Playing Hookie

Charles de Mills ~ Hybrid Gallica, introduced before 1746, dark red to purple depending on the light, rated 8.4 in the garden out of a possible 10, once blooming, extremely fragrant. This is a smallish bush only reaching about 5 feet tall. I have found that the canes like to droop and it's easy to peg this plant for a better flush. It will tolerate some shade and still do well. The biggest downfall of this bush is it, as do all Gallicas, blooms only once a year. It's bloom cycle is a long one however. It also doesn't last as long in a vase as the Hybrid Teas, but one bush will give you enough flowers to keep your vases full for the duration of the blooming cycle. And every bloom is perfect or near perfect. It isn't affected much by disease or insects. After all, it's been in gardens for about 300 years, so there has to be something about this rose.

This morning was to be a rose meeting. I usually try to go to these, especially when someone hosts them, which is usually the case. And even though this was the case this morning, I found it just to hard to move this morning. It's time for a break, I think.

I'm still adjusting to my new position and jobs. I really like the dayside shift much better than the night shift, but it is proving to be more of an adjustment than I was thinking. The work is somewhat different, though the same if you can understand what I mean. Except for the typing jobs, it's the same work as before but from a different viewpoint. Folks had been asking me what I think of it and I've been answering them honestly. I like the work, the position, but at the same time feel a little isolated because of where I am. Yesterday was a little different. The girl I usually type with was out for the day and I had a lot of visitors and got involved in a lot of conversation. Of course, the day was much lighter than the rest of the week, or the other weeks as well. It's just adjusting but it can still wear me down.

Still, I need a trip to the salon for a good neck massage and I decided to stay home this morning instead of visiting the group. Besides, I have a lot to do this weekend. I need to take care of some business, clean the house and get ready for a big party for family tomorrow. I will put a trip to the salon for the first available time I have, right around my birthday. My neck is very stiff. It's stress. It'll ease when I start to get used to my new job but who knows when that'll be. Hopefully soon.

In the meantime, I have a ton of stuff to do here.

Puppy Mills

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/25867

This story is a pet peeve of mine. Mostly because in many areas I've heard it come up (Internet included), it's more about the ability to persecute rather than to make a statement or even to voice an opinion about a subject. I've been accused of supporting puppy mills or even having one with the folks who did the accusing knowing that I have one neutered dog. The reason for the persecution? I live in Lancaster County...therefore I'm a puppy miller. One Amish person asked a demonstrator why the Amish were being singled out and the demonstrator went on some wild explanation as to why without even knowing if the person they were talking to operated a puppy mill or not.

THIS ATTITUDE IS PERSECUTION!!! It is abuse in a much worse way than the treatment of any animal.

This attitude makes the demonstrators just as bad or worse than the people who actually keep hordes of dogs in obscene, filthy conditions.

These animal rights activists want to be advocates and not activists because the term activists bring to mind the right wing, over zealous people who cause more trouble than they're worth. But by rights anyone who accuses people of something because of their race or religious creed, are activists and are far worse than those who actually enact the crime they are accused of.

I had a friend once who was kicked off his internet service by animal rights activists because he told a 20 year old story of an incident that when 20 years ago attitudes were different. To me that is simply ridiculous. These people just don't know when to stop and they will keep it up until people get killed just like with the abortion protesting some years ago.

I don't condone puppy mills. I've seen first hand what these filthy, confined conditions can do to these animals. After all, the neutered dog I own came from one of these places. It took him three years to even understand what it is to be a pet; to know what it is to have a home; a place where he's wanted and can be relaxed and himself.

However, I do not condone persecution either. I honestly believe that those who have puppy mills should be singled out, away from the general population and dealt with individually. Those who would rather condemn and entire enmity of peoples are worse than those who actually do the crime and should be punished the same way as the punishment they want to dish out. That means they should be put into exploding abortion clinics, burned at the stake, confined to 9'x4' dog runs or have their lives totally disrupted to the point where they couldn't even buy food.

I have positively no tolerance for persecution. I grew up in a world that had no place for me. I remember the pain of the same type of persecution because of something that I had no control over. I wouldn't wish that on anyone and despise anyone who thinks they have the right to do so.

