Accountability

I like flowers of all kinds, including roses. For the 20 something years I've lived here, I've tried to grow roses. I put them in the back, in the garden, in the front, in raised beds and nothin' much to show for it. I asked people what they did and got all kinds of advice, used epsom salts, pesticides, fertilizers and so forth. I got cheap roses and expensive roses, tea roses and old roses- phtttt-nothin'.

Once a friend a I were visiting Stream Cliff Farms and their roses were so lovely. I told my friend that she would be my accountability partner, and if these roses didn't make it, no more roses for me-ever! I bought two roses. About the only place I hadn't tried to grow them was on the right side of the house (if you're looking at the house, not in it), where there is a strip of lawn between the house and woods. The woods had about overtaken an old rock garden left by the previous owners, so I decided I'd move the rocks closer to the house and make a bed.

Until this time, I had only gardened on the left side of the house, where the garden area is large and at the bottom of a big hill and has this great looking loamy soil as far as I can dig. Handy Man was gone that weekend, camping I think. "No big deal, I'll dig the rose holes myself." I know you are supposed to go deeper and wider and fill it with all sorts of good things. Believe me I know, I'd been doing it for years.

Umm, who woulda guessed that the right side of my house would be a completely different environment from the left side. I barely chipped out enough rock to get holes big enough to cram the roses in. No fancy stuff for these gals. Yeah, look at them. I almost never bother with them at all except to whack off some of there giantness when spring rolls around.

I am so very sorry you can't smell this little beauty as her fragrance is divine! I still have never bought another rose. I am going back to Stream Cliff Farm in a couple of weeks, and one might be calling to me.

Speaking of these roses, they house something I've been curious about a long time. We have bluebird boxes at home and at school. I know a bluebird nest, chickadee nest, house wren nest -love them, house sparrow nest- destroy them, and a robin's nest. Today at school, as a matter of fact, I was able to show my students some just hatched chickadees and they were enthralled.

Anyway, I've never seen a cardinal nest. I've found this odd, because we have a lot of them and I sure spend a lot of time poking around trees and bushes.

Guess what I found in the rose bush.

Can you see it hidden there?

She lined it in plastic. Birds nests fascinate me.

In other fowl affairs, my kiddos incubated and hatched five chickies about three and a half weeks ago. They had enough of the brooder ( the chickies, not the students-they would have kept them forever), so we brought them home to the coop today.