it every day to get his car in the garage. He said he always enjoyed that since it smelled so good after he crushed it. A teenager noticed that? It gladdened my heart and it obviously didn't hurt the nepeta in the long run.

Before the Easter Bunny came, here is the freshly mowed front lawn complete with aerator plugs. In the background is a Flowering Quince (japonica) that I see I should have trimmed last spring after it bloomed. Too much Quince, not enough Flowering.

Well, must go, I have an appointment with an Easter Bunny (ears first)!

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS..

2007-03-29T23:02:00.000-06:00

That's what they said last evening, but it was a rather shocking surprise this morning to find that 4-6 inches had sneakily fallen overnight. Even the weather man was surprised.
When I got home from work this afternoon I had to check on the new bulb bed I planted last fall under the little amur maple. No sign of the daffodils that had been perky the day before but I can see the hyacinths are tucked in nicely, and even a tulip or two.
Off the back patio everything is sporting a crown of snow. You can see from the flagstones that the snow didn't stick to surfaces that had been warmed considerably by our 60-plus degree days we've enjoyed recently. The guy that aerates the lawn was supposed to come today. He's rescheduled for next Monday but the forecast is...cloudy with a chance of showers.

Back to reality

2007-03-23T23:54:00.000-06:00

I knew I should have put this pot away last fall. Not sure why I didn't.

This one is history too.

I should have put away the garden hoses also. I can barely see them under all the pods from the Honey Locust tree.

The wood pile is falling over, the snow blasted the green paint off that wicker chair, and yes, more seed pods all over the lower patio.

Hmm, last fall this was a twig settee, now it's a pile of sticks with an upside down birdhouse (the raccoons did it) smack in the middle of it. Okay, I'm not really very sad about all this. The blue pot was a garage sale purchase a few years ago and it came complete with a crack. I always positioned it on the pedestal with the damage toward the back. Its demise was only a matter of time. Same for the twig settee, it's been "planted" in a flower bed for 15 years, ever since it got too unstable to sit on. As for the clay pot, I do that every year, no surprises there. And the darn pods...actually I wouldn't have had the heart to post these pictures if I hadn't already started cleaning them up. The trash man took away 8 of the 55-gallon-size leaf bags full of them this morning.

Being a lazy gardener I never clean up in the fall. It's just my nature. All the grasses and plants wither away wherever they happen to grow and die. And come spring it makes for the most desolate-looking landscape. So when I get started in the garden the change is utterly amazing and I feel like I really accomplished something!

The thrill of seeing green growing things again makes it all worthwhile. This pussywillow languished in an unsuitable location for a few years and never grew more than a couple feet tall until I finally moved it to a better spot near my kitchen window. Now it's one of the first things to bud in Spring and has become a tall tree.

So back to reality, and that means back to the garden!

Home again, home again...

2007-03-15T21:37:00.000-06:00

And suddenly it's spring at home! After warming my tootsies in sunny Mexico for a few weeks I came home to find that all the huge snow mounds had melted, my street was no longer a one-lane plowed track, and the tulips and daffodils were poking up. I swear I brought the warm weather home with me. Also lots of memories of Mexico. And a new life bird.

I'd stopped to admire this Royal Poinciana tree on the way to breakfast one morning. This is not something I ever see at home. I thought the flowers looked like tulips until I looked at it closely. The individual blossoms are actually orchid-shaped but they grow in large clusters. While I was taking it all in, this guy landed.

This is a Golden-Cheeked Woodpecker. Wow, what a bird! As soon as I spotted the red and yellow head I knew it was a life bird for me. And since I've misplaced my Mexican bird book somewhere I had to immediately head off to the American Book Store and look it up in their Mexican field guide. Such excitement. I treated myself to this great Pina Colada for breakfast.

And then I had the entree. I did gain six pounds while I was gone. I made sure to eat a lot of fish for dinner but I think that was probably offset by the lovely breakfasts like this, and perhaps the Pina Coladas.

Mostly, I hung out on the balcony and watched the ocean and the people on the beach, and read books. I brought nine along and had to scrounge a few more left behind by departing tourists.

I did get up occasionally and move around. On one of those occasions I visited a new botanical gardens which was started two years ago. Look at all those bouganvilleas. They make the lone plant that I winter over look pathetic. The hacienda below is the main building for the gardens. It not only houses an impressive collection of botanical books to peruse but also a restaurant and a gift shop (they didn't take credit cards which is probably a good thing for me). The owners live in half of the second floor. Nice set-up.

There's something about gauze curtains blowing in the breeze that speaks to me. Add flowers, birds, the ocean, and warm weather and I'm in tropical heaven.

