Recreation — Page 71 — You are in My World Now

A hardy rose

December 2, 2007 by Tricia

I grow a very hardy rose, Theresa Bugnet, in a large planter at the front of my house just to one side of my porch. The rose is so hardy that, unlike many other roses, it’s able to survive our winters in a planter.

This rose produces beautiful blooms with a heavenly scent several times each season and since it’s of the rugosa family it doesn’t have many pests and it’s affected by powdery mildew very often either. In fact this rose hates pesticides and chemicals so along with it’s built in resistance to disease this makes it very easy to care for in the garden.

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

Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle

December 1, 2007 by Tricia

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

This weeks theme is RED

Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle is supposed to be red, as the name implies, but in this photo the flowers seem to be pinkish don’t they?

Other times, when viewed in the garden, the flowers seems to have more orange in them and at other times they seem red. I guess this is one of those plants who’s flowers can change color slightly with the seasons or due to temperatures.

The Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle is a vine and it’s one of the hardiest vines you can purchase. However, having said that, mine didn’t do so well in the garden this year. I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t water as much this past year as we normally do or if something else was wrong.

I didn’t prune it in the spring. Perhaps it needs a pruning each year. I’ll have to look that up and see if I can make this plant do well next year.

Every thing is new to our puppy

November 29, 2007 by Tricia

We’ve been having a lot of fun with our puppy.

It seems she was raised in a barn so just about everything within our home is new to her.

The poor thing didn’t even know how to climb stairs – even short two step ones, until she got here. I was fine with that though because the stairs inside our house are hardwood and I think they might be quite slippery for her, plus the stairway is open along one side so there’s literally a risk of falling off them.

My husband has been teaching her to climb the stairs outside the house. I didn’t know he was doing that, but she can now climb the front and back stairs!

And now she can climb the stairs within our house too!

Last night when Chris went to bed she headed for the stairs and ran halfway up them before she realized what she was doing. Then she got nervous and stopped. Since I think our stairs are a hazard for her I’m going to have to find a way to block them off. With only one stairway wall though we can’t even put a baby gate at the bottom though, so I’m thinking of putting some boxes on the stairs to block her way.

Now, I was saying that everything is new to her. For example, I don’t think she’d ever heard a radio, seen a television set, or heard a phone ring. It’s been fun to watch her reactions to them. They don’t scare her at all, but she’ll occasionally bark at the TV. I think she thinks the people on it are really in the room. I’m sure it doesn’t help that we have a large screen television set so the people are fairly large.

She’s obviously never been around microwave ovens either. She turns her head from side to side when the microwave is on listening to the hum and trying to figure out what it is. Then when the timer goes off and the microwave dings she barks. I can’t figure that out since she doesn’t bark at the phone when it rings.

I think she’ll have been exposed to just about everything in our home that moves or makes a sound soon and then she won’t have these funny reactions anymore, but it sure is fun to watch her.

Pretty pink Astilbe

November 29, 2007 by Tricia

Wordless Wednesday

Yes I know I’m behind.

It’s Thursday and this is my Wordless Wednesday (not so wordless) post! Oh well.

I love Astilbe when it flowers.

I’m not that enthused with it when it’s not flowering as it’s just a small clump of green leaves. However, when those shoots come up out of the leaves and flowers form I think Astilbe is quite a pretty plant.

My puppy is a chewing maniac!

November 28, 2007 by Tricia

Our new puppy has me so exhausted. Did you know that Lab pups are totally orally fixated? Chew chew chew … often on my hands. If anyone knows how to encourage a lab puppy to NOT chew on their owners hands I’d appreciate some tips.

My hands are starting to look pretty raw between the scratches, small punctures and from going outside in the cold so often.

I think Midnight is part parana fish! I distract her with her toys or a towel that I’m allowing her to lie on and chew but she loves my hands just as much as she does her toys.

I know puppies are going through teething from about three months of age until 6 months so the chewing during this period will probably be more frequent than when she’s older, but I’ve got to get her to stop chewing on me.

And I’m so tired! She’s a ball of activity. I’m trying to pace out her activities between being in her crate, going outside and having play time in the living room but it’s exhausting. So exhausting in fact that it seems that I keep forgetting to take my own medications! Skipping meds when you have Crohns is not a good thing so you can imagine how awful I’m starting to feel.

Our pup lived in a barn with her siblings. She was visited by the family and their kids a few times each day, but I think that because she wasn’t actually living inside with the family she’s behind in her training. She should know more words/commands than she does. At least that’s what I think! So we’ve got to work really hard to get her to understand what she can and can’t do and what certain words mean.

I’m so tired.