Winter

Usually the winters are full of indoor projects. At least it's been that way for the past three years. This year has been wonderfully warm, almost pretty outside. I'm not complaining, mind you, but just an observation. I've been able to be outside and walk more this year than the past three. This weekend so no exception.

I was outside wandering around the garden taking note of things that need done. The artemisia is ready to be brought down for the winter. For some reason I can never remember when to bring this down. I think I've done it in March and other times in October. Either way, it always appears the next spring to give me a low border hedge of soft blue.

While outside (I was outside wandering around the garden for three hours), I took an assessment of the roses. A week earlier or so I was out and checked them all. I have several that aren't really for my zone 6 garden and a few that are simply tender. I try to keep the more tender one on own-root stock since they seem stronger in the long run. A week or two earlier all were doing superbly. This weekend was a little different. We'd had a cold snap throughout the week and a rare thundersnow. The cold took it's toll on the roses. My more tender roses are now showing sign of suffering and some die back. This is normal for these roses. Several others will have to be purned back hard. My Peace rose is looking very sad and this makes me sad. The Peace rose with it's history has always been a strong grower in my garden. It if makes it through the winter and gives me any kind of decent growth, I'll be taking cuttings of it this year. Actually, I had been thinking over the past several years of doing just this with all my grafted roses. The own root roses are harder to get started, but in the long run are usually stronger and longer lived. My soil isn't as rich or loamy enough for my Julia's Rose but since this one is own root, it's been able to maintain and with a very good fertilizer, Mills Magic Mix, twice a year it's actually been able to improve.

One I have high hopes for is Lovely Lorrie. I had gotten two of these, one for my sister Lori and one for myself. I had gotten the one for sister first and realized soon after that this was one mighty strong little miniature and pretty to boot. I liked it so much, I decided to get one for myself. This rose, however, is very hard to get so I had to wait a year for mine. I planted it out with the other miniatures and of course, right away, Husband sprayed it with weed killer before realizing what it was. He immediately dug it up and washed it off with soap and water; all the leaves, roots; the entire plant before replanting it back into the ground. We've been holding our breath with this little one all year. When I looked at it this weekend, what tiny canes were visible above the mulch were not only plump and green but little pink buds were protuding from them. It certainly didn't grow much, but if there's life there's still a chance.

The rose I'm most worried about in my garden right now is Chrysler Imperial. I picked this one up at Wallmart for a whopping $2 late in the summer. I put it back in the garden nursery for the winter with my other roses that not yet have a home. Right now, it appears dead. The shock and stress of being in a pot and abused by a big box store may have been to much for it. I didn't pull the mulch back to check the bud union. If that is still alive, it could still grow back and even get pretty. Look at my Margaret Merrill. What a beauty now! Yet, it too, was a boxed rose from Wallmart that I paid a whole of $2 for. For years it was a one-cane wonder producing only a few flowers each year. Now it's one of the largest and most prolific shrubs in the garden. The fragrance of this rose is one of the most alluring and similar to the favorite fragrance of City of York.

So far I've ordered only three miniatures for this year. An old favorite I left behind when I sold my other house, X-Rated, a miniflora that is outstanding in the garden and a new variety called Sassy Cindy. I got two of these, one for sister Cindy and the other for myself. This one too, is a miniflora and I'm looking forward to seeing it. The color reminds me of my patio rose Snow Ruby but I'm hoping with larger flowers and slightly stonger canes. Snow Ruby is beautiful but doesn't appear to like this garden much. I've had a lot of trouble with it over the past four years. Yet it still returns every year.

Pets

It was 10 years after my Newfoundland died. I've been pining for a dog ever since. Captain was my buddy and pal. We adopted him from a breeder; he lived with us all his life and died with us as well. He was a huge dog full of life and love and as gentle as a lamb. When people would come to our house, I'd tell them the dog was fine, but to stay away from the cat. Suzie was nasty but weighed in at a whopping five pounds. Everyone thought she was a kitten. I always thought that was funny. Yep. She was a sixteen year old biddy, cranky to the hilt and would just as soon bite the hand that fed her as she would look at you. She was nasty and no one would believe me.

