My purple rose, Falstaff, bloomed last Friday; two immense jewels opened their magnificent eyes. The fragrance is light but is there, and this is more than you can say about a lot of modern roses.
I brought them along in a bottle to our short camping trip to the 500 acres of wild land our friend Leelee’s family own in Mendocino county. Alexandre enjoyed the kids pool, playing with other children, the crickets and lizards and play play play. We enjoyed him, sleeping in the tent, good food, good people.
On the way back we stopped for cherries and to check out the town of Cloverdale. We dreamed of having also a get away like that. A place away from the city madness and to enjoy family and nature. As I watched over the Russian River eating another cherry, I thought of the baby growing inside my womb, our son sleeping peacefully in his car seat and Claude driving through the beautiful landscape. You got to call this happiness. That’s what it is.
As I grabbed the cell phone and saw a bunch of missed calls I decided to check in with a friend. She told me all about last Saturday’s accident, luckily no one died but the traffic prospect for our area was so gloomy. It just further made us want to flee to the countryside more often.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Garden journal
The first rose to bloom this year was Pat Austin. This lady spent the whole winter without pruning. It just downed on me that she really likes to be left alone. She is beautiful right now, preparing buds for a real show. Strangely, the blooms mutated from her normal 55-petal shallow cup to a many-petaled rosette. My brother Gabriel’s Pat did the same thing this year. I would be thrilled had I not planted three new rosettes this year, including a yellowy/orange one Crown Princess Margareta. I just heard that CPM gets only peach/cream in California anyway, so Margareta may turn out to be very distinguishable from Pat. We’ll see when Margareta feels ready to show up her face.
Another early bloomer is Baronne Prevost, (courtesy of Gabriel), an old French lady (1842), which has the fragrance that made roses famous. To think of dying without ever having smelled the true old rose fragrance! now that’s a scary thought. And she is good looking too! Too bad she is getting the rust so I had to half defoliate. It is her first year from a cutting and she has outdone all of the technological advanced XX and XXI century roses in the garden. So all is forgiven.
Another early bloomer is Baronne Prevost, (courtesy of Gabriel), an old French lady (1842), which has the fragrance that made roses famous. To think of dying without ever having smelled the true old rose fragrance! now that’s a scary thought. And she is good looking too! Too bad she is getting the rust so I had to half defoliate. It is her first year from a cutting and she has outdone all of the technological advanced XX and XXI century roses in the garden. So all is forgiven.
Honorable mention to Compassion who is doing great for the less than perfect east exposure and muddy spot where she lives. I was so disappointed when I first got her in 2004 and turned out to be light pink (instead of salmon like the picture). Now is the only light pink in the garden after construction did away with Sunset Celebration. The fragrance is strong tea with a little something else I haven’t figured out yet, has long vase life, beautiful curly petals. She has some blooms now but not picture worthy. I’ll be posting her later in the season.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Spring
Spring came in the middle of the night and many families around us found themselves one morning cuddled in bed with a little bundle of love. Cory and Peter: Asa, Christian and Jules: Audren, Carlos and Sonia: Gabriela, Kasia and Salim: Kuba, Santi and Inka: Tamas, Ana and Flavio: Salvador, Caryn and Ray: Leo, and more on the way!!! Including our own bun cooking for the fall! New life everywhere. It brings hope and warmth to the heart…also, lots of bills but who’s counting.
Alexandre is a joy to have. He is the sweetest little person ever. He is speaking very clearly (and loudly some times). Now that he knows “please” and “thank you” it is so hard to deny him anything! You get what you ask for.
We love pagan rituals and our house lately has been filled with chocolate eggs and bunnies (courtesy of Mme. Kientz). Sunday we had the greatest time doing the egg hunt in the garden. We spent the afternoon in Novato where the little one was fascinated operating a control remote car, got his first capoeira lesson from our dear Joseph, and ate lots of mini quiches prepared by tía Priscilla. As for the adults, well, it is my brother Narziss’ house, which means, adult do same as child. It was just a joyful sunny afternoon with all of the family together.
Alexandre is a joy to have. He is the sweetest little person ever. He is speaking very clearly (and loudly some times). Now that he knows “please” and “thank you” it is so hard to deny him anything! You get what you ask for.
We love pagan rituals and our house lately has been filled with chocolate eggs and bunnies (courtesy of Mme. Kientz). Sunday we had the greatest time doing the egg hunt in the garden. We spent the afternoon in Novato where the little one was fascinated operating a control remote car, got his first capoeira lesson from our dear Joseph, and ate lots of mini quiches prepared by tía Priscilla. As for the adults, well, it is my brother Narziss’ house, which means, adult do same as child. It was just a joyful sunny afternoon with all of the family together.
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