If you recall that I began a new rose bed by using the lasagna method this spring to accommodate 10 Jackson and Perkins boxed roses that for some reason Lowes was giving away for $1.00 a piece, of course I bought 12 and had to find somewhere to put them, so I created the new bed. Some of the more robust roses put on buds quite quickly and yesterday Artistry was about ready to pop, I took some shots so that I could continue my "Anticipation and Reward" series, I thought it would take a couple of days at least before I could photograph the blooms..... here is anticipation. complete with aphid, organic gardening has its drawbacks sometimes



and this evening when I got home Artistry had burst into joyous bloom, two of them, and they smelled like heaven.... you will notice the bloom also has an aphid, what can I say.....



is there anything more rewarding or more joyous than planting a stick attached to some roots and seeing this happen? I simply cannot imagine what it is (okay perhaps having a child and seeing it grow, but I haven't done that). As far as I am concerned it is one of the greatest wonders in life to plant a tiny seed, no bigger than a grain of rice, only to see it turn into a plant 6 feet tall and such as wide covered in flowers that butterflies love. I can't change the world, I can't change politics, I can't change governments but in my little acre I can do one thing, I can plant wisely to encourage and nurture wildlife and in my little way make my little acre a more beautiful portion of the planet. I have a neighbor who every morning and evening walks her dog past my garden, one day she stopped and smiled, "your yard is so pretty" she said, smiling.... I have done my job, I made someone smile.

It would appear that today was "totally piss Britty off day" as people, for some reason appeared to be doing just that. Went out early this morning to get some new cushions for the couch (two hyperactive boxers can kill a couch in seconds), and every mile I drove people were pulling in front of me, cutting me off, taking over parking spaces and just generally making my blood pressure rise. This evening when I went grocery shopping same thing, people being impatient, passing me in no passing zones, trying to drive through parking spots while I was trying to park in them....is it just me or was the world trying to piss me off today?

Look I really don't want to know about ED okay?

Really, that is more information than I need. And why do we have to see photos of two people in bathtubs on the beach, which just begs so many questions it is not funny a) how did they get the bathtubs on the beach? b) why? c) where did the water come from cause the bathtubs are obviously not hooked up to plumbing, d) why? e)what kind of strange person would spend an inordinate amount of time hauling large amounts of hot water (one would assume it was hot, because you know if it was cold then it would have the reverse effect of what the ad was trying to promote) into a bathtub on the beach f) which insane ad exec came up with the idea that two people sitting in bathtubs on the beach is somehow romantic or indicates that the people in the bathtubs are going to be having sex at some point in the near future.... now if they were in the same bathtub then perhaps, but in separate bathtubs? Please would someone explain this to me cause I am at a loss.

Ditto and double ditto constipation medication. I really don't need to see someone leaving the bathroom with a self satisfied smile on their face.... I mean think about it people, what are these ads trying to tell you? Actress dressed in a bathrobe leaves the bathroom with a self satisfied smile on her face after just enjoying a really good..... okay you fill in the blanks cause I am not even going to go there.

Oh and triple ditto the Botox ads where the stupid women are holding up signs.... I mean come on, who is willing to have themselves injected with Botulism in order to have a face that looks like you have been quick frozen for storage.... save the money on the Botox and spend it on a good therapist cause you obviously have self esteem issues that seriously need to be addressed. Perhaps, you know this is just a thought, you might want to let your personality sell yourself, oh wait you probably don't have one, but then let your intelligence be your guide, no wait you obviously don't have any, wait there's always you excellence at your job, but, hmm, no never mind, if your entire psyche is based upon the way you look then you probably spend the majority of your work day in the ladies room primping your hair and slapping on the makeup so you never actually produce or achieve anything. Maybe botulism is the best thing for you, not the injections but the disease.

One has to admit that perhaps, just maybe, that you know it may be the case, that one has a slight OCD problem about plants and flowers when one is willing telephone every plant nursery in the phone book to inquire and then to drive 60 miles round trip to a Nursery waaaaaay out of town to buy Butterfly weed for the SOLE purpose of it being eaten to nubs by monarch caterpillars. Hope my husband doesn't find out about this....

With an eye on the weather forecast my husband and I did the yard work today, he mowing the lawn, me weedeating. He is not allowed to weedeat anymore, having slayed more of my daffodil foliage than I care to remember, my husband and a weedeater could decimate any small country, without the aid of military intervention, needless to say my husband is no longer allowed to weedeat. So after it had all been done and the front garden looked just picture perfect (don't ask me about the back, the back is not for public consumption, the back is the reason I got certified as a National Wildlife Habitat, therefore the back is shall we say "wild") in any event just after we had got done we had a light rain, and a mild thunderstorm. While it was a mild thunderstorm to say the least it wasn't mild enough for Lucky who was attempting to do the "climb under the armpit" thing while I was trying to eat my dinner. In any event after the rainstorm I wandered out into the garden with my camera knowing that there would be some really cool shots to be had..... while I was down on my damp knees taking this shot.....



Patches, one of my cats decided in her infinite wisdom that NOW, and I mean RIGHT NOW, was the time that she wanted attention, and a scritch and a cuddle. While in normal circumstances she will run from me like the devil himself is after her if I approach to give her a scritch, at this precise moment in time she decided that, yes, it was cuddle time. So after she had bitten my ankles for a while, gnawed on my toes, and eaten some of my hair, she decided in her wisdom that the only place to slonk was on my back, while I was kneeling down on the ground attempting to take shots of my rose. So there was I, camera in hand, kneeling down, attempting to take shots of the rose with Patches casually lounged on my back, eating my hair, and biting my neck. I knew that most folks would not believe this story, so in an attempt to back myself up I noticed that our reflection was in the living room window, so I snapped the shot. Cats are something else are they not? One of these days someone is going to figure them out and will no doubt make an absolute fortune but until that time us bemused owners (sorry I meant "staff") will just have to put up with their bizarre behavior.


PS) that is Cueball in the window trying to figure out how to smash out the windows to get to Mom in the front garden... animals. :D

When I got up and wandered out onto the patio this morning I noticed that the pond was alive with activity. The naiads, almost en masse, had decided that today was the day to hatch. They had crawled from the pond and attached themselves to anything upright and were busily emerging from their exoskeltons as wet and scrunched dragonflies. I quickly ran into the house and got my camera, this was an opportunity that I had been waiting for for a long time. I took a lot of shots, but mostly I just watched, fascinated to see how the dragonfly would emerge from the tiny naiad, and then sit in the sun, engorge its wings with blood. Unfortunately the little guy you see there on the right, just hatching, was born with a deformed wing, which of course means that he cannot fly, and, as dragonflies hunt on the wing, means he will probably starve. In the midst of all the joy of watching them hatch this saddened my heart, but who am I to question? Mother nature knows what she is doing. I counted 15 that hatched today and only one had a problem, so in the scheme of things there is no loss, but my heart went out to the poor little deformed dragonfly. The remainder of the 15 flew off into the garden by mid morning, their wings having been dried by the sun, to go and find their first meal as adults, the deformed one just sat on a sunflower leaf and obviously tried to figure out why that last wing would not work. I shall no doubt find him dead tomorrow or the next day, but at least there are 14 more dragonflies out there thanks to my pond. One little guy tried to fly too soon and ended up in the pond, I rescued him of course, and let him sit and dry out on my finger, after his wings had dried he was quite reluctant to get off my finger onto a nearby stick, hopefully he will stick around and will remember my kindness. All in all it was a good day.