Captain passed around the 4th of July and Suzie followed him October 31st of the same year. During the first few days of November I adopted a pretty little six month old stripped kitten from the animal shelter and named her Chloe.

I always compared Chloe and Suzie. Suzie was like Elizabeth Taylor. She had been a beautiful brown Maltese with stripes and blotches of every shade of brown, tan and red. Her fur was as soft as silk and she was tiny, only five pounds. Suzie was also always so elegant and sure footed, bossy and temperamental.

Chloe, on the other hand, was a large girl weighing in at fifteen pounds at her peak. Her face seemed divided right down the middle, half being dark and the other half being light. Chloe, pictured, was a brown tabby mackerel patch. Large, fur like cotton, bold, doplic and even tempered, she was definitely a pleasure to have around. She was our only pet for eight of the ten years I had her.

For eight years Chloe helped fill the void of the lost pets. But I still pined for another dog like my Captain. But when he died, we went through the nightmare of trying to get him to a vet when he became immobile in our lower level. 175 pounds of dead weight. We managed to get the dying dog to our vet where he was watched over until his death.

Finally at my doctor's suggestion we decided to adopt another dog. We didn't want to go through the horror we went through with Captain so decided to adopt one a bit smaller. One of my favorites has always been the Shetland Sheepdog so went to a Sheltie rescue on line. These people were wonderful, sending me pictures of young adult dogs they had ready for adoption. They showed me all the more timid cases because our home was quiet with no children and would probably be best for the more difficult to place dogs. From there, I picked out two that I wanted to meet and made an appointment to see them. We went there and met both the dogs. One was a Merle and when introduced, he said hello and went running off with the other dogs that were the kennel owners. The other was a Tricolor that when introduced said hello and went running off with the other dogs but came back to sit and be with us after a minute. His name is Diamond Hills Pretty Boy Little Brat but we call him Bratley. Bratley was a three year old breeder that came out of a closed down puppy mill. He had spent his life in a cage without much human contact or even contact with other dogs. It's been three years since we've adopted him and he still isn't without issues but he fit with our household and has adjusted to being a pet. He's very worried about pleasing us and we do recognize this. He's with us all the time as if he still can't believe that he finally has a pack of his own. He's a quiet, pleasant, sweet boy. He and Chloe became fast friends.

January, a year ago, Chloe was discovered to have bone marrow cancer. We tried treating her several times, but she continued to fail forcing me to run her to the vet in an emergency. After a thorough examination my vet recommended that it was time. This was heartbreaking since I'd had her only ten years. I was looking forward to another seven to ten. Suzie was seventeen when she finally succumbed to a stroke. It was a few days later when I saw a little coffee colored, five month old kitten at the animal shelter who was just so pretty. But with holding her, I noticed a rumbling in her chest that sounded like a lung infection. When I inquired about this, sure enough it was an upper respitory infection that the shelter knew about and she was being treated for. I left her behind thinking I didn't want another sick cat. A few days later I went back and she was still there. On a second meeting I noticed the rumbling in her chest was gone and my vet had told me during the week when I had inquired that an upper respitory infection was common and he could fix her right up. So this time I took her home and called her Shalimar. When we went to the vet, it was discovered that she had a very nasty case of pneumonia which chewed up her lungs and sinuses. She's in good health now though her breathing is strained. Her vet is impressed that she's come as far as she has. She is now my newest feline love and will stay with me all her life as well.

Bratley has a problem with Shalimar. She is an active young cat and loves to rub against anything sturdy enough not to fall when she breathes on it. He's as much a rubbing post as the nearest piece of furniture. This annoys him but he's becoming tolerant of it. She likes playing in his fur and he just sidesteps away from her. I think they are friends, though he seems often annoyed with her. They will sleep in the same room, but Shalimar is a huggy cat. She finds a chair to sleep in while he stays on the floor or his bed. They don't really share beds, not like Bratley and Chloe did.

There you have it. The animals of my life. Will there be more? I don't know. Only time will tell.