Something Old

My friend, Sandy who is still working nights at the job place, presented me with a gift today of a catalog printed in 1907 from The Conrad & Jones Co., West Grove PA. I am so tickled over this, I'm almost speechless. In this catalog, Conrad is introducing new roses such as Yellow Soupert, Striped Reine Marie Henriette (MME Driout), Ever-blooming Uncle John, the Hybrid Tea, Cardinal. They are also featuring the new Irish introduction, Killarney, La France and Helen Gould. They also feature roses such as Frau Karl Druschki, Clotide Supert and Papa Gontier. And American Beauty. All are around $.50 each. Own root, extra large plants are $1.00.

The Conrad & Jones Co., West Grove PA would later be known as Conrad Pile Co., West Grove PA and then eventually known as Star Roses. This very old catalog states at the bottom of each page "Growers of the Best Roses in American". This is no exaggeration. Even in later years when the company was known as Conrad Pile Co., it was still "Growers of the Best Roses in America". This is also the company the kept safe from Hitler and nurtured Meilland's Peace rose.

This catalog is truly a treasure.

My first day on the job

Sexy Rexy - Floribunda, medium pink, double, introduced in 1984. Rated 8.7 out of 10 as a garden rose. Don'tja love that name!!!! This is the second Sexy Rexy I've had. I left the first one behind when we moved thinking that it was very easy to get ahold of. This one came out of the garden of a friend who had passed away two years ago and his wife was nervous about taking care of roses. She told me that this is what he would have wanted anyway. A very good rose in the garden, disease resistant and in almost constant bloom. The blooms are rather smallish as is with most forlibundas.

Yesterday was the first day of my new shift. Now, you'd think I would be quite comfortable with this as most of the people there already knew me, I know the job, what's expected and what to expect. But it still felt like a new job. I'm using my typing skills for the first time in almost 25 years and need to get used to that. My time-card is in a different place. Otherwise, it's pretty much old news, yet different. I'm working with my old boss from years back and it feels good. He has seemed to mellow out some over the years which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I want to give myself a week of getting up and going to work verses getting up and vegetating in front of the computer for hours. Then I'll know better what I think of it. Right now it just feels new.

Another Day

Perle d'Or ~ polyantha, yellow blend, very double. Introduced in 1884. Garden rated at 8.4 out of 10. A very old little poly that's stood the test of time. A strong grower in these parts, getting nearly 4 feet tall and nicely bushy. I've had very little disease with this tiny rose, even through the roughest time of black spot. It also seems resistant to insects. It wants to bloom for me in the regular HT type flushes, about thee times a year rather than the miniature all season bloom. The blooms are very small, maybe 1 1/2 inches across.

It's been raining here for the past three days and I'm not anticipating the sun to shine again for almost a week. That hurricane (what's it's name again????) is shooting up the East coast and we're expecting something from it. It is very rare that a hurricane has any force left by the time it reaches here and usually at best they are down graded to tropical storms. Hurricanes of note in the past century were:

Hazel (1954). Hazel hit this area the day I was born. Now you know what makes me the way I am!!!
Agnus (1972). Agnus visited the year I graduated from H.S. Ok, now I've dated myself. Of all the hurricanes, Agnus had been down graded to a tropical storm by the time it arrived, but it combined with two other systems right over us, causing extreme devestation and flooding. Entire counties were wiped out with this storm. Lancaster County being hit the hardest.
Floyd (1999). Floyd was the weakest of the strong hurricanes that hit this area. It left a lot of flooding in it's wake, but not much else. Oh, it did knock down an 80 foot tree in the neighbor's back yard in such a way that it landed on the roof of my house.

Between the raindrops, I was able to get outside to cut some roses for the house. I have three vases of roses. One for the dining room table, a beautiful yellow vase with brown stripes we found at Hershey Chocolate Factory filled with orange, yellow, apricot and vermillion colored roses. The apricot one is Just Joey, considered by the American Rose Society as one of the most fragrant Hybrid Teas. There's another clear and red cut glass vase with bi-colors (colors such as pink with white), shades of reds, pinks, salmons and purples for the sofa table. Last but not least is a tiny miniature vase, hand crafted by a pottery factory in the Poconos that sports one single miniflora rose, red with a pink reverse.

I will busy myself the rest of the day inside. There's much there that needs attention too. Tonight is my last night as an owl. Come Tuesday, I will begin the job in the daylight hours.