Quick Update

Just a quick update before I go to bed on the forest fire that I posted about yesterday. It rages on, having consumed 20,000 acres so far. One person is unaccounted for, more and more evacuations have been announced, and the news said the current evacuation center has been closed because of the falling ash, which concerns me because it is in the public school just a few blocks from where my daughter lives. She said tonight that they may have to evacuate because of falling ash and burning cinders. She is by the way due to have her baby June 22, so I worry about her stress.

The good news: her husband's father was able to get access to their home and the house is safe, but the fire was coming down the hill behind the barn, so he is sure that he lost his barn. He didn't stick around to see. They still don't know if their daughter's house survived. It will be weeks before they will be able to get back to their property. Here, the smoke is much heavier than it was yesterday. We are probably 50 miles away and the smoke and ash are drifting in the wind. I finally closed doors and windows to keep the smoke smell out. The fire is 0% contained, has burned for 36 hours now and probably was caused by lightening. If you are curious about the fire, go to our Denver news station 9news.com.

 If you are of a praying mind, please remember those poor folks who have lost their homes. Good night.

Fire

The smell of smoke hangs heavy in the evening air tonight as yet another forest wild fire rages in the mountains west of us, about 25 miles west of Ft. Collins. It was first reported early this morning and by late afternoon had burned between 2 and 3 thousand acres.  This is the 3^rd wild fire in month in that general vicinity. The mountain forests are tinder boxes, ready to burst into flame at the least spark. The first fire was man caused. A poor camper’s little camp stove fueled by alcohol tipped over, starting near by grasses on fire. The camper had no chance of stomping out the fire, which burned for over a week. The second fire, just barely extinguished, was started by lightening.  This fire, the High Peak Fire, has now burned 5,000 acres. These mountainsides are homes to many families and this fire is personal because we have friends who make the hills home. My daughter’s in-laws have a beautiful home and they have evacuated, leaving behind their life, their home. They spent the long afternoon cutting timber in hopes of having enough of a fire line to keep the house safe. They will probably know by morning if their efforts were effective.

Ninety percent of the state has been declared in a drought, with the weatherman just saying that it would take a week of rain to dampen the forests enough to cancel the fire danger. In addition to extremely dry conditions, Colorado forests have been heavily damaged with the mountain pine beetle, a vermin with a huge appetite for lodge pole pine, which makes up most of the forest. So with the combination of beetle kill  trees and dry conditions, wild fires are an everpresent danger. From here, we see the smoke. This evening’s photos tell the story.

The smoke drifts to the north then heads east as far as Nebraska, so far.

Meet the Neighbors

The days are quiet here lately, but in the weeks to come the Garden Spot will be alive with little voices--loud little  voices. Our grandson Jacob will be here next week, and when New Baby Girl arrives her big sisters will be here, so I am enjoying the peace and quiet. These quiet days are the ones I longed for as the school semester began to wear me down. We accomplished a lot over the Memorial Day weekend, especially getting the garden planted. We started tomatoes and peppers in early March inside. The tomatoes are pathetic, while the peppers looks pretty decent.  So come along with me as I take an afternoon walk around the Garden Spot.

Meet the neighbor boys. Cute, aren'they? But don't get too attached because they won't be around for long.

The boys go by their ear tag numbers; no names so we don't get too attached. There are actually 4 steers and they are bad boys. They have already escaped once. Two traveled miles away, but were safely located and returned home. They seemed to have learned their lesson: the grass really isn't greener on the other side.

The garden is planted. Now we wait for the goodness of Mother Earth--and the weeds.

The hay was cut today. This is our neighbor's. Looks pretty good.

Laid out neatly in rows, the hay will dry for a few days then be bailed for Sundance.

Speaking of the old boy. He's on his way to the front pasture. He only grazes for a couple of hours each day; he's carrying a bit too much weight.

Still, a handsome fellow.

The Girls are doing well, though they are a scruffy bunch. They molted early in the winter and just haven't grown their feathers, but they are happy, giving 4-6 eggs a day. Not bad for 8 hens.

Sundance's friends are eager to head out to pasture too.

I love horses. 

Sundance greets his friends and then they all get down to grazing.

I hope you enjoyed our walk about. 

Now, I'd like to walk around your garden.

:)-

How'd You Do That?

