Give-away winner & roses from my gardens

Good afternoon Folks ~ Here is is another Monday, the last Monday of February. Time is zipping right along.

The give-away contest for the book David  Austin’s ‘The English Rose’ has ended and the winner is # 1, who is Rebecca, of Thrifty Style at 68.  Congrats to you Rebecca.

Be watching for two more gardening books to be reviewed and given away in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve taken quite a few pictures of roses that have been in bloom the past couple of weeks. Their scents, along with the scents of jasmines and other flower scents have been filling the air around Plum Cottage.  My heart if filled with thanksgiving and joy for God’s goodness and His beautiful creation.

I really love roses. Many, many years ago, I told my dear husband that I’d rather have living flowers to grow and enjoy in my gardens than to receive dying bouquets. He went along with my idea and would occasionally pick small bouquets from our own flowers. Sweet, sweet, sweet memories.

Ok, here we go for some rose eye-candy.

‘Don Juan’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

‘International Herald Tribune’ from Rose Petals Nursery

‘Knock-out’ local nursery

Not sure what these next blooms are.  I’ve had the bush a long, long time and think it might be ‘Bon Silene’.

This one might be ‘Old Blush’. Have had this for many years also.

‘Carnation’ from Rose Petals Nursery.

‘Mm. Laurette Messimy’. Bought this many, many years ago.

‘Cemetery Rose’ traded with Connie of Hartwood Roses for one of my rose needleworked pieces.

‘Rose de Rescht’ from friends Deb & Charly.

‘Love’ compliments of friends Nanci & John.

‘Fragrant Cloud’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

‘Granada’ ~ I bought this rose soon after losing my dear husband. Bought it at Sam’s Club, spring 2013. Granada, Spain was one of our favorite places and we visited it 2-3 times while we lived in Spain when DH served his tour of duty for the US Navy. The roses in the Generalife gardens had ‘huge’ rose blooms and I’m happy to say this rose produced huge blooms for me this year.

The bud belies the size the flower will become.

Look at the size of this next to my hand. The colors are stunningly beautiful.

‘Winecup’ this color grabs my heart, from Rose Petals Nursery.

S-i-g-h, ~  I hope you enjoyed seeing these beauties. Some are large, some are small, all are wonderful. Some are old garden varietes while others are more modern.

Thank you for visiting and for all of your kind comments in previous posts. I appreciate them and your time in writing them.

Have a great week ~ FlowerLady ~ who will be spending more time in my gardens trying to bring some semblance of order out of this sub-tropical jungle. I’ll blog whenever.

Two firsts

 

Yesterday was another emotional day. My stomach was in knots, because of fear of taking care of something I’d not done before, TAXES. Tears fell because of missing my husband, but there was also laughter and a  great sense of accomplishment, with the help of my BIL, my husband’s brother.

I had bought the H&R Block tax program, and my BIL volunteered to help me and I was/am ever thankful.  Looking at the forms from last year a week or two ago, in my husband’s computer, brought me to tears as it was all ‘Greek’ to me. My BIL said it wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought, and he was right, it wasn’t.  It took awhile, but the deed was accomplished and I mailed in the forms today. Hurray!!!

That was the first of my firsts, the other was having to check the box saying I was a widow.  That really hurt, and I had to do it twice in the forms. Sigh! There’s no getting around it, it’s not my choice, but, it is what it is.

I am so glad taxes are out of the way.  They were a scary burden, next year won’t be so bad, I hope.  The program was really very good, easily understood.

I made home made pizza, Italian sausage, which we enjoyed and sent home half of it for BIL to share with dear SIL. They live about an hour north, and I appreciate their giving up their time together to help me with this.

I now can relax and start doing some things I’d like to do around here. One step at a time. My dear husband would want me to get back to my happy, positive self, and I do have times where I feel that way, then WHAM, I get blasted by the ‘grief monster’.  I just let the tears flow and feel better afterwards. Dear Mark is just on the other side of the veil, cheering me on.

After dropping the forms off at the P.O. this morning, I went to Home Depot for a new garden hose and nozzle, the old hose had sprung a leak and more looked like they were going to happen, the nozzle had problems too. The hose went into the trash, and the old brass nozzle is going into the save pile as it has scrap value.

Here are some photos taken last week, of two roses I bought recently.  The top one is ‘Granada’, the bottom one is unknown as it didn’t have a name tag.  Unfortunately, both look like they have powdery mildew, something I’ve not had before and I would like to control it naturally. I bought them from two different places.  So, if any of you rose growers have suggestions, please let me know.  I would greatly appreciate it.

These roses are in the secret garden and it smells wonderful back there, along with the gardenia that keeps putting out blooms, and the rose Maman Cochet is blooming as well, and the Confederate Jasmine has just started blooming also.  That is a scent I look forward to every spring. A nice potpourri of floral scents.

Granada is a beautiful, ancient city in Spain.  We loved it and this rose is beautiful and the scent, spicy and rosy at the same time.

This rose is not only beautiful in color but the scent is a deep rose and just wonderful.

***

Fear is the mind killer

It will pass

But I shall remain.

A portion I remember from the first book in the ‘Dune Trilogy’.

***

May your fears be surmountable,

may your days be filled with

bits of joy and beauty.

May you learn as you grow,

in each new day that you are blessed with.

FlowerLady