June Flower Friday

 

It's time for another Flower Friday! I'm enjoying this new rose that I planted. It was a Costco purchase which are usually pretty good. This one is taking off, but it's next to the Jasmine so it got wrapped up in vines and pulled to the edge of the fence. Of course the deer took advantage of that situation. So I have to keep on top of the Jasmine creeping over again. The other rose I bough at Costco was planted in a spot where it's not getting enough sun, but the flowers have been lovely, they're a silvery pale lavender.color.

We visited my SIL earlier this month, and DH helped my BIL construct this support stand to hold up his Passionflower vine. It's quite heavy with fruit and needed some support. 

My BIL is an amazing fruit and vegetable gardener, he spends a lot of time on his garden. It just so happens that Passionflower is a fruit with a truly beautiful flower. Here are some flowers that haven't opened up their buds yet.

Here's a view of part of our garden and house, the fig tree is on the right, the pomegranate is in the center near the house where it is almost entirely blocking a window. There should be iris and peonies near the day lilies in the foreground but the gophers got them. (booooo)

A night time full-moon picture through the redwoods from underneath the Angel's Trumpet.

Santa Barbara Daisy is doing well in the semi-shade, spreading out like it's supposed to.

A surprisingly late plain old purple iris bloomed. These are boring compared to the fancier varieties, but I truly love this color combination of all the purples almost to blue and then out to lavender almost pink.

The Bear's Breech (aka Acanthus) are going great this year. The big exuberant leaves wilt during the hot part of the day and then recover later. But wow, this is the most flowers ever! The out of control Wisteria is looming in the background.

Such a beautiful flower structure.

No really, I could look at these all day, they are so complex and interesting.

Some of the Day Lilies are blooming.

I really like seeing these slowly open and unfurl.

I really love this picture with all those water drops.

The scented Geranium is spreading out well and battling for supremacy with the Jasmine.

Roses, Scented Geranium, Day Lilies, volunteer ferns and Jasmine in the background.

Thankful Day

 

Today's the day for us to think about what we have to be thankful for in the midst of Thanksgiving celebrations and all the hustle and bustle that it entails. I'm thankful for everything that's been growing and is now ready to harvest and enjoy.

I'm thankful for the ingenuity of our fellow humans to make bridges and freeways and cars so that we can easily get from here to there and back home again, even in a big wind and rainstorm. And for all the people who work in our various government agencies that regulate all of those enterprises so that our travels are as safe as possible. 

I'm thankful for clever people who come up with new ways to make us laugh in unexpected places, especially when we really need that laugh.

I'm thankful for artists and musicians who continue to thrive and prove that they can still make magic even into their late 70's (the bassist on the right is 78! The other guys are all in their sixties)

I'm thankful for the people who get things done even when it's raining or more than a hundred degrees when I can't really function and help out much. In this picture that would be DH and his big front yard project, ongoing, but nearing completion.

I'm thankful to have the privilege of still being in the place where I had the foresight to have planted a tree years ago and then for the joy it brings us when it finally comes into its own and wows us every fall.

I'm thankful for the bluest blue open sunny skies above, and snakes guarding our oldest dashboards.

I'm thankful the trees have finally turned and the tunnel of green has become the tunnel of yellow and to have the luck and privilege to get to live in such a beautiful forest.

I'm thankful for you reading and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving or a terrific Thursday.

Wandering Wednesday - Portland Rose Garden

 This one really needed its own post, (so many pictures!) which was a visit to the Portland International Test Rose Garden on July 4th. 

We got there about 11 am so it hadn't gotten too terribly hot yet. But we had more than 10,000 roses to see.

The flowers were just a'bloomin' like crazy. I think the last time I'd visited it was early spring and not much had flowered, so this was wonderful.

What a wonderful place this is, no admission fee, the bus stops right next to it so even though it is up above the city it's somewhat accessible to people that need a break from the city.

We took a selfie before I got too sweaty and wrung-out.

All sizes of roses were there all the way from teeny tiny  miniatures to big blowsy singles.

I think this might be my favorite picture that I took of a rose on that morning.

Something about those shiny shiny dark leaves.

This luscious yellow-orange color is just so great.

A longer view of part of the garden.

There were little markers that told you whether or not a rose was "Fragrant" or not. That was nice so you knew whether to go in close and take a whiff or just to admire from afar. Every now and then a breeze would blow and you'd get an overall scent of roses which was lovely.

These are so abundant aren't they, like a full bouquet on just one stem of the rose bush.

There is a central sculpture art piece. Unfortunately the water wasn't turned on but it still looks cool.

This is the only one I remember the name of: "Ketchup & Mustard"

A perfect full white rose with those dark glossy leaves, ahhh.

Hey there's friend Jaye.

Another view of the central sculpture.

Some of the lower gardens have these glorious hillsides just covered in landscape roses. More like ground covers than the individual bushes.

Just so beautiful. There is a map that shows where to find each and every variety that is planted.

A yew bush I think? Maybe? I thought it was funny.

The three arches of blooming pink roses were gorgeous, there were people taking engagement photos and families doing group shots beneath them.

As you walk through the garden you head down the levels and then you have to come back up, so you get a really good view of all the covered steeper hillsides.

This was from the lowest part of the garden and you can't really see the top of it from there.

Some of the roses are in the test sections which is a whole arcane process that helps test new roses varieties before they're produced on scale for release to the public.

Red red red

It's almost too much beauty! So I'll leave you with this Very Happy bumble bee on a pretty pink rose.

The Situation

 

So here's a pictorial adventure of our Situation. Over December (19")and January to date (17") we have had a total 36" of rain, That's too much for most mountainside communities. That's a normal amount for an entire rain year. For us personally, all that rain has meant that on our road we have a mudslide.

This is how it looked after our neighbor with a tractor and front scooper cleaned up the slide including downed dead trees. We are lucky that it only partially blocked our small road. And that he had to get to work.

Some organisms are quite happy with all the excess moisture.

There are mushrooms all over the place.

I don't know the names of these, just admiring them from afar, and certainly not foraging and taking the risk of eating them.

Further up the road, we come to the main issue, the reason we've been out of power continuously since 1/4. Trees came down and hit the power lines, snapping them off the power pole. Small dog for scale.

This is on the other side of the crossed trees over the road. You can see the power line coming down diagonally toward the pavement.

The line is being pulled out of the road by the red caution tape so that one car can just pass by.

You can see a small red diagonal line, that's the red caution tape holding back the power line. We've been assured that it's not live, but you never know, especially when they're working on getting the power back on.

The rest of the mountain we live on has had their power restored, but we have not. I guess because it affects so few people on our small road we got prioritized down lower on the list. Understandable, but still very frustrating. We're lucky to have the Powerwalls and a great generator (and lots of extension cords), but it's getting very very old. And still the rain keeps coming.