I never have had luck with roses and I hate the thorns and the blackspot and Japanese beetles and I hate insecticides even more, so it has been a choice not to keep roses. When I was young and in our first home, the roses came with the house, and I just watered them and they loved me and bloomed all summer....luck...shear luck. I know that now. When we moved into this house 17 years ago..a new subdivision....not even weeds...I was talked into shrub roses.....nah! hated them...they live in another suburb now..a gift to a friend..ha ha...she's not a gardener at all..but hey, the joke could be on me...she probably just watered and they're probably still blooming!
I still have one climbing rose attached to a trellis..a garish red....but hey, I keep it..because she does her job without any help from me and I have sort of bonded with her hussy red.....being a wench and all. Now to the photo above.
Last year if you remember, I helped my daughter save plants from a new neighbor's rampage....this neighbor only wanted grass for her dog..so she ripped everything out and was going to throw it in the trash..but nearby gardeners heard the cries of these wonderful plants, including my daughter, and they began rescuing these precious beauties from certain death. I helped my daughter with wagon after wagon of plants and I even got to take a few home....I was given the rosebush. I don't have enough sun for it mom..please take it....I grit my teeth and took it home...
and it bloomed.
A lovely baby blushy pink
a poem in the sunlight
and I love it.

 Now why can't he eat those weeds between the flagstone?

Lady's mantle is a delightful morning plant, its leaves holding so many dew drops.
Above it, in the photo, it is followed by autumn joy sedum.....Wasn't always that way.
That's where lady's mantle was supposed to be..was...until one Fall I paid some men to clean the garden....they pulled up all my Lady's mantle. It had taken me years of dividing to get it to grow all along the side of the house........
So instead I filled the space with sedum by propogation which is a whole lot easier...but not as pretty.
I learned my lesson.....seasonal workers work hard..but they don't know plants.
I lost a lot of plants that year.......
no short cut goes unpunished

Just thought I'd share what I saw in the garden yesterday. It is such a refuge for me. It is more of a wild place for a wild part of me. This year despite the early heat and the relentless rain, the garden has flourished better than it has in years. The wildlife is incredible, though hard to photograph. I need this in my life. ..this place of healing where I can sit on the deck or in the grass and just be. I especially love the early morning with its promise of a new day told to me by glorious sunrise and the song of the robin....oh I hope I hear that on my last day on earth..or maybe on my way into my digs. And I love late afternoon and dusk...where the robins sing a lullabye from the tops of trees and roofs. I couldn't be happier anywhere else....happy at home.

morning light
come to me in
song
from the robin
and spread your
brightess over
my garden
and when it is time
for you to travel on
leave in the
comforting notes
of the red breast

The word must have gone out.....she's a sucker for rabbits,especially baby ones. Yesterday I could hardly take a step without some phantom fur flying away from me into the tall plant area......yikes....how many bunnies can one have.....but they are adorable..really...But I am mad at them now, this morning...I have been nurturing some morning glories..heavenly blue one..they have just begun to climb the trellis....Drats!!! Gone! all of them..except for a wee stick of a stem! and I know who did it!
Bunnies! Oh....some people say glories reseed so easily..not mine.....and I love the magic of them in the morning...and now gone!
Ha! but the bunnies haven't seen the ones growing in pots (red and blue) on the deck....What do you think I should do? I was going to move them close to a trellis and let them grow that way...but I know bunnies can reach pretty high for a morsel of sweetness.
My garden is exploding with life....birds everywhere...and the wrens...have arrived..I have a love hate relationship with them. They sing a song I find delightful...but I do not like their possessiveness! The Cedar waxwings are delighting me as they fight with the robins(my favorite garden bird) fight over the delicious red berries on the Serviceberry bushes. Oh such energy going on.
And Handsome,my good old feral male cat, showed up this morning...been gone for weeks..that rascal..that cad..He knows my house when he's hungry! Wouldn't you think after over 5years of feeding and healing and sheltering him..he'd stay awhile and be grateful..no.. Eat stretch leave.... But this day I hope he keeps walking becasue I couldn't bare him eating one of my bunnies...despite their bad behavior. Oh, and did I tell you...my very good buddy,Mary, brought me a 3 week old abondoned feral kitten last night.
yep, every 2-3hours..bottle feeding. My cats,Webster,Miss Kitty O'shea,and Abbey do not like it one bit1 Oh woe,This wench won't be spending too much time in the garden today...but maybe, I could take the baby out a bit and sit and watch the garden as I hold the precious one who has no mommie....but me....Life is not fair.
Oh....the photo.....I took this in Galena last week...thought you'd might like seeing it...I was thrilled...last year..few butterflies.