So, back to reality. It's a good thing we now have an extra hour of daylight so now that I'm finally caught up at work, I can spend some time in my shattered garden in the evenings. Then catch up on all your blogs. And dream of lazy days in Mexico!

Gone to Mexico

2007-02-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

"See you" in March!

Packing flowers

2007-02-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

After two months of wearing snow boots, today I wore flipflops around the house getting my feet accustomed to them again. In a few days I'm off to Mexico for a couple of weeks. Normally on the day I fly out, I've been up half the night before trying on clothes to see if they fit and then frantically stuffing things into my suitcase. This year I decided to pack a few days in advance. What a concept!
I've been leisurely hauling the "Mexico stuff" up from the cedar closet in the basement and deciding what size I am this year. I have a whole range of sizes and patterns to choose from. I hardly ever wear a floral print at home, but I'm not staying home. I get a kick out of dressing like a typical tourist. It's almost like going to a costume party and I actually have worn some of these clothes as costumes at Halloween. Of course, you won't find clothing like this in a Mexican department store. Most Mexican women dress like "norteamericanas" - they wouldn't be caught dead in this apparel. I'm perfectly happy to join the throngs of those who look like tourists, because I am one! And there's something about being surrounded by all the tropical colors - flaming bouganvilliea cascading over sun splashed walls, red and orange and yellow hibiscus, a canopy of yellow primavera overhead - that makes my usual blue jeans and boring white blouses a sacrilege.

The hard part is figuring out how to pare down the packing. I know there are women who throw on their Travelsmith reversible dress and hit Europe for two weeks with only an overnighter to haul around, but I can't conceive of that. On the other hand, do I need 8 pairs of capris for a 16 day trip? I don't know, I can't decide. Will 6 pairs of shoes be enough, or too much? After I return home each year I make an attempt to write down what I wore so I'll have guidelines for the next time. Each year I misplace the list. Well, I have a few days to decide, rather than the normal few hours I've given myself in the past. What isn't negotiable are the 6 or 8 novels I'll bring, a couple of bird guides, and my binoculars. That must be what's weighing down my suitcase, not all those flowery clothes!

Silver trees

2007-02-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

How about this beautiful forest of silver trees? Actually, it was "Jack Frost" on my garage door windows. When I backed out this morning it was 6 below zero and as I idled in the driveway waiting for the car to warm up, I glanced up and saw this fantasyland of "trees" spread across all four windows, reflecting a neighbor's house and drifts of snow in the background. So the "trees" aren't real, but the cold and snow is. I heard Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today so spring is right around the corner. We don't really believe that here. There's been some discussion about using a prairie dog to get a local reading, but they're probably all snowed into their burrows. Meanwhile I've taken to clipping fake birds onto my flowering maple which is wintering indoors. This makes me think of warmer weather.
I'm not sure where all the real outdoor birds have gone. Lately the only customers I've had at the feeders are squirrels. But I did see a large flock of robins the other day. I happened to be looking out the front window when I saw about 50 of them land in a tree across the street. I watched them for awhile and suddenly a truck out on the main road backfired and robins exploded out of tree after tree. There were probably 150. Though most robins head south like sensible birds we always have a population of them who over-winter. I think I saw the whole crowd.
robin photo credit

Oh, my darling....

2007-01-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

....Clementine.

I love these little Cuties and for a long time I thought I was eating the same tangerines we used to pick off the trees in Florida when we were kids. Then someone told me they were not tangerines at all, but a variety of Mandarin orange. Well, they fooled me. Google tells me that clementines started to be imported to the U.S. from France a few years back after a freeze wiped out most of the Florida orange crop. They caught on big and now they're popular enough to be grown in California. Right after the freeze hit California's crop a couple of weeks ago, I heard that citrus prices would go up. Sure enough, the Cuties that I paid $5.95 a crate for last week are $6.95 this week.

The price won't deter me. Five pounds of easy peel, seedless, supersweet "tangerines" means I can throw a few in my lunchbag to take to work. They may not replace Godiva chocolates anytime soon but while they're in season they'll be my darling clementines.