Something New

Husband hit me up today with what he wanted for his birthday. Mind you, his birthday is more than a month away. He said he wanted an aquarium. Expensive as going on a vacation. Anyway, I said that if that what he wanted, we could do it. He wanted to look around today and I had no problem with it but I didn't really expect to buy one today! But we did.

We got a small 12 gallon aquarium, the bottom stones, three nice hiding stones, a heater, a small bubbler with a pump. The filter and light and hood came with the outfit. We got it home and set it up in the TV room where we would see it every day. It sits there now, filtering the water. I had put some bio filter in it to start a natural bio filter for the fish. That's all that's in it right now. By the end of the weekend we'll go get the fish, a thermometer and a net. We have enough food to start them and some stress coat to put in the water with them. We've even decided on the fish we want when we get them.

Bob has decided he really likes the Rummy Nose tetras http://www.fishlore.com/profiles_rummy_nose_tetra.htm They would look really nice with the black gravel with blue specks and the pink hiding stones. We will get about 5 of them since they are school fish.

I like the Cherry barbs, my favorite since I was a kid. http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-CherryBarbs.htm These fish in the carp family are also school fish and we will get about 5 of these as well. They will also be quite pretty in the little aquarium with the black gravel w/blue specks and pink hiding stones.

Both these species like a lot of plant material as well as rock formations to hide in. However, we need the fish first to start the nutrients needed for the survival of living plants in the aquarium. The plants will be put in after about 2 weeks. These little fish will eat the plants, nest in the plants and hide in the plants.

We will also get a couple (2) ground feeders http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Corydoras.htm There is a giant variety of this species and we found some that would fit quite well.

In the back of the aquarium we will put a mirror to hide the electric cords it takes to operate the thing and make our tiny 12 gallon look twice as big. I'm also hoping to fool the fish into thinking there are more of their kind helping them to be a little braver.

I've been keeping fish since I was a teenager. When Bob and I got married we had a 150 gallon tank that we actually raised fish in. We had several filtration systems including an underground filter on it as well as about 3 heating units and several ariators. The back was made up of stacked shale and the rock formations were also made of stacked shale. We kept live plants in it as well. The fish would die from becoming egg bound in the females to landslides crushing them and sometimes getting eaten by other fish. We changed about 15 gallons of water a week, replacing it with fresh water and vacuuming the gravel. The plants flourished with the decaying fish food and fish emulsion and what water I took out of the tank was used to water outside plants. Fish in this tank were forever laying eggs and caring for young. Yes, they do care for their young in most species anyway.

It's going to be quite a change being used to taking care of a 150 gallon aquarium down to a 12 gallon aquarium but the little tank fits perfectly in the house. It'll be nice to have fish in the house again.

In the end, we decided on eight cherry barbs, carp family, and two pygmy corys, catfish. I think these fellows are a good choice. The Rummy Nose tetras were just a bit delicate to put into a brand new aquarium.

Cabin Fever

So far this winter season has been relatively warm. I have to admit that I'm spoiled. I've been able to take my walks and exercise with the dog most days and have enjoyed it. The past couple of days have been windy and very cold to the point of obnoxious. It certainly didn't take me long to get cabin fever. I wandered around the house this morning looking out the windows at the bare trees and barren garden beds wishing for spring and forcing myself to realize that is it still January. I've got some waiting yet. I study my garden catalogs for plants that might be nice in my garden this coming season and dream of warm weather, shorts, short sleeved T's and flowers. Oh, the flowers...

Liasion. One of my favorite Bearded Iris. I had this in my garden some years ago but left it behind when I built this house thinking that it was a fairly popular bearded iris and easy to find again. For a number of years I was unable to find it but found it on the web and immediately ordered a couple of tubers. I've had these now for three years and they are multiplying nicely. I've been pleased with them and as usual they are as beautiful as I remember them.

