Roses

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Darcy is having a contest over here, prizes are a sock needle gauge on keyring & stitch markers. You have until 24Jun09 to enter. Please tell her I sent you. :-)

Well, I apparently missed any WWKIP events in my area on 6/13-14, however I did manage to knit a few rounds of a sock at SB while sipping a mocha that Saturday ... at VF Mall when DH had to stop by the FruityComputerStore to talk someone at the Genius Bar about a MB battery not holding a charge. This is the 2nd replacement battery under the FruityCare Plan. If this replacement is bad and we have to get a 3rd replacement, then the FCP will have paid for itself.

I inherited 7(?) rose bushes with the house and have left them alone for the past year and a half. They seemed to thrive with neglect, blooming often on their own, although they look big/bushy/wild now mingled in with a multitude of weeds. It took this long before I discovered that I could have fresh roses inside my house. I picked a few and found a plain vase to put them in, then set them on my kitchen counter. They bloomed over the next few days and then I replaced most of them with a few more from the garden. I took these photos the day after the 2nd picking. (At least) Two of the roses were from the 1st picking (5 days before) and the rest are from the day before.

I have no idea what type of roses I have. I couldn't find a website showing photos & rose names. I suppose there would be too many varieties to be able to identify what mine are.

I tried reading up on pruning and find it very confusing with all the conflicting info. I discovered that what I'm doing isn't really pruning, but more accurately called dead heading. I'm just cutting/pinching/snapping the dead/dried part of the stem underneath the spent flower ... it's definitely closer to the peduncle than hacking off half the plant. I read something about cutting back down to the 5-leaflet. I'm not sure how that works because there isn't always a section with 5 leaves. ???

After a bit of reading, I discovered that the "stick with pom pom" looking roses which Cynthia mentioned are called tree roses. These are the ones I see outside my neighbours' houses.



Light Pink

Light Purple

The light pink and light purple ones are from 5 days before. I think they'll last one or two more days in the vase.


Orange, medium pink, red

different pink, red, orange

These two close bud roses (pink & red ones from 1st photo of the 2) should open up in the next few days. The red one is the most uninteresting out of the bunch. I think it is because it most resembles the typical store bought rose, however mine is infinitely more fragrant than any store rose. I wish I could convey scent in a blog post.

light white/yellow w/pink edges

This is one of my favourites, this light white/yellow rose with a bit of pink around the edges. It also seems to be one of the more fragrant ones.

orange

This orange one is another fave.

yellow

I think it's neat how the petal edges aren't just simply smooth/rounded.

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You saw some pics of my yard when I first moved into this house. It does NOT look anything like that now. It's been neglected, parts are dead, parts are overgrown with weeds. I suppose the bushes would look healthy if I actually fed/watered them. Here are some pics of my rose bushes. They're overgrown, rather than neat and tidy. I really should learn how to prune them. I'll start from the west side. Sorry the photos aren't great. It was very sunny outside when I took these so I could not see the LCD at all and was using The Force (no viewfinder on my camera). Please ignore the weeds. :-)

GROUP 1:

Group 1: 2 bushes, 1 red, 1 pink

There are 2 bushes here and they don't seem to thrive as well as the bushes on the east side of the yard. No idea why. It's pretty dead here now, just branches. There might be a few flowers now and then.

GROUP 2:

Group 2: 2 bushes, both different shades of pink

Here's the next set, 2 bushes.

GROUP 3:


Group 3: 3 bushes I think, pink, purple, red

Sometimes it is hard to tell where one bush ends and another begins. But there are definitely 3 different colors in this bunch, so I'm gonna say there are 3 bushes here.

GROUP 4:

Group 4: 3 bushes I think


Group 4: White with pink edge


Group 4, 8 days later, not much difference

I think these are pink, light white/yellow with pink edge, and yellow. In this grouping, you will find the bush with the white with pink edge flowers. The 2nd photo here shows you a healthy set of these white ones that is nestled in the center of the bush, surrounded by dead or non-flowering woody branches. (I had to push aside some prickly branches - ouch! - to get in close enough to take that pic) It's kinda odd looking to see this bush with brown branches & green leaves, then this nice healthy green branch smack in the middle of all this.

GROUP 5:

Group 5: 2 bushes, 1 red, 1 orange

Group 5, 8 days later

Group 5, orange, 8 days later

Group 5, red, 8 days later

The bushes from these last 2 groups are the ones I see right outside my bedroom window. The bushes are planted in a raised section of the yard. V thinks this was done intentionally so that they can be viewed from the bedroom window. There's a clearer photo here showing just how much higher this raised section is.

The orange and red bushes had a few more blooms 8 days later. I have a hard time taking pics of some of these because these bushes are a bit taller than me (I'm 5 ft).

VIEW THROUGH WINDOW:


Group 5, 8 days later, view thru window

Groups 4 & 5, 8 days later, view thru window

Group 4, 8 days later, view thru window

This is the view through the bedroom window. The raised section in the yard makes it easier to see them through the window. Yeah, the view could be much better if I learned how to take care of these roses. I'm working on it...

Oh, those photos above were taken a week apart, I noted which ones were taken at a later date. Right now I have more blooms on some of these bushes. I guess I should leave a bunch of flowers on the bushes so they don't look so bare. Besides, I do want to have some flowers left for V to pick the next time she visits.

Hmm... I wonder if I should not post those pics. It's rather embarrassing. Or perhaps they'll make you feel better about the state of your garden. :-) If you want to see a pretty garden, check out Trish's eye candy over here. She takes beautiful photos.

Poppies?

These grow freely in a small corner of the yard.




Claudia mentioned enjoying the music from the movie. I'm not sure whether she meant the Movie Soundtrack or the Movie Score. I definitely like the Score more than the Soundtrack. There's only one song I really like from the Soundtrack, it's Track 1 by this group. I like A LOT of their songs and would be hard pressed to single out my favorite 10 songs (out of their 100 or so songs). Lessee, other songs from the Soundtrack ... Track 2 isn't bad. Track 12 was not at all what I expected as the Lullaby I imagined from reading the novel. It's not bad at all on its own, as long as I don't think about it as B's Lullaby. (BTW, Claudia, I missed the MTV awards; can't remember if I already mentioned that)

Rita mentioned Twi-inspired yarn. I had no idea they existed! I do not need more yarn. I do not need more yarn.

There are a gazillion Twi-interviews out there. I thought you Twifans might enjoy these old ones ... this MF unscripted interview with SM, KS, & RP (it's about ~10 min long), because it's a little different from the majority of interviews you see out there. After you're done with that one, you'll find a bunch of interviews on EW here (4 with TL, 5 with RP, and some others; use the scrollbar to the right of the vids to see list).

Oh and for you guys who are more into photos than interviews, lotsa pics of RP in Cannes here.

So where's the knitting? Well, I did make one more earbud (see first 2 pairs here), but can't start on its mate until I get a sock off the pointy sticks. Yeah, I sorta started another sock with those same needles before I started the 2nd earbud. No idea what I was thinking there.

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