Gala, not Red Delicious

2007-01-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, so ice storms are making a skating rink of the Midwest and Texas; there's snow in Malibu; 100 mph winds swept across Europe; in Colorado we still live in a moonscape of rutted ice and mountains of snow; but I need a new swimsuit. I can't think of any worse horror than trying on swimwear in the dressing room of the local department store, so I've ordered several online. As they arrive, I can try them on in my walk-in closet where there are no security cameras and alternately laugh out loud, or cry over not staying on the South Beach Diet. The rejects get dropped back in the self-serve box at the post office, the winner heads to Mexico. This black-and-white print was a front-runner until it arrived. According to Lands' End, potential bathing suit buyers fit into these shape categories: triangle, inverted triangle, rectangle, or star. The star apparently means you have a perfect body (you're 20 years old). Sorry, Lands' End, I am obviously an apple and you don't have a swimsuit for me.
This one has potential - it looks kind of like a maternity suit. The old-fashioned kind, not the belly-baring ones the Hollywood stars wear. Though Roaman's classifies their customers' bodies as hourglass, oval, or triangle. Still no apples. It also says to hand wash. I guess that doesn't mean throw it in the washing machine, does it?
I ordered this one in turquoise. A leap of faith since the view wouldn't change on the website and I can't tell what the color really looks like. This one says it lengthens your legs. I have plenty of leg. I want one that says "Remember those c-sections you had in the '70s when they cut your stomach muscles? This suit is for you." There are no bathing suit descriptions that say that. "Takes off a full inch!" is as far as they'll go.
At Just My Size, they say this yellow one trims tummy, hides hips and "flatters all figure shapes". Except apple. It also "plays up your prettiest curves". That would be my profile; my left side is best.
The dark blue one has little anchors all over it. It arrived icy-cold after the UPS man dropped it on my porch where it sat all day in 8 degrees Fahrenheit. I had to warm it up before I could try it on. It says it has built-in midriff control that "lets you relax". I'd like to, really. But first I have to find a bathing suit.

Hazardous beauty

2007-01-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

Not here, fortunately for us. This picture is from St. Louis. Ice storms are not in our weather repertoire in Colorado and I'll take 2 or 3 feet of snow any day rather than this thick coating of ice. On the national news this evening they showed an overloaded tree drop its icy coating onto the driveway below; it sounded like a giant chandelier shattering. The homeowners were scooping great shovelsful off the pavement like so much broken glass. As dangerous as this phenomenon is - power lines down, trees broken, streets like skating rinks - it is beautiful, like some fairytale crystal garden. My daughter in Tulsa tells me it was 65 degrees at midnight and the ice storm started there the next morning. My brother-in-law in the desert in California is freezing at 32 degrees. I think Mother Nature is having a hissy fit.

In Colorado, the weekly snow arrived on Friday but only in fluffy flurries. It was a cinch to scoop a few inches off the driveway. But only if you were bundled in more layers than you can easily move around in. The temperature has been hovering around zero for a few days and we find ourselves looking forward to mid-week with a promise of 30 degrees. That's only fair as we dropped 60 degrees in 24 hours to get where we are now. In the meantime, the cupboard doors below the kitchen sink will stay open to keep the water pipes next to the outside wall warm enough so they don't freeze. That's a hazard waiting to happen, and it's not beautiful.

A sea of white

2007-01-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

Snowstorm number three arrived like clockwork at the end of the week, but this time with only seven inches of snow. Add that to the two previous storms in the last couple of weeks and you get the scene above. Not much curbside parking going on in this town! That's my next-door neighbor's work vehicle. He was off last week but needs to go to work on Monday so a bunch of us painstakingly helped him dig a path just wide enough for him to pull out of those snowbanks. I don't think we're going to see the street again till March!
These are my across-the-street neighbors. We didn't have a block party this summer but have made up for it by having a lot of snow-shoveling gatherings. It looks like this all over town, and has made for some interesting rituals. Like don't turn down your street until you make sure no one is coming from the other direction, there's no room for two-way traffic. Be sure to make a sharp right-angle turn into your driveway or you'll end up in a snow bank. At the supermarket, we leave our full grocery carts outside the door and go retrieve our cars and load the bags curbside. The parking lots are full of snowy ruts and icy chunks that aren't user-friendly for grocery carts.

I did start taking my Christmas decorations down. The one above will be staying out for awhile. That's one of a set of three little Christmas trees in big green pots that line my sidewalk. I put large red bows on them, and this one is just visible. Inside, it's pretty chaotic too. I never seem to be able to make a clean sweep of putting away the Christmas things. Some things are back down in the basement, a lot of it is spread across the dining room table, and there are fake evergreen needles all across the living room carpet. Not sure why a fake tree sheds almost as much as the real thing. Today I decided I needed a few more of those big plastic storage containers to help me get a handle on organizing all the holiday decor. By the time I navigated the WalMart parking lot and made my way home, I was out of the notion. But there's always tomorrow, and the promise of more snow at the end of the week should keep me inside finishing up on my sea of Christmas clutter!

Christmas past

2007-01-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken down the Christmas tree, and the outside lights are destined to stay up till three feet of snow melts. Then maybe I can locate the extension cords and the all-weather outlet where everything is plugged in. Until then, the reindeer will continue to graze and light the night. They have managed to melt the snow around them, I can see their bodies again. Underneath them I'm imagining a different drift in the spring, the tulips and daffodils I planted in the fall. For the time being, the bulbs are safely insulated in their bed, and even the hardiest squirrels won't be digging through all that snow for a winter snack.

