Take time to stop and smell the roses

I love my winter hardy roses. I have been surprised at how much they have taken off this year. Other than the ones we moved from my hubby’s house when we got married, they were all planted last year. I have always applied the adage of 1st year they sleep, 2nd year they creep, and 3rd year they leap to all my perennials- including roses. If this is creeping I can’t even imagine what they will do next year. Our roses literally stopped traffic. We actually had people come and comment on them. I wish you could smell them. Hopefully a picture or two will make you smile.

 

Dorcus- a Buck rose

  

Armide- an antique rose

   

Morden Fireglow

    

Morden Sunrise

 

Qudra- a Canadian explorer rose

A trip to grandpa Medford’s

We are putting new siding on our very old house. The aluminum siding we are taking off has press board – celotex backing. After peeling the front we had quite a load, so took a trip out to my dad’s to burn it. Grandpa Bob was ready for some Caelun entertainment. We got our stuff burned and I think both grandpa and Caelun had a good time.

 

Grandpa says lets go for a ride.

Look grandpa made him a special seat.

Clint mans the fire while the lawn tractor goes around.

Okay dad- I am ready to go home- do you want to drive or should I? Is there a problem with drinking a bottle and driving- I promise it is just juice.

A rat a tat tat

“My daughter’s room is so messy she has two rats living in it.” Well it is messy but the rats are actually her pets. Now Clint was less than thrilled. He is not particularly an animal person and really not rodents, but our dear Abbi acquired these pets while at her mom’s. She is at our house for a majority of the summer and could she “pleeeze bring them”  I have to admit they are kind of cute. She even has a leash to take them for walks. One of the neighbor’s stopped in to chat out in the yard the other day and he said to me “I just saw Abbi. She had her rat out for a walk.” Yep that’s our girl. She took these pictures and would I please post them. Yep- here they are in all their ratty glory. Step right up and meet Louie and Chessie. I hope I spelled those right.

 

 

Chessie is on the left and Louie is on the right.

                   

 

That my friends is what a rat on a leash looks like.

Farwell Dear Sir

Grandpa with his great-grandson Caelun

Caelun was about a week old in this picture

Clint’s dear grandfather, Floyd G. Conley, passed away the end of June, shortly after his 87th birthday. He was a wonderful man. He was a WWII vet of the European theater. He was a devoted husband and father. He worked for General Motors building cars for 30 years and was proud of his service to the company and the product they produced. He was a “stand up guy” in every sense of the word. He will be sorely missed. He left a wonderful legacy of love, and  dedication to family. We will do our best to uphold the standard he set. I took pictures from the luncheon at his church so the family that couldn’t attend could be a part of the day

Missy keeps Caelun entertained.

 

Mary, Chris, and Floyd chat.

Caelun found a train in the church play room.

   

Clint, Abbi, and Missy,  join Chris, Mary and Floyd at the table.

 

Nice to see Uncle Dick and Aunt Gloria

 

Burstin’ Berries

Nothing says summer like fresh fruit ripening on the vine. We made a strawberry bed in our front yard out of the broken up concrete from our old patio. Every one admires it thinking is is some kind of ground cover, and it is . It is ground cover that is half ever barer and half June barer strawberry plants. The kids have both loved having sun warmed strawberries right out side the front door. Abbi has been good at helping to pick them but she is hard to get a picture of. This is the 2nd year on our plants and they are really producing. We have had strawberry short cake and strawberries on ice-cream. We have ate them for breakfast and had them in pie. I have started making strawberry-rhubarb jam and that has been a hit. We have had so much we have been freezing them. I think we are up to about a dozen quarts now in the freezer. Just as the strawberries came on so did our cherry tree. It is a dwarf- it will only get to be 10 ft tall and is very decorative and very tasty. We added 2 more cherry trees this year to help with pollination and give us a bigger crop. Our neighbors the Neads have a big old fashioned one across the street and we get some pollination from that but not quite enough. We decided we need trees closer – or some Marvin Gaye music and a bottle of wine. We went with the trees. The next up on the hit parade were the currents. Clint and I found a couple of bushes on the clearance/ half dead rack last August for $5.  We took the gamble. They made it and have started to produce. On the heels of this the black raspberries started to to come on. We have a row my dad gave me for my birthday a few years back that have started to produce and then there are lots on the White Pine Trail right near our house. Abbi has went several times by herself with a bucket and her MP3 player. Again she is hard to get a picture of. I have started making jelly. We have about 4 pints of jelly so far and the raspberries are just getting into the full swing. I wish you could taste this wonderful stuff. We all have scratched up arms and legs, red and purple fingers, and juice on our chins. Stop in we- will go berry picking.

    

Caelun has learned to pick the red ones … and eat them.

Look at that face and those fingers- notice my fingers are stained as well.

Yumm!!!

        currents  

     

cherries

  

black raspberries

 

Look at those berry pickers hard at work!

All washed and ready to make some jam.