In 2003 I went on a bearded iris event where I decided it would be nice to have some put into a rock garden that we had built on the major hill behind the house. Originally we had been mowing this hill, but it was nasty and we often took chances of tipping the tractor to cut it. So we decided it was time to start planting in that hill with rock gardens so we didn't have to worry about mowing it or tipping the tractor when we tried to mow around the trees that I had planted there. So, a visit to Shriner's got me a few iris as well as some I found on Ebay. Would you belive it?! I actually got some really nice bearded iris on ebay. But one that may edge out Liasion was one I got from Shriners, Gnus Flash. I was curious about the blotched bearded iris and had gotten a couple of them. Gnus Flash was the largest tuber and gave me several stems of blooms that sang out "Look at me!" I have to admit I was impressed with this one. It has a very exotic look to it that makes it stand out. Other bearded I got that year but don't have pictures of are Isn't This Something, another blotched iris in a wine color; Romantic Evening, an almost black iris with a bright orange tongue that looks almost neon; Raspberry Wine, as the name implies with a purple tongue; Gypsy Dancer, a pale yellow with lavender shaded falls. I have pictures of this one somewhere; and Total Recall, my one reblooming bearded iris that does live up to it's name in a creamy yellow and white. I have pictures of this one as well somewhere and have made a couple of canvases from the photos as well. Very pretty iris. These will come into bloom again about the same time the roses do.

Also about the same time the roses come into bloom are the clematis. I had tried a couple different varieties of clematis on my arbor, but the one that is the most impressive is the L. Candida. I ended up exchanging all the others for just this one, four plants on my arbor along with the roses, New Dawn, a lovely pink repeating rose, very hardy and disease resistant and the once blooming rambler, Veilanchblu, a large rose with smallish mauve (almost blue) double flowers that bloom so heavy you can't see the leaves. There will be some changes in the next year or two with the roses on this arbor. I like the New Dawn with the L. Candida and will want to replace the Veilanchblu with another, probably one that I root off the original. However, I will only move Veilanchblu to a new site when the patio is complete and we put a sitting area around it with another arbor. Then, once it is established or maybe before I move it at all, I'll start a rooting from that plant as a second one over this arbor. I am also entertaining the idea of putting two or four more L. Candida with these roses as well. Since the clematis is a repeat bloomer, often blooming almost constantly until late October, it will ad flower interest to this arbor when Veilanchblu isn't blooming. L. Candida is a beautiful clematis as you can see with flowers up to about 5" and is as heavy bloomer. It is very impressive. So much so that my mother wants three for her home and my sister wants one for her home. They saw a two year old plant that was nearly 10 feet tall.

If Husband and I do decide to renew our vowls for our 25th anniversary next year, I would want to do this early June in my garden when the roses, iris and clematis are in bloom.

A Party

I really don't like this picture much but everyone else seems to. But then, I really don't like any pictures of myself. This is a picture of my family. Across the back, the men from left to right are: My Brother-In-Law, Rick, Husband, Bob, Lori's youngest son, Eric, Cindy's friend, Kevin and the young man sitting is Lori's oldest son, Nick. The girls, left to right are: Lori Lynn, middle sister, me, oldest sister and Cindy, youngest sister. My brother and his family didn't make it because they got stuck in Breezewood on a sheet of ice. Dad didn't come either. He was in the hospital with pnenomia. It was a small Christmas party but a nice one. Gifts were small as they usually are for this type of party but Christmas is for mostly getting together and enjoying each other. I hosted the party this year, the first in over 10 years. Working for a newspaper, I don't get very many holidays to celebrate on the day itself. This was a major event for me since this party actually happened Christmas Day. It was a good day.

An Anniversary Dinner

This past Wednesday was our 24th anniversary. Usually we try to celebrate the day but I was unable to get off work that day so we decided to celebrate today. Husband had made reservations at one of the finer restaurants in the city, The Pressroom.

We had eaten there several times before, my latest time was when I celebrated my 20th anniversary with the newspaper and was treated to dinner by both my foreman and production manager. Having eaten there before I had some choices that the production manager found tantalizing. The time before that, a friend and her husband had come to visit and we'd made reservations there for lunch. It was an elegant lunch and we had been quite pleased. So, was the choice of today.