Inside, I'm still puttering away getting Christmas sorted out. When we were kids, my mother never took down the tree until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, I sometimes use that as my excuse nowadays! Back then, my sisters and I were thrilled to find Ginny dolls under the tree.

Made by the Vogue Doll Company, they were little girl dolls in a pre-Barbie world. And we had plenty of them! Our father built a room length dollhouse against one wall of our big bedroom and we played with our Ginny dolls for hours and hours. None of the dolls survived our childhood and I have no idea what happened to them, but this year I found some replica Ginny dolls at Tuesday Morning. Who would've thought? I bought one for each doll-playing sister for this Christmas 50 years later.
The brunette doll for my brunette sister.......
And the blondie for my blonde sister. Christmas may be over but a piece of the past has been resurrected!

Blue skies

2006-12-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

So we had Round 2 of the Holiday Blizzard on Thursday night and all day Friday, but this time the winds didn't howl, so it was merely a storm. By the time it was over we had another thirteen inches of snow. This towering Blue Spruce is across the street. Notice my neighbor's trash piled below. Not sure when we'll get pickup again. Today, the day after the storm, the skies are blue and sunny, and the trees look gorgeous glistening with snow.
My neighbor's snowblower bogged down with this very wet and heavy snow so I started shoveling my driveway by hand. The snow kept sticking to the blade so I tried out that trick I'd heard of spraying cooking oil on it and it worked. I was very surprised. A few neighbors borrowed the spray can too and now the odor of olive oil is redolent in the air.
Out in the back yard, I can no longer get to my feeders, so I scattered some seed and peanuts close to the house. Some Black-billed Magpies were my first customers and I caught their tracks in the snow on my camera.
Even more cool is this imprint of a Magpie's wing and body he left when he landed on top of the snow to grab a peanut. They're a big bird with a wingspan of about two feet. Looks like those fossils you see imbedded in stone, doesn't it?
Much smaller birds grace some holiday dishes that I love using at Christmas. Don't you love the feel of beautiful bone china? The heft of it is very pleasing and the translucence always amazes me. Forgive me for carrying on. Years ago I worked in the China and Silver department of a May Company store and I've never quite gotten over it. The House Finch above is common at my feeders and the Eastern Bluebird below never will be. But its cousin the Western Bluebird will be back with the blue of the summer skies.

The Holiday Blizzard

2006-12-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

That's what they've named it: The Holiday Blizzard. I think it's a good idea to give blizzards nicknames. That helps me distinguish it from previous ones like The Blizzard of '82, The Blizzard that Damaged all the Trees (1997), and The Blizzard that Closed Work for Three Days (2003). The latter was my personal favorite. Don't you just love the rocking chair on the front porch? It looks like it's been covered in cotton batting and is ready for new upholstery.
Oh, yes! My neighbor remembered that I babysit his dog a lot. He plowed his way across the street first thing this morning and started on my driveway. He dispatched 17 inches of snow a lot faster than the first 12 inches I shoveled by hand yesterday. Later I stuffed him with cookies and wrapped his Christmas presents for him. A fair trade, I thought!
The overhang of snow above the front porch reminds me of that cute scalloped edging I've seen decorating some kitchen shelves. But this decoration will undoubtedly come thudding down as soon as the sun warms up those gutters.
My faux "Gloire de Dijon" rose is almost visible on the right of this big snow mound. "Gloire"outgrew a five-foot-tall obelisk this summer and is still reaching for the sky. Just think of all that winter insulation for it. I won't be watering outdoor plants this month.
In the back yard, an old flat-topped pedestal got a smart pyramidal cap. Nature's symmetry!
The only diner open today... a covered birdfeeder. Those indentations in the snow below the feeder are normally a set of wide open-back steps that lead to the upper lawn. I didn't dare try them as they are rather crevasse-like at the moment.
Next to the Adirondack chair you might be able to make out a mound on the right. That's a matching table. I trudged through drifts up to my thighs to get this picture. All for you, my blogging friends! (Well, I also had the birdseed with me).
By late afternoon, the snow ended and the storm clouds headed northeast toward Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Hopefully, by the weekend, all the stranded travelers will be making their way to their destinations too. I'm sure they won't be dreaming of a White Christmas!

On, Donder! On,...Blizzard?