Just as I was beginning to think I'd have a rhythm going in the garden, another storm passes through, messing up my plans. But an early morning walk in the yard revealed much beauty after a storm. One being the captured raindrops on the leaves of the hosta.

Another, reflections in the filled to the brim birdbath. I don't know about yours, but my birdbaths need constant filling, what with all the bathing going on. This young Blackbird delighted me for a few minutes dipping and splashing. There is always something to bring joy to me if I go looking for it with open eyes and open heart in my Open Bar of Joy.  Hoping today will bring some prolonged sunshine.

by popular demand

I believe there are 3 baby bunnies in my garden and two adults (of course#!>!)
I waited patiently with my camera to get a photo of one braving the open grassy area
Hope you enjoy this little one as much as I do.....it is interesting to take note of what they eat
I wish they ate chocolate mint!

The mountain ash trimmings were the last to be picked up and bagged until, that is, I saw mama rabbit nibbling at them. Maybe it was the unripened berries that she wanted, but on closer inspection, no, it was the leaves that she was nibbling.
Last night I decided to leave them for her for the morning's meal. Sure enough this morning she was nibbling away. On and off all day I spied her sneaking out to grab a bite. Now this evening she guards her stash in the cool shade. ..Mr. Robin close by inspecting the border for worms rising from the earth after a heavy soaking by the wench. I think I'll have to name her soon...we're getting pretty chummy with each other.

The morning sun must
have called her name
awakening her to dance

A gardener can never return a mother's day gift. !!!!!!!!!
Like I need more rabbits.....
but he is cute. Hope you all are weeding away like me!

A walk in the garden this morning revealed the Siberian irises had opened.
They used to be scattered all through the garden... as I thinned them out. But too much shade had them leaf out but fail to flower.
I will have to move them or give them to my neighbor, who is a happy recipient of anything for her yard.
I actually like sharing my plants, that's how I started...generous neighbors..usually elderly....oh my
I'm not there yet, but when I am...I'll be a cute elderly garden wench!
...giving my bounty away!! Joy!

I bought this tulip tree at clearance at Frank's Nursery..that's how old it is...It was in a gallon bucket
It took years to bloom, but now it faithfully
provides food for the squirrel every year!
Glad I got a shot of this beauty before it was his lunch.

Pause a while
and look
see the ants
the bees
the worms
they don't ask
what they should do
they just do

ANOTHER DAY OF RAIN

Let me embrace the rain
...for what it is
-an essential,
as neccessary as breath

I'm getting there. Despite the house guests that smoke on my deck, I have managed to keep going and try to get my garden in some sort of order. Mostly mother nature is doing what she does best...grow!
They are going home on Tuesday now.......look out world..I have pent up energy!

Enter

It looks pretty, but trust me....weeds....
I was going to show you the bad areas...but why dwell in negativity!

Today pictures of My Open Bar of Joy

Since December I have been driving one hour each way to babysit my grandson 4 days a week....while my daughter finished school...That done...I thought good..back to the house and garden...
no.....A dear friend passed away with a brain tumor...and my sister in law is still in ICU..but pulling through...and her sisters have come in from Arizona to be with her....and they are staying with us and using my car....and it has been raining all week or it has been very cold....no gardening except for a few hours of weeding...oh the zen of weeding
So today when they left to go to the hospital the sun came out......boy that didn't sound right..
Anyway, I got out my camera and went outside to look for beauty....I need it
and to look for joy.....need that too....
and here is what I found to warm my heart............
I hope you enjoy a tour of today's garden

What is wrong with this picture?

They go home on Sunday.

Doesn't this say Monet?

I have always had a fascination with witches....blame it on my first grade teacher