When I became a blogger, I didn't realize just how much I would learn and how much I would be inspired by not just the amazing gardens, but the beautiful photography that the gardeners proudly post. I have always loved taking pictures, first using my mother's vintage square box camera as a kid. Once I had my first real job teaching school, I bought my own camera, a used Pentax Spotmatic 35mm. I loved that camera. For years it went everywhere with me. I lugged it through England and Ireland, and I also took a little Nikon, one of these that used a film cartridge. For my third tour of England, I had graduated to a digital camera, and most recently I took the big leap to buy a 35 mm Cannon Rebel--the new love of my life. Along with photography, I am also a computer geek, so in the pre-digital era,  I'd spend hours scanning the photos and playing with the freebe Photoshop that used to come with the HP printers. I just had fun, but never  had a way share my work, except to maybe print a home made greeting card.

Blogging now has taken me to a new level. Jen at Muddy Boot Dreams has the most amazing photos, so I asked her how she got such beautiful backgrounds for her photos, and she kindly shared her secret. She uses Picasa and Photoshop and gets textures from two web sites: Shadow House Creations and Kim Klassen Cafe.com. So with these two web sites, I began downloading the free textures and I began playing.  Last night I played with Picasa and today I spent the morning trying to master Photoshop on my work computer. First I needed some instruction on how to work with layers and textures. After previewing several youtube tutorials, I found one that I could follow: How to Apply Textures to Photos.  (A side note: Photoshop can be pretty intimidating, but with good tutorials you can accomplish what you want, but it is a lot of trial error, time consuming, and even frustrating.)

Here then are my results from Picasa--not perfect, but hey, I am a beginner.

Before: The Head Gardener had been working in the garden all day. He called me out to take picture of a hawk, but hawks don't wait for the photographer to change lenses. But I did a few shots of hubby's tools when he finished his work: a rusty, trusty shovel and his grandmother's old cultivator that he used to ditch his rows propped up against the dying weeping willow.

Using Picasa: After adding a textured layer, the photo becomes more ethereal. I like it. The willow branch that spoils the original blends in, becoming less noticeable.

Before: I did some editing in Picasa first to a not so good photo.

After: I like this. (Picasa)

Just a pink rose with a bit of texture added.

Before: St. Patrick as it appears in the garden.

St. Patrick with a bit of lace texture added using Picasa.

Textures are easily added in Picasa: 

• Select your photo, edit it.
• Give it any of the special effects that you like, clean it up.
• Then add it to the collage tray. 
• Download your favorite texture into Picasa
• Add it to your collage tray.  
• Click on the collage button. 
• In the menu that allows you to choose how to arrange your collage photos, choose multiple exposure that allows you to superimpose one image on top of another. 
• And WHA-LA you have an amazing effect. 
• Create your collage and share it with your readers.

Picasa is limited in what it can do, which I think makes it more fun because you can get good, instant results, so for beginners, it works like a charm. Picasa is a free photo editor that you can download.  The textures come from Shadow House Creations.

So now you know how I did that. Do you have any cool tricks or skills to share? I'd love to see how you did that.

Milestones

We had a very busy week at the Garden Spot, culminating in two real mile markers.

Miss Elinore graduated Pre-School at John's Lutheran Church and is enrolled in kindergarten at a charter school in Ft. Collins that teaches core subjects. Congratulations, Elinore. You are off to brilliant start and a bright future.

And that moment passed.

 On to the next milestone: Ellie and little sister Lucy are getting a new baby sister, due June 22.

So we showered the new baby with pink. Lots and Lots of pink.

I had a bit of milestone of my own: I learned how to crochet flowers and leaves. (I love youtube).

And there are milestones in the garden too.

The roses are blooming. 

And there are other milestones in the garden:

Two new columbine that just appeared on their own. Actually I transplanted them as volunteer seedlings from other spots late last summer and waited all spring to see what they would look like, so I don't know the variety of either one.  Upper right, a stick. A sickly stick. Actually it is a red japanese maple that has new growth at the very bottom, so it didn't die over the winter after all. Now, I'd say that is a milestone. We'll see how the little tree fairs over the summer. Heather gave me the meadow rue from her garden, not a very good likeness here, but it is healthy and happy.  And of course, another iris. This one we moved from the old house. It was a Dike's Award winner that hubby bought years ago. I love the lavender and yellow together.

By the end of the summer, I had also hoped to show off the pink dinner plate dahlias that I planted; unfortunately, we won't be seeing them. Some critter has dug up all four tubers and I suppose had a grand feast.

Here's what happens when you neglect a garden, when you leave it to come up with its own grow plan. When you leave a garden to its own devices,  stuff grows and grows and grows. Close up, it looks grand and even pretty, but there is an underbelly of thistle, bind weed to no end, and every other noxious weed that can find its way in. A milestone for this week: get the weeds under control. 

The Head Gardener went fishing for the weekend,  leaving me on duty for chores. So I called for back up.

He comes in the dark of night, egg basket in hand. Silently, bravely, on a mission he heads to the Hen House.