2006-12-21T00:06:00.000-07:00

On Monday, the weatherman said there was a storm coming in. We could get a dusting of snow, or up to 8 inches. By yesterday afternoon, he'd changed his forecast: 15-24 inches. His later prediction was the right one. I did rather want a white Christmas, but the dusting was what I had in mind. This is what it looked like Wednesday afternoon. You can almost see the third path I dug down my front walk. After the fourth shoveling, my back and I gave up. Another 12 inches overnight and I'll worry tomorrow about how I'm going to get the car out of the garage and get up my hilly street. At least I'm inside and have the comforts of home. There are 4,000 travelers stranded at the airport tonight, and they probably won't get out Thursday or Friday either. A lot of ruined Christmas plans. Not to mention the many cars stranded or abandoned on the highways. The National Guard will be working all night to make sure no one is left in those vehicles.
I can almost see the house across the street belonging to my neighbor-with-the-tasteful-light-display. He also has a snowblower. I will try to remind him tomorrow of the many times I've babysat his dog when he's out of town.
Inside it's a bit more snug. These birds are on a smaller Christmas tree in the kitchen. I love wild birds and I pick up bird ornaments at garage sales and here and there. The birds on my indoor avian tree were the lucky ones. The birds outside were desperate for shelter and favored the covered birdfeeder today for their sunflower seeds. I was surprised to spot a Rufous-sided Towhee who must have been blown off-course in the 40-50 mph winds. Towhees don't frequent my yard and the last one I saw was several years ago. And first thing this morning, before the snow started in earnest, there was a gorgeous red fox hunkered down in the grass, while the winds howled around him. He gave up and trotted off towards a huge spreading juniper bush which could offer him better cover. Those junipers are good for something!
If I saw this bird in my yard, I'd have to be on a different continent. This is an English Robin on an old crackled ornament I've had for a long time, and it's one of my favorites.
I'm not sure if English Robins lay blue eggs like their American cousins, but here's a nest of delicate porcelain eggs that also graces the bird tree. When I'm mowing the lawn in the summer, I always look for pieces of blue egg shells the robins have dropped away from their nesting sites. Summer seems very far away tonight! Where was I? Oh yes... On, Prancer, On, Dancer!

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

2006-12-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

I have a few angels among my Christmas things, this is one of them. I like her sweet face and the detail of her gown. I put my angels on high atop the mantle. Across the room on the table under the window are a few Santas. I wouldn't say I collect these things, as I never think of myself in the same status as a collector. I don't have the focus to concentrate on only one group of items. With perhaps the exception of my village houses which would take a much bigger house than mine to do them justice. More about that later.
I like to perch on the back of the sofa in the evening and look out the window at my reindeer in the front yard and the twinkle lights and silver snowflakes on my little Amur maple. My neighbor across the street has a display of blue lights on the ridgeline of his roof and a few lights outlining the chimney and I like to look at that too. Unlike mine, his display is tasteful and understated. I appreciate it but I can't do it myself, I've never been a minimalist!
The Christmas tree is on a low coffee table so I'd have a place to put up a few village houses underneath. I haven't gotten the people figurines out yet but maybe tomorrow.
This is one of the Santas, he has a great beard. I like that he's holding a birdcage. I have a bird Christmas tree in the kitchen, but I'll save that for another day.
This Santa is in a canoe. I don't get it, but I like it, especially his fur coat and snowshoes. Santa of the trappers? His face looks a lot like my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law is not quite as old as Santa Trapper.
And now the ubiquitous village. I never gave these lighted houses a thought for most of my life. They just weren't on my radar. And then a few years ago someone brought a lighted village library into my workplace (which also happens to be a library). Some of us ran down to Lowe's at lunchtime to buy one for ourselves and we discovered they were half-price. One thing led to another and before we knew it we each added houses here and there. The bonanza came after Christmas when they were all 75% off. Some kind of frenzy overtook us and by the time Christmas rolled around the next year we were able to set up the mother of all villages right there at work. We were relieved that the fire marshall never came around.
I began to rue the day we ever started this. Exactly where does one put all this and who has the energy to set it all up? And don't even think about taking it down and putting it away! I have a basement storage room full of every conceivable village establishment, including businesses, townhomes, churches, windmills, farmhouses, mountains, trees, and woodland streams. Oh yeah, and lighthouses with beacons. So now I put up a few and call it good. But I do have a solution for this. As soon as my daughter buys a house of her own I'm going to rent a U-Haul and take it all to Oklahoma!

I read a column in the paper the other day about decorating for the holidays. They said just because you bought it on sale after Xmas last year doesn't mean you have to display everything you own. Not a philosophy I subscribe to, obviously. Meanwhile, I enjoy the angels on high and the village down below.

