It's Official Now

It's official. Starting the week of September 4th, I'll be starting my new position in the prepress department at work, working days. This will be very different for me having worked on the night shift of the prepress department for 21 years. The day shift has a different rhythm and my jobs will be a little different. Most of them I've done before but there will be at least one new one.

The boss is a man I worked with for the first 10 years of my service there. Since there were no serious problems working with him then, I feel comfortable that there will be no serious problems now. I've worked with most of my co-workers before as well, but there are new ones there I've not worked with before. There are more co-workers. Right now I work in a team of 4 to 5. On the day shift I will be working with a team of 14 to 16.

The work load will be quite different too but right now, I'm not sure I can describe it. There will be quite an adjustment, not just having to get up in the morning to be at work instead of sitting on the deck with coffee but the entire job itself. As far as the morning coffee on the deck...I'm usually up by 5:00 am now and can enjoy a cup of coffee on the deck, do a load of laundry, hang it and still be ready for work by the 7:20 am drive to the job.

I'm looking forward to this change in the job and in the lifestyle. I'll let you know how it goes.

This Year's Garden Ideas Realized

Sweet Sixteen ~ Shrub. Introduced in 2002. Apricot blend, approx. 15 petals. Not enough comments on it to evaulate.

I've had this rose since it's introduction and have to admit that until this year didn't really like it. The color is lovely, leaning more toward a pink than an apricot in my garden, but as far as a garden specimen it seemed to be lacking. I knew I had it in a rather crowded spot, so I took the chance and moved it to a new bed we created in the early spring to encompus two tiny dogwood trees, three blue spruces and hopefully have enough room for a few roses and other plants. The bed is big beautiful and has lots of room for a number of roses. Sweet Sixteen has really blossomed since putting it in this new bed. It is blooming well and spreading nicely. It's form isn't as loose as Little Darling which is nearby but just as large and spreading. It also seems to be much more disease resistant than I had first thought. I am anticipating that in a couple of years, this one will be quite the beauty.

Now for new news...

This summer the developer along with his engineer and builder picked which lot next to be built on. It appears from the neighborhood rumors that this is the way things will be done from now on. The builder will build a spec home on the lot chosen by the developer and engineer and then sold. No more custom homes. That's to bad. It's one of the biggest reasons I chose to build here. I wanted my home. A home that reflected my personality, not a home of someone else's idea. At least eight of us got the home of our visions. It's funny, but none of these homes hurt the eyes. They all speak volumns about the owners and their tastes. They all look nice and add character to the neighborhood. Some of them are huge homes and others, like mine are more modest on the outside. We're all about the same price range although square footage does vary some. No two houses look similar and that's the charm we will lose in our neighborhood. That's the biggest thing I don't like about most neighborhoods. All the houses look almost identical...I call them cookie cutter houses. I don't want to look like my neighbor. I'm not my neighbor and don't want to go into a huge debt to live in a house that looks so much like the rest that the dog gets confused to which one he lives in.

Anyway, when the builder had the new lot surveyed, I realized that I had more room in the back than I had thought. The rear 100 feet of my property is an easement for the electric company right away. They insist that there be no permanent structures or large trees that could get in the way of them checking the lines. I keep a border fence back there that can easily be removed to display a variety of perennials that can take abuse and snap back should the electric company crush them. They're mostly wild flowers back there to encourage the birds and insects to visit. Then there's a vast open space where we can set up volleyball nets and such should we wish to entertain with games. A play area. As you get closer to the house, the shed and large trees have been planted.

When the surveyers laid out the new lot, I realized that I was a good 50' into the plantable part of the garden. Instantly I staked out a spot for another shade tree. The nurseries are now getting their tree stock for fall planting. I found a lovely Red Maple to put in the back, kind of off center between the tulip poplar and the beech, placing it at about a 50' angle between these two trees in a triangle shape. When all three trees are fully mature (about 50 years), they should just touch each other with the tips of their branches making a lovely area for a gazebo or other outdoor room. Also, long before they fully mature, we can enjoy the wonderful fall coloring. The tulip poplar gets bright yellow fall color, the beech gets a deep bronze and the maple will get a brilliant red to orange. Add to that the now tiny Japanese maple that will get a gorgeous bright deep red color, the red oak that will get a lovely reddish bronze and the purple cherry that will get a more brilliant purple.

Add to all this the other benefits of shade trees. They help with heating and cooling costs, offer shade to an area that would otherwise bake in the sun and offer the rest of the garden one of the best benefits of all ~ leaf mold. As the autumn leaves drop, we like to rake them up, put them through a grinder and use them as winter mulch. This is the best (in my opinion) winter protection there is. In early spring, with just a light raking, the leaf mold disappears and turns into fertilizer for the plants filling the soil with it's loam and minerals.

You guessed it. I like trees. I need trees. My fair skin won't take a lot of baking from the sun and I need the escape the trees offer. The trees I mentioned are just the ones in the back yard. There are more, you know.

Colors

Sultry, Hybrid Tea, introduced 2001, interim rated (7.6); there's not enough ratings to give it a full rating.

This isn't the best shot I've ever taken, but it's still OK.

This rose was very slow to start for me. I was afraid of losing it altogether last year. This year it was much better. It seems that this one wants to establish first and give roses second. That's OK with me. The other one in this color area is Marmalade Skies which also was the same way. At the age of 3, Marmalade Skies is doing beautifully and one of the nicest roses I have.

What I like about Sultry is the color. Even from a distance, the color stands out and attracts the eye. In my garden this year, it seems to like the hot, humid days of deep summer over the wetter, cooler days of spring. It is a nice looking rose this year and is blooming heartily right now. But again, it's the color that I find so attractive. The apricot color is slightly bolder and the substance of the petals is better than Just Joey. This rose also has a nice fruity fragrance as well. Next spring I will take several cuttings of this rose and hopefully get a few more for the garden.

We each have a rose which we are drawn to by it's color. The two that draw me the most is Sultry and the pink of Chicago Peace.

What's your favorite flower color? Name the flower and the color. It doesn't necessarily have to be roses. The rose is my favorite flower.

Gifts

I received a beautiful card and note in the mail from a dear friend yesterday. I love receiving mail from friends and family, not just for special occasions, but anytime such as this one. I feel closer to friends and family when I get these. Email is nice, but the cards are something you can touch, feel, rub your fingers over and linger for as long as you want. You can hide them away, as I do, in a cedar chest for safe keeping just to get them out every now and again to muse over the relationship since it's beginnings; to watch how it's grown over the years.

Knowing this friend, the card itself is an older one having a copywrite date on it of 1935. But the card looks in pristine condition. Inside is a beautiful poem from a favorite book and a hand written note. Even the envelope is a gift with it's decorative stamps. There's always to much postage on it, but if you look closely at the stamps, one of them is probably as old as this card. All this makes getting these small gifts very precious.

Thankyou, my dear friend, for thinking of me.

Today Birthdays

Today we celebrate two birthdays!


Our sweet Bratley is seven today. No more young dog things for him!

My dear Shalimar is two today. She still acts like a kitten, looks like one too.

I think it's ironic that both animals have documented birthdays on the same day, though we got them two years apart. Bratley has his birthday listed on his pedigree and Shalimar's mother gave birth while in the care of the Shelter and so her birthday is listed on her adoption papers.