Meet (some of) the Roses!

I'm still spending a lot of time planting seed, tending the garden, and weeding. It's all worth it, though. Here are some of the reasons:

Chris Evert is new in the garden this year. I love how incandescent the coloring is. I wouldn't have thought anything could get that fluorescent without help! The rose has a lovely smell, too. It's also supposed to be highly disease-resistant, always a plus!

The only Dark Night I'll ever love! This one is also new to me this year. I'd been resisting it for a while as it has no scent at all, but I kept gravitating toward it every time I went by, so I eventually gave in. There are enough scented roses in the garden to allow for one that isn't.

Francis Meilland. This one was added last year, and wow has it taken off! The leaves are a lovely, clean, dark, glossy green, and the flowers are a beautiful cream opening to pale pink. Also, the smell is amazing. It's extremely disease-resistant.

Just Joey has been in the garden for years and even managed the move from one garden to the other. It's still settling in, but that hasn't stopped it from blooming. And, yes, it smells great.

Incense Rose. This one can only be floated in small, floating vases, but it smells amazing, and those clusters of buds and blooms explode in the garden. Also, it's a wonderful shade of dark purple-pink (Ebb Tide is darker, but both are stunning)

In the Garden--Just a note to say hi!

Miss me?

I've been doing a ton of things lately, lots of them quite good things, but I have been away.

In no particular order, I've been

1) Writing for FanboyNation and working on some behind-the-scenes web maintenance, including editing 1,000 posts to allow for better customization on the image display and changing the menu. Also, I've reviewed a number of good books and comic books, discovering Valiant Comics in the process; I love what they're doing with Unity and X-O Manowar, and I'm every bit as curious about Rai as they want me to be. Stop by and take a look.

2) Spending a lot (a lot!) of time playing Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakening, both of which I enjoyed thoroughly, though I do have some philosophical issues with story choices and world design that I may or may not end up blogging about. I have started a review, but it keeps sprawling out all over the place and trying to turn itself into other essays, so it's anyone's guess whether I'll actually write it--especially given the above reviews! Short version: Fun, has some unexpected twists and great companions, but also has a truly dark bent, doesn't really keep to the player's compact which, like the detective story promise claims that the case can be solved. Also has one nasty potential triggering moment midway through the Deep Roads that didn't need to be there at all. And, I still do want to play DA II sometime. My current computer's not up to it, though (even some of the DA I fights were a balance between defeating the enemy and defeating it in such a way that my computer didn't crash in the process--lots of pausing), so it will be a while, and by that point, DA III will likely have been out for years.

3) Reading through almost all of Tamora Pierce's work in one tumultuous go. This got started because she wrote a short story in the second Legends of Red Sonja. I love what Gail Simone is doing there--she got a number of fantasy authors to write short stories in an ongoing larger tale.

4) Spring cleaning! I don't know why Spring should especially be a cleaning sort of time, but it's traditional, and I got the bug and reorganized and cleaned the hall closets. It was oddly satisfying, but does mean not blogging.

5) Gardening. It's spring!

Sadly, the world around here is not puddle-wonderful, but we had two days of good, steady rain and it softened the dirt enough and got me busy weeding and clearing and planting. There are even new roses now! The selection includes the researched and cross-referenced careful choice of Yves Piaget, and the "but it's gorgeous!" choice of Dark Night (no scent, but stunning!). Also, there's a Rock & Roll bush in there now, picked on the basis of scent and because one parent is George Burns. I did check the canes for thorns first, though. It is a beautiful rose and I love it, but I'm pretty sure that somewhere back in George Burns' past is a cutting from Sleeping Beauty's hedge.

Also, there are artichokes, lovely Purple Romagne artichokes that have just started blooming.

So--I shall try to review here more often, really I shall! But it's spring, and puddle-wonderful or not, the garden beckons.

This all does mean, though, that the Link Lists are indefinitely suspended. They're great fun, but they are definitely the most time-consuming type of post. Most of the links I would post here are shared on Twitter and Pinterest, though without the commentary.

I leave you with some images from the garden.

Purple Romagna Artichoke. It's beautiful and tasty both. Sadly, it loses its color when cooked.

A Chris Evert Rose. The color is amazing; in real life, it's nearly flourescent. It's got a great scent, too.

I've had several generations of nasturtium in the garden. Every now and again, I buy a new package of seeds when something catches my eye. It's fun to see how they hybridize. This is one of my favorites.