Superman from the Big City (Denver) carefully removes each egg (even the fake ones meant to encourage the hens to lay their eggs in the nests, not on the floor).

His basket full, he disappears once again into the night.

I hope you all had a good week with your own special milestones. I am enjoying reading all of your blogs, eager to see what milestones are happening in your gardens, enjoying the beautiful flowers, wonderful photography, and the good stories that you all share, loving the trips that some are taking, enjoying the home arts and projects that my blogging friends share.

With the baby shower out of the way, the fishing trip wrapped up, the Head Gardener and I will tackle weeds, and hopefully come up with a plan and get started building our main water feature that will be about 750-1,000 gallons. Now that will be a milestone.

I hope you all have a great week and that you meet all of your gardening milestones.

A Rose By Any Other Name

It is a quiet, overcast, damp morning at the Garden Spot. Just the sort of morning to linger with a hot cup of coffee. The David Austins should feel right at home with this sort of cool, damp weather.  They are beginning to settle in, but not without trauma. Between a bit of a freeze and harsh wind right after we planted them and probably not enough water, two roses struggled, but now seem to be adjusting to their new home. So meet the David Austins:

The name tag collage didn't turn out quite like I wanted with name of each rose. This little garden represents my tours of England that I took in 2001 and again in 2006 and the fact that I am not only a student of English literature, but I share my passion with I hope eager students.

Top Left: Winchester Cathedral-- named for the cathedral located in Hampshire, England originally dates back to 642 and is the burial place of Jane Austin-- will bloom all summer long. The red rose is Tess of the D'Urbervilles, named after a Thomas Harding heroine in the novel of the same name publish in 1891.  Along with Jane Ayer, Tess is one of my favorite English heroines. Row 2: the pink climber named for famed Irish flute virtuoso Sir James Galway will provide a beautiful backdrop to the court yard pond. Shropshire Lad, named for the county that borders Wales has already bloomed and will certainly put on a show by mid summer. The David Austins will grow 4-5 feet tall and will bloom abundantly with sweet rose perfumed fragrance all summer long. They gracefully unfurl from the center with rippling rows of petals that smile back as I admire their beauty. Once established, they will be hardy in our hot, dry climate. 

Lastly, the tea roses by Weeks Roses Justy Joey and St. Patrick, both have bloomed and seem to be liking their new home. When we bought the roses, I was looking for color not names. Once I got them home, the name Just Joey sounded so familiar, so I looked back at my old notebook from the old house to see if I had a Joey, and indeed I did, so Just Joey has returned, a beautiful prolific bloomer. Finally, a bright yellow rose St. Patrick adds pop to the courtyard among the pinks and reds that are already there. 

My favorite rose brand was Jackson and Perkins, which has gone out of business and, according to a nurseryman, has sold its fields to Week Roses, so the quality will still be there. J&P roses can still be purchased through their online catalog, but I prefer the potted roses to the bare root roses. Right now the nurseries and garden centers are well stocked with roses, but I would imagine that they will go quickly as they make wonderful gifts for Mother's Day.  Last year I bought two roses at Home Depot, off brands that were cheap. One died for no good reason (that I could tell) and the other struggled, but this year seems to be coming on stronger with a dose of good rose food.

My daughter consulted a rose specialist to inspect her tiny rose garden because she couldn't get her roses to bloom. She was ready to tear them out. With a bit of sound advice from the rosarian and Bayers Systemic rose food, her roses began to thrive. So I converted to Bayers and am quite pleased with the results. My roses have always been plagued with aphids and this systemic feed also kills the pests. Some say that today's gardeners tend to shy away from roses because they require so much work. Not really, though they do have specific requirements. I told my husband a while ago that I would to have one hundred roses. I doubt that I will invest in that many roses, but my collection is sure to grow. 

The iris are also starting to put on a show. 

Such easy keepers and prolific bloomers, iris add a dash of color and elegance to any garden spot. I had a nice collection of roses at the old house and moved some that haven't bloomed yet, so these are new bloomers left behind by the last gardener blooming for the first time since we have lived here. 

So what's new in your garden this week? Hope you all have wonderful Mother's Day.

I Love it When a Project Comes Together: The Great Reveal

We have been working on this project ever since we moved to The Garden Spot.

What a nightmare. I hated coming in the front door.

Pretty Pathetic. Now a rose garden.

Preformed tub for the water garden with a waterfall.

Hubby has such a good eye for digging holes.

I was so happy to see water

This water lily was able to escape the temporary home where my water lilies have lived since we moved to the Garden Sport.

We used nearly a pallot of moss rock. 

I planted the plants this morning and still want to add some grasses to naturalize the area. 

The project isn't totally finished, but I am pretty happy with the results.