DECEMBER ROSES

2006-12-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is inspired by my blogging friend "Gardener in Chacala Mexico" (see sidebar). She has blogged several times about her growing fascination with the veneration the people of Mexico have for Our Lady of Guadalupe. Since December 12th is her feast day, this seemed an opportune time to share this picture I took in a clothing store in Puerto Vallarta earlier this year. Gardener from Chacala is right; Our Lady of Guadalupe images are all over Mexico, and it's rare to find a home and even most businesses without some tribute to her. From chipped, scarred statues to postcards or a photo on the wall, or even more elaborate displays like this one, it's an iconic image throughout the country. I've even seen her statue in the banos (bathrooms)! This shop, for instance, is a women's clothing and jewelry store, and doesn't sell religious goods. Yet there, front and center, is their tribute to the Blessed Virgin. And yes, the roses were freshly cut.

Having attended Catholic schools, I grew up with the story of the Blessed Virgin appearing to the peasant Juan Diego in 1531, and telling him to relay to his bishop her message to build an abbey on the spot where she appeared. The sceptical bishop asked for a sign and got one when Juan went back to the Virgin and she told him to gather the roses that were suddenly growing on the hillside in the dead of winter. When the peasant returned to the bishop and opened his cape to allow the roses to spill out, a perfect vision of the Virgin was imprinted on it. The cape, or tilma, is displayed to this day in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. After the church was built, it's said that 9 million indigenous people in Mexico converted to Catholicism and human sacrifice in that country came to an end. I wonder if Mel Gibson covers this aspect in his new movie "Apocalypto"?

Now, on to the roses. They were Castilian roses, common in Spain, but not seen in Mexico. The Spanish-born bishop recognized them though. Miraculous, indeed!

A DECEMBER WEDDING - 72 YEARS AGO

2006-12-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

My mother and father on their wedding day, December 1st, 1934.

I love this picture and often wished it was in color so I could see the dark green velvet of my mother's dress! I always thought the pose was very Gatsby-esque, not your typical wedding portrait. Because my mother was Catholic and my father was Protestant theirs was considered a "mixed marriage". Pre-Vatican II, couples like them were not allowed to be married at the high altar but in a side chapel of the church and the wedding had to be small and private. The photo was taken in the parlor of my mother's family home. I've never much cared for chrysanthemums but these large, mop-headed ones seemed to be in abundance that day!

BEFORE THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL

2006-11-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

I know, this isn't a very good picture of the wreath on my front porch, but I'm tired after stringing lights up outside all day and then babysitting my five grandchildren (age 5 and under) this evening. I think you can get the idea anyway. It's starting to look a lot like Christmas at my house. Or at least outside. It was a decent weather day, about 50 and sunny, and since a bitter cold front is moving in from Alaska next week it was now or a very shivery later.

As soon as I brought the stepladder outside to start stringing the lights on my little Amur maple the neighbors gathered to offer advice and suggestions. The neighbor across the street said she wanted to see the animated reindeer from her kitchen window and could I move them a little to the left so the juniper bushes wouldn't block her view? The neighbor with the two-year-old asked if I could hang one of the glittery stars on a low branch so the little one could reach it. The triplets next door gave everything a thumbs-up and then ran home to ask their dad when they were going to decorate.

If I have any energy tomorrow the tree is next. When the ornaments have all been hung, I'll reach for the angel topper. But I do have my own live Christmas angel, and not to be outdone, her brother the little devil (whose sweet nature belies his costume!) They are my darling three-month-old grandtwins. A little young to enjoy the lights and decorations, but they and their siblings sure put Christmas in my heart. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

WHAT WOULD POINSETT THINK?

2006-11-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I noticed these in WalMart the other day, and my friend the neophyte gardener tells me they're at Lowe's too. No, these are not plastic, but real poinsettia plants. I'm pretty sure I hate this blue poinsettia but there was another bunch that had been painted a kind of creamy gold-apricot with gold glitter on them. I had to hesitate over those before I told myself no and walked out the door. Are you cringing? Or have you already bought some of these? Apparently they've been painting poinsettias in Europe for some time, but not particularly for the retail trade. But suddenly these have caught on big in the U.S. and because they're about twice the price of a red poinsettia, greenhouse growers are overjoyed that they might finally make enough profit to offset the cost of rising energy prices.

I guess I'm not really a big fan of poinsetties, red or whatever color they get painted. In the past I've received those big three-foot tall ones as a company Christmas gift. I've watered and displayed them until the first trash day after the holiday when I set it out on the curb and watch to see who will get it before the trashman comes. Someone always does, so I don't feel quite so guilty. I've tried to like poinsettias. One year I bought this variety that I think is called Jingle Bells. It's kind of a watermelon color and is that Christmas-y? On the other hand, it's been a long time since red and green were the only Christmas colors. And that's something else I read about the blue, lilac, apricot, and gold colors. "They're not your grandma's poinsettias." That's supposed to be the appeal of the new colors to a younger generation. So would you buy a blue or lilac poinsettia? Or would you prefer that Joel Poinsett not turn over in his grave? Am I going to buy a creamy gold-apricot one with gold glitter? Wait, I think my tree skirt is gold, that could work!