A Double Delight, one of my favorite roses!

More Garden Pictures

Because I am crazy about my garden!

Red Gold Cherry tomatoes ripening. With this recent burst of hot weather, I've got a lot to gather.

You know how you're supposed to let the beans use the sunflowers for support? This flower has been swallowed up! Fortunately for both, there's a nice, sturdy trellis behind them.

Roses! Roses! Roses!

Lots of lovely new roses!

A fully-open Double delight

Ebb Tide in bloom

George Burns opening

A fully-open Just Joey

Just Joey again

Ruffles and Flourishes makes its debut

The Nature of Crows

Things they will tell you on nature programs.

Crows are clever.

Crows are clever scavengers.

Crows are clever scavengers who eat roadkill.


Things they leave out

Crows are clever scavengers who eat roadkill which they first soften in the nearest birdbath.

Crows are clever scavengers who eat roadkill which they first soften in the nearest birdbath, and then they fly away.

Crows are clever scavengers who eat roadkill which they first soften in the nearest birdbath, and then they fly away leaving the bones of whatever it was in the water.

Garden Hibiscus

A hibiscus in the garden, in summer. I'm still sorting through all those photos.

Keeping Marigolds Safe

I have these marigolds high up on a shelf to keep them out of reach of snails. So far, it's worked: The snails haven't eaten them.

Hurray for the Garden!

Double-posting today out of garden happiness.

One of the seed packets I bought in my wild seed-purchasing this year was a package of convovulus. They sprouted all right, but I've had a hard time setting them out--mostly, I think, because I've been trying to add them to established pots of sunflower and they're not getting enough water.

Anyway, the first one finally bloomed today! I love the little gold heart.

And, speaking of sunflowers, I'm enjoying them to no end, and so are the bees.

Just Joey Rose

This is one of my favorite garden roses. It's a good natured and beautiful both.

Sunflowers!

It is so good to have sunflowers again!

 

 

Of course, they're sort of in the way of the clothesline, but still... it's great having them again!

Night and Day Nasturtiums

Whew! The "Night" part of the Night-and-Day blend finally bloomed. The "day" started a few days ago. It's a very pretty golden yellow. I'd been looking forward to what a "mahogony" nasturtium would look like. It's an attractive deep orange. Not really quite as dramatic as "night and day" sounds, but pretty enough.

Maybe next year I'll buy some whirlybird nasturtiums and see how they look.

Roses!

The roses are really starting to bloom.

They are very distracting when I'm trying to work.

And very welcome.

Garden Critters

One good reason to leave caterpillars alone:

How Doth Yor Garden Grow?

Cottage Nursery Gardens

This is another place I'm surprised I hadn't known about earlier. I love garden stores, and Cottage Nursery Gardens is not that far away. They've got all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, the kind that are hard to find elsewhere. Wish I'd known about them when we last worked on the front yard.

Garden Flowers!

Another columbine has consented to bloom, and the roses are in fine form.

Glorious Gladioli!

A couple(1) years ago, I planted some gladioli. They were a big disappointment--small, spindly, and spotted--and I decided I wasn't too sad that the plumbers had had to take a few out. I took a few out myself.

I left some in, though, since they weren't much in the way, and wow! They really like being settled. The first one to bloom is more than five feet tall and the blooms are a rich, deep, purple. They're also big.

*pauses

There's a moral in here somewhere, isn't there?

(1)Good grief. I found the timing out by doing a blog search. I've been blogging for over two years! Since, um, February 2008, with a bit of a try over in MySpace before that. Should I throw a belated birthday party or something?

More Rosey Goodness

The garden has started to fill with roses again. On a recent expedition to trim off the blown flowers, I ended up with three bowls full of flowers and decided to make rose beads. There were still lots of roses left, and more coming, so I searched the web for recipes. The Rose Water or Orange Blossom Pancakes, made from the water leftover from bead-making turned out very well.

The recipe that had me most interested, though, was the Rose Petal Bread which I finally made today. Mostly made--I used some whole wheat flour & cut down on the butter and eggs; it would be a much softer bread with the full amount of butter and with white flour, but much less nutritious. In any case, it's delicious.

The bread dough rose nicely.

See the lovely little flecks in there? Rosemary, rose petal (red and orange), and raisins. Yum!

Raindrops on Roses