Culture — Page 72 — You are in My World Now

Chicago Peace Hybrid Tea Rose

December 30, 2007 by Tricia

As I was saying in my GTS post on Tricia’s Musings, I had to replace a few roses after last years very mild winter. This rose, Chicago Peace is now where my beautiful Love and Peace hybrid tea rose had been for several years.

Chicago peace isn’t as loud a rose as Love and Peace but it has multiple colors within it’s petals just like Love and Peace, only instead of being shades of yellow, orange and pink, Chicago Peace only seems to have reds, pinks, corals and whites within it.

It’s a beautiful rose with a very light airy scent. It should do well in my Toronto Garden … particularly if our winters have some snow cover that doesn’t melt away too quickly. So far this year there’s nice snow cover on the ground so I’m hoping my garden will be quite healthy come Spring.

Collecting Pollen

December 16, 2007 by Tricia

Join

I have a lot of bees that enjoy the flowers in my garden. I’m actually allergic to bumble bees and hornet stings so I guess I’m lucky that for the most part I’ve got more friendly bumble bees around than any of the other stinging bees.

This lovely bumble bee is collecting pollen from a Malva sylvestra flower. This flower is very easy to grow as it’s a hybrid of the native mallow that grows throughout North America.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I’m enjoying walking around the neighborhood

December 14, 2007 by Tricia

Well I’ve been taking lots and lots of walks around the neighborhood with our little puppy lately.

I’m enjoying getting out so much even thought it’s getting so much colder! Plus we had a huge snow storm on Thursday so walking on the un-shoveled sidewalks wasn’t all that much fun. Puppy enjoyed it though. She kind of gallops like a horse through the snow jumping from snow mound to snow mound. It’s really quite cute.

I can’t wait until our puppy gets her third set of shots in early January and I guess her rabies vaccines shortly after that too. She’ll be a little older and since she’ll have all her vaccinations we’ll be able walk further and maybe even go to the park. Certainly by February or early March we should be able to do that anyway.

We live in a nice enough neighborhood but there’s some very nice neighborhoods within easy walking distance and I’d love to walk Midnight around that area. She could get her exercise (me too) and I could spend time looking at all of the luxury homes and everyones gardens.

Midnight was 12 weeks old when we got her November 23rd and she’d only had one set of shots, her first, near the beginning of October. She should have had two sets of vaccinations by the time she was 12 weeks old. So she’s behind.

Because she’s behind in her vaccinations we were only going to let her use the front and back yards at first, but then it snowed. Much earlier this year than the last several and the snow is staying on the ground instead of melting away in a few days. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think with all the snow it’s a little safer to take her for walks just around the block. We aren’t going near the park, nor are we going in any areas that other dogs frequent. I suppose there’s always a chance that she can pick up something, but I’m hoping the snow is covering up all the potential bad germs.

I guess that’s the only real good thing about having a young puppy at this time of year. I know I’m going to dread going out with her several times a day when it’s -10 or -15 Celsius, but as far as her chances of catching any of the bugs that live in the soil or that would likely be in higher concentrations spring through fall she’s safer.

What do you think? Is it safe to take short walks just around the block when there’s snow covering the ground or should we stick to our own property until her vaccinations are finished?

Our neighbors home is still up for sale

December 10, 2007 by Tricia

Our neighbors house still hasn’t sold yet. I think it’s been up for sale since the end of September.

The other day I was in our back enclosed porch cleaning up the area so our puppy wouldn’t get into anything that might harm her and someone was seeing the house next door. The people stopped to talk on the porch and didn’t realize I was right next to them on my porch (the window in between is frosted) and I over heard them saying the house was too much of a fixer upper for them.

The house really does need work. The real estate agent originally had it listed at $349,000 but it looks like it’s been lowered to $333,000. Both prices are really good for our area. I’m fairly certain with the work we’ve done to our home we could list ours at close to one hundred thousand higher, but there home really is in bad shape inside.

Chris was talking to the owner the other day and he told Chris that mortgage companies won’t lend anyone money for the house because their oil tank is more than 15 years old. Hmmm so is ours but we have insurance. It makes me wonder if they don’t even have home insurance? Anyway, they are going to have the oil tank removed and install gas.

Still … their price is too high for their home. They’ve done absolutely nothing to fix it up at all.

It still looks like it was last decorated in the 60’s or 70’s and like nothing much has been done to it since then.

If they ever do manage to sell the house I hope we get good neighbors. That’s all I ask.

Cat Tails by the Lake

December 8, 2007 by Tricia

Grab the Photo Hunt code.
Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is LONG

I’ve always been fascinated by Cat Tails or as some people call them, Bull Rushes. I remember even as a child I couldn’t wait until the cat tails had matured as they’d burst open to spread their fluffy feathery seeds.

Just like a dandelion, blowing on an over mature cat tail produces the same results … a sea of seeds blowing through the air.

I took this photo a few years ago when my husband and I were traveling from Toronto to Ottawa Ontario. The long cat tails were by a lake … Sharbot Lake I believe. So pretty.