PUT AWAY THE PUMPKINS

2006-11-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Some of us at work collect these Audubon stuffed birds. You press on their back and an authentic birdcall sounds. Sometimes, to relieve the monotony, one person will start it off and soon answering birdcalls come from around the room. It's rather amusing and fits in with my belief that a huge room filled with staffers is not much different from a kindergarten class except for the work being done and the naps not taken. The birds in this shot from last Christmas were decked out in holiday hats.

Which brings me to my point. I looked out the kitchen window yesterday to see workers swarming over the grounds of the assisted living center behind my house. On the grass they were setting up a life-sized Santa in his sleigh with eight not-so-tiny reindeer. Multitudes of white lights were being strung on the gazebo, stapled across the rooftops, hung from the gables, and swagging the trees. This is the beginning of the holiday display that the center puts up, a bit more elaborate each year. When it's in it's full glory and the lights are switched on every evening after Thanksgiving, I no longer have to turn on the nightlight in my kitchen to find my way around in the wee hours. It's rather like living next door to Chevy Chase in "Christmas Vacation" but at least it doesn't blow all the power in the neighborhood now that public utilities has put a new transformer in.

After reeling from the thought of Christmas decorating coming right up, I opened my door to find a package from my daughter. She sent me these glass lanterns from Gardener's Supply Company to kick-start my own holiday decorating. These are really charming, with little leaded glass window-panes. They take a votive candle at the bottom. Bearing in mind an unfortunate incident from a couple of years ago, she also sent battery-operated votives. They flicker like a real candle and aren't likely to set my wall-hung kitchen clock on fire from a candle burning too close to the plastic frame which would scorch the brick wall and send burning bits of toxic plastic floating across the kitchen. As if!

So when do you start decorating for Christmas? Thanksgiving weekend? Sooner? The night before Christmas? All I know is that soon I'll have to throw out the pumpkins and the frost-blasted chrysanthemums lining the front walk and haul out the boughs of holly.

WINDY CITY

2006-11-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I flew to Chicago to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum. It was marvelous but "no picture taking allowed." Darn it! But I could and did take photos at the Garfield Park Conservatory. I found these Joint ferns astonishing. They covered every rocky surface in the Fern Room. Living in a semi-arid climate I'm always agog when I see lush growth like this in a moist, humid environment. I almost took off my jacket but did I mention it was windy? The cold seeped into my bones and stayed with me even in the hothouse!
I almost warmed up when I saw this version of a prickly pear cactus. I couldn't find the sign with the botanic name but if it was up to me I would call them chenille cactus. Instead of spines they had soft white dots on them just like those chenille bedspreads we used to have when we were kids. Speaking of bed, I slept on the best mattress at a Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. I would like to have taken it home with me. Or maybe it wasn't that good but just felt like it in comparison to the lumpy one at my house. I ventured out into the small walled garden at the hotel a couple of times (I guess that was the Courtyard part).
It was actually quite charming with frescoes and sculpture on the walls. This guy summed up my feelings about the weather quite well. I understand the wind ceased as soon as I left, but I came home to my own windy city in my leaf-strewn yard.

MELTING SNOW AND FALLEN LEAVES

2006-10-22T19:10:00.000-06:00

After two snowfalls last week the snow has melted (mostly) and even though my trees have shed only about half their leaves, I spent the afternoon blowing them into huge piles. Then the wind tried hard to scatter them again but I did manage to get a few bags filled. Those piles of leaves aren't half as much fun as they used to be when there was a small child or a pet to jump in them. I bought some Halloween leaf bags to fill and take over to the grandchildren's house since the trees there are too small to produce enough leaves to fill even one of these.
While I raked, old man tree kept an eye out on his fallen progeny. Small children don't know what to make of this face, but squirrels like to knock the nose off. Now if they'd just finish knocking the leaves down they could make themselves useful for a change.

