When I used to drink wine and purchase bottles of it, the scribbled descriptions of the tasting notes mattered. And so did the look of the label. I felt that drinking wine from a gorgeously designed bottle was part of the whole pleasurable experience.
In planting roses, I'm finding the same pull toward a rose not only because of its size, color, disease resistance, fragrance, but also because the description and the photos are just so good, and the name! Oh, the name!
It's not true that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, Ms. Juliet. For me, an apricot pink Carding Mill Rose or a pale yellow Vanessa Bell (both with me at breakfast)...
... bring forth images: of Cardin Mill Valley in Shropshire England (where David Austin roses are imagined and developed). Fells and vales, moors and lakes. With roses climbing over fences, or growing abundantly in cottage gardens. And a Vanessa Bell Rose, named after the artist and founding member of the Bloomsbury Group (and sister of Virginia Woolf) -- wouldn't you want to have that rose in your garden? There grows a Vanessa Bell, in the memory of the Vanessa Bell!
("wait -- inside, on my chair again?!)
(there's room for both of us!)
("tomorrow on the porch, okay?")
Now, about Millie. All roads lead to her, don't they... It's a doggie daycare day for her and I'd say she really will profit from a good many hours of play. Her energy levels remain high and I would not be surprised if they stayed high through the first two or three years of her life. People always remark how fast she moves. (When you approach her, she takes that as an invitation to run circles around you.) And today, Julie at Happy Dogz tells me that she is really enjoying playing with a St Bernard doodle! (A St. Bernard doodle? How does that even look on a dog -- a mix of poodle and St Bernard?)
After dropping her off, I go to Home Depot to pick up my drain pipe. They don't come in medium sizes -- you have a choice of 15 inches or ten feet. Of course I need the bigger one, but will it fit in my car?
FYI: a ten foot drain pipe does not fit in a Subaru Crosstreck.
I open the front window, stick out the pipe there and hold on to it with my non driving arm. And I mean hold on! The wind on the highway zips right through the pipe's tunnel and threatens to lift the whole thing and carry it away. Next time, take Ed's truck!
My tin snip guy comes over and cuts the pipe down to size. It's looking good out there, even before I plant the 12 new roses and 6 perennials that are on their way to Steffi's House. (You'd think my gardening space was large. It isn't: the plot is only 0.11 acres and of course, the house and driveway out back take up most of the spaces. Still, I keep seing patches of sod that I could take out...
In the afternoon, I pick up the kids. Boys first...
Then the girl...
The boys are heavily into some game on their tablets (with frequent, loud directions being issued by Sparrow), but Snowdrop just likes to hang around the grownups. I walk Goose, so she walks Goose with me...
I sit down to read, she grabs my computer and sits next to me, creating some story or other. And every few minutes we talk. She tells me that when she came back from camp this summer, she thought nothing would change. But of course, to ride the back of a clichee -- time doesn't stand still. Change is everywhere. We all feel it. All the time. To me, it's normal to be constantly riding the waves of change (ha! get me writing late and I'm full of clichees!). For a child? Well that depends -- on where you're at in your school, your development, your emotions.
She asks too to pick up Millie with me. It's late, but I agree. A good snuggle with Millie is very therapeutic. I can share my pup with her for a few minutes, before I take Millie home and watch her tear apart the floor mat in the bathroom. Millie!
with so much love...
