Wednesday, May 31, 2006



This is my lunch break photo today - it's my hybrid tea roses just starting to bloom. In my next garden, I'm going to research my roses for disease resistance before I buy. I love the big blooms of hybrid teas, but they blackspot like crazy in this climate unless I'm constantly spraying, which I don't do. They look beautiful this time of year, but by September they usually get a little spotty.

I thought that I'd get lots of work done in the yard this Memorial Day weekend, but mother nature didn't feel like co-operating. We had heavy rain both Saturday and Sunday. I still managed to get a little bit done on Monday, but nothing too exciting. I'd started trimming back a huge snowball viburnum that had gotten out of hand, when DH decided he'd help me. What is it with men and power tools???? He turned a nice peaceful afternoon in the garden into an ear splitting bushwhacking. First he pulls out the power hedge trimmer. Then out comes the chainsaw to get the bigger branches. Then the power leaf blower..... and if that wasn't enough, the pressure washer to clean the patio and deck. Oh, and he finished it off by mowing the yard. I'd long given up and gone into the house for a nap. Some days you've just got to know when to walk away.... I'm really not complaining (even though it sounds like it) because there's no way I could keep up with everything without him and all his power tools.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006



This is a photo taken at the display garden of Pacific Peony & Perennial nursery. The color of the willow in the background was echoed perfectly in the peony in the front of it. Unfortunately, this particular nursery is no more. It was a springtime ritual to visit it. I live in Oregon, and we're blessed with limitless fabulous nurseries, display gardens and public gardens to visit. Later this month I'll take a day off work to visit Schreiner's Iris Gardens. It is unbelievably beautiful. Not just for the iris, but all the other gorgeous perennials growing there too. They have fabulous peonys, lupines, columbine, & clematis that will put on a show.Stay tuned for pictures of it.

Right now in my garden, the peonys are blooming. I have one plant that is just covered with buds, and I remembered to put a peony support around it, so they won't all end up in the mud. I wish I knew what variety it is. The flowers are pale pink, huge marshmallows of flowers. I have a burgundy red variety that my mom grew for years at the house I grew up at. It's a beautiful, dependable variety. The tall bearded iris are starting to bloom, as are the siberians. Roses are budded, almost ready to start their show. Clematis montana has totally overwhelmed the arbor with pale pink blooms. I love this time of year.

Friday, May 05, 2006


I'd like to introduce you to my golden retriever, Lucas. Goldens are supposed to be easy going laid back dogs, but he can be a wreck at times. He has a wee case of the separation anxiety and does stuff like eat his dog bed, or chew on his tail. It's not that he's all alone, because we have another dog, but he just has a high strung nature. Strung tight. Last month we left him in the house for about 30 minutes while we were gone and when I came back it looked like my bedroom was a crime scene. He'd chewed his tail until it bled, then proceeded to wag it all over my carpet.... and I still love the mutt. I mean look at that face, who couldn't?

Thursday, May 04, 2006




Aaaaah springtime. I love to catch some sun on my lunch break, and that lemon pie was sunshine on a fork. This is something else I'll miss about my house - 3 minute commute to work so I can go home for lunch. The second picture is the wisteria that grows against my house. It's starting to take over the world, but I won't have to worry about that too much longer. Note to self: at the next place build a very sturdy gazebo to grow it over, do not, I repeat, do not grow it on the side of the house. This stuff will pull down an entire building..... but gee, it is pretty, isn't it? The last picture is why I wanted to buy our house in the first place. These dark purple lilacs have the most heavenly smell you can possibly imagine. There is nothing in the world like it. Ok, I'm still getting the hang of this. The pictures are in the opposite order I thought they would be. You get the idea, though.

I'm getting ready to host Bunco on the 13th of this month. I seem to need something to motivate me to finish projects and clean the house. Having 11 friends over does it for me. If you've never heard of Bunco, it's a dice game that's really an excuse to eat, drink and have fun with a group of your bestest buddies. We've been playing together for about 4 years now. In that time some of us have had babies, some have become Grandmothers, some have gotten divorced, some have gotten engaged, some have emptied their nests, and some are counting down the days until their adult children move out, some have had catastrophic illness affect them. Through it all, we've been there for each other. Nothing like girl friends, and they only get better with age.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006



Hi. What the hell, I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the flotsam and jetsam on the internet. Not that I have an exciting life, but it's my life and so far I'm enjoying most of it. A little about me - I hit the big 5-0 this year. Woman. Married for 27 years to a wonderful man. 2 kids, girl 26 and boy 23. 1 beautiful Granddaughter who is 10 weeks old. 1 sweetheart of a daughter in law. A goofy golden retriever and a pitbull mix. Things I like - my garden, cooking mega amounts for friends and family, reading, mostly fiction, worrying about my weight (I must like it b/c I do it a lot), and as goofy as it sounds, taking care of my husband. He thinks its the other way around, but I know better. We have our own business, which is construction related. Yes, we do work together, but we have our own areas of responsibility so we've managed not to get on each others nerves at work too much.

In the next year or so we expect to either build a house or buy a new one. We tend to like the rural life, although I'm not sure if that's me or DH. Let's just say he wouldn't be happy living in a neighborhood, I think I could be happy as long as I had a big enough lot to have a huge garden. He needs an excuse to have a tractor. We've sold our place to a developer. They're going to bulldoze everything we've worked for the last 15 years to build or restore. My garden will be mowed down. The thing is, we really can't turn down what these ppl are willing to pay. It will be enough to buy a new place in the country, paid in full, with enough left over to fund our retirement. That doesn't mean I won't be grieving the loss of our home when we have to go. Enough of that - it's hard to boo-hoo with people throwing money at you. Anyway, other ppl don't want to hear you whining. And by the way, I'm not going to worry too much about other ppl here - this is my blog so there.

The picture above is my garden now in the spring and hopefully I'll be showing you my next garden, which I'm already planning in my mind. In the mean time, I'll post a few old and new pictures of this and that. I was seduced into buying our present house, which was basically a shack when we moved in, by the lilacs that were in bloom when we first looked at the place. I'm digging up starts of them for the next grand project. Things my next garden must have - flowering cherry trees, flowering magnolias, star magnolia, flowering crab apples, lilacs, of course, snowball viburnum, Kerns pink snowball viburnum, wisteria, mock orange, clematis montana, iris, both tall bearded and siberian, & peony. And that's just the spring flowering stuff. I forgot to mention we live in Oregon so I can basically grow about anything, just stick it in the ground and it takes off.