As always, going to this restaurant meant that at least some of the dinner choices were already made. Of course the meal was started with a lovely glass of white zinfandel. Then there was the soup, Baked French Onion which is probably the best in town. Then the salad with the usual house dressing. This dressing is like none I've ever eaten before. It is a honey/mustard dressing that is deliciously sweet and very exotic. Of course, once the soup and the salad were finished; and I did eat every bit of both, the main course came. The choice here was Veal Marcela with a baked sweet potato w/honey butter and green beans stir fried to a find delicacy. The meal was incredibly fine but as usual left no room for dessert or even a specialty coffee. That was to bad too because all the desserts looked so wonderful. Maybe the next time we eat there, however, I've said that with each time we've eaten there no matter the occasion.

Oh, BTW, I do enjoy the white zinfandel more so than any other wine. It seems to go so well as an opening to the meal. With the meal, maybe a Chablis or Burgundy but always to start, the white zinfandel seems to fit best for me.

It was quite a lovely evening and one that we will do only on special occasions. The next one will be Valentine's Day. We will usually always celebrate that with another fine meal at one of the better restaurants in the county. One other restaurant of note for us is The Log Cabin http://www.logcabinrestaurant.com/home.cfm. And, one that I especially like, The Catacombs http://www.bubesbrewery.com/catacombs.htm. However, Husband isn't to keen on this restaurant because he is a bit claustrophobic. Understand that the Catacombs is in the lower level of the brewery's basement and has a really cool atmosphere. It it pitch black in there except for the candles that light the tables and the food is hauled from the kitchens in the upper levels. It is a magnificent restaurant and very unique but you must make reservations a month or more ahead. We'll see where we decide to go for Valentine's Day. I will probably opt for the Log Cabin this time since it's been a number of years since we've been there.

Some Old Stuff

I was going through some old stuff this evening and found a couple of pictures that brought back memories.

Here my Newfoundland, Barharber's Captain Black and I are at a water rescue class. Captain always loved these classes and when his turn would come he would dive right in and do his job. It was his owner that didn't seem to get it most of the time. Or maybe I just wasn't good at playing drowning. We took the water rescue classes in the late 1980's. Captain was a young adult at that time weighing in at a hefty 175 pounds. In this picture he was actually swimming. His feet didn't quite reach the bottom of the lake.

This picture is my all time favorite.

Captain's first real outting was when he was about 5 months old. He was in the back of the pickup with the two kids, Jim and Jen and they played the entire trip to a local park where we all wanted to take Captain for a walk. It was a fun day, but as soon as the truck had stopped, Captain wanted out to explore this whole new world. It took Jim and Jen all they had to keep him in the truck while this picture was shot.

Once out of the truck, Captain was his usual gentleman self. He never lost this quality throughout his entire life.

Anniversaries

This past Wednesday was my anniversary. 24 years. It's hard to believe that an entire lifetime has passed already. OK, well looking back always seems faster than looking forward. Still, it seems that time is flying by faster all the time. I liked the statement said to me once by a coworker...

"The older you get the less time you have in front of you and the faster it goes."

Now it is time to start thinking about my next anniversary. That one being 25 years is one of significance. It also would be one that should be celebrated in a different way than all the rest. Always before we went out for dinner, usually to a high-end restaurant as we are doing this weekend to celebrate this anniversary.

There are a couple of ideas that I am kicking around for next year's celebration.

1) Taking a trip to California in time for the Rose Bowl, which is also over my anniversary. A nice dinner, some sights and possibly Disneyland as well as visit with some close friends if they are still living there at that time.

2) Possibly having the wedding I never had. My mother and I had a disagreement so many years ago about the wedding I wanted to plan. She didn't like my choice of guests and decided I needed to have a large wedding with all the trimmings and everyone I ever met, even if it was just once. She said they were bored and needed entertainment. I got upset and ran to Maryland to elope allowing her to put together a reception some time later. Now, I'm thinking that maybe we should do the ceremony but I'm not sure if I want to go to that expense and when we should do it. Should it be done on the same day as the original date and done at the chapel at the children's home where my husband grew up? Or, maybe wait until later in the year, such as early June, and have it in my back garden, under the arbor when all the roses are in bloom. You know I have exactly 100 roses mostly in that area. If I can't make up my mind soon, I'll probably just forget this all together.

I'm just not sure what I will do yet.