OCTOBER REALITY & SPRING DREAMS

2006-10-17T21:30:00.000-06:00

Brrr! After a long snowy drive home from work this afternoon this is the view outside my living room window. I've already knocked the snow off my first-year Flame Maple tree but it's pretty icy and the branches want to hang down. I'm going to have to do it again before I go to bed. A lot of the leaves in the neighborhood are already off the trees but my 50 feet tall Silver Maples and the Honey Locust have barely started so I'm hoping this storm doesn't bring down any large branches. Looks like I'll be forced to pull out a few plants I've been enjoying till the last minute like the Nicotiana Sylvestris which the snow has flattened. And oh yeah, the ones that are blocking the front walk are going to have to go before the mailman attempts to deliver tomorrow!
The good news is I got some tulip and daffodil bulbs planted last weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing them surrounding the base of the maple tree in the front yard. But that's only if some creature doesn't get them first. As I finished laying mulch over the planted area a mouse went skittering past my feet. I think he was taking notes on where to find something to eat when times get tough. But even if he does get them it can't be as bad as what happened to my friend the neophyte gardener. She planted all her bulbs using bone meal in the holes (I'm too lazy to do that) and as she finished the last few she turned around to see her German Shepherd digging up the first ones. He apparently appreciates bone meal.

TREE ISLANDS FLOATING IN SAND

2006-10-05T21:54:00.000-06:00

Wow, I'm back from a week along the Oregon Coast and what a great trip. One of many amazing sights was these tree islands that look so improbable growing in the middle of enormous sand dunes. The dunes stretch for about 50 miles along the lower coast of Oregon and the "islands" are apparently remnants of forests that the sand has not covered. Yet! And I thought we had huge dunes in Colorado. So ours are just tall.

An interesting note: when we inquired at the Chamber of Commerce in the town of Florence about the ecological aspect of dune buggy rides, we were told that the state of Oregon encourages them to help keep the European beach grass in check. They spent years planting that species to try to control the dunes and now they want it eradicated! Oh, those invasives. They might need some of that beach grass on the dunes behind the local Fred Meyer store. They have to send in bulldozers regularly to keep the sand from engulfing the parking lot!
When I returned home I found the fall colors in full swing. What had been a few leaves turning when I left had morphed into a full-blown display of reds, oranges, yellows, and russets. Our higher elevation gives us the fast-forward on autumnal glory and this year seemed especially brilliant. But I think I say that every year. This photo is the view of my neighbor's yard from my front door. A few days later a strong wind blew most of these leaves off. It's fun to crunch through them as my neighbor and I take our evening walk. But I do wish the leaves would stay on the trees longer so we could enjoy our own "tree islands" of color.

FALL FEATHERS

2006-09-22T00:09:00.000-06:00

I love this purple fountain grass. This is an annual here but long after it dies back I'll enjoy watching the plumes blowing in the wind or lightly dusted with snow (or mashed flat by a heavy snowstorm). I planted this one in a pot so I can move it to the front yard for a nice fall display with the pumpkins and the potted chrysanthemums. But that's after I get back from a week exploring the rocky coastline of Oregon. Happy first day of fall!

A FOUNTAIN FOR FALL

2006-09-11T21:34:00.000-06:00

My friend the neophyte gardener goes to Home Depot and Lowe's two or three times a week. She and her husband are busy buying landscape edging, concrete blocks, trellises, fencing, and anything else they can still find in stock to finish up the hardscape on their first-year garden. She's always looking for bargains and so when she told me this fountain at Lowe's had been marked down to $29 I had to stop by and see for myself. It was pretty cute but maybe not my first choice for a wall fountain. But at $29 I couldn't pass it up. Plus it was the last one left. And since I'd had an earlier failure with a "water feature" this seemed like a good buy and a boost to my end-of-summer doldrums. I didn't have a really good place to put it because my back porch is crammed with a mish-mosh of assorted stuff, none of which goes together and it all takes up a lot of room. So I removed a wooden shelf and slapped the fountain onto the wall. Instant ambience! I spent most of the weekend on the porch so I could listen to the sound of the water and pretend like it was still summer, even though I was shivering most of the time.
Earlier in the season I'd purchased a solar fountain to put in my miniscule pond to help aerate the water. Since I quit buying goldfish (otherwise known as raccoon hors d'euvres) the water tends to get a little yucky. But it seems I grossly underestimated the amount of sunlight that area receives. The solar panel doesn't store energy, it works only when the sun is shining directly on it. So when I'd leave for work, no bubbling fountain. When I got home from work, no jet of water. It became a weekend fountain, and even at that, I had to keep moving the solar panel to catch the direct rays. I felt like a sunflower constantly turning my face to follow the sun. It didn't help that the raccoons threw the darn thing out of the pond each night and I had to keep resetting it. So being the lazy gardener that I am I finally gave up on it. My new fall fountain seems to be just the thing I needed. But I am careful to turn it off at night. I have visions of raccoons swarming over it washing their food while I sleep and then me coming out in the morning to find it all in a heap on the patio floor. This may happen anyway, but I won't tempt them.

ROSES FOR A LOST NEPHEW

2006-09-10T01:48:00.000-06:00

He died two years ago tonight in a car crash at age 15. An amazing kid. He loved bold colors, especially orange and hot pink. This bouquet is for Kameron.