May Flowers 3
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This posting is a little later than I had planned because I was put on alert by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) twice in the last 3 days – first to head to Nebraska on a horse cruelty case, and more recently for the Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara.  As often happens with disasters, we’ve repeatedly been “put on alert” (instructed to pack and be ready to go), followed by being told to “stand down” and return to normal life (whatever that means).  For me, it means I push my disaster bags back into the closet and keep them ready for the next fire that is sure to happen somewhere in the west, or the next hurricane, or wherever it may be that I’m needed. 

Of course, the Santa Barbara fire is hardly a done deal.  My father-in-law emailed, and twittered, at 1:30 this morning to say that they had just received the order to evacuate.  Thankfully, one of my sisters-in-law lives in the area and could give them refuge.  She had to evacuate from the fires last year, so hopefully she will escape their wrath this year.  She is currently housing several other refugees from the blaze.  Everyone has fingers crossed, hoping that weather conditions will cooperate and allow the firefighters to get things under control.  I’ll keep you posted.

In the midst of all this, we have Mother’s Day weekend.  What better time to take a look at the roses that are in glorious bloom around Rancho Am Broko.  If I showed you photos of every single rose on the place it would take me forever to get a posting out.  So I am going to focus on a select few, chosen because Butterfly said, “That one!  Take a picture of that one!”

do you think she has enough flowers?

Here you can see the entrance to Butterfly’s rose garden on the side of her house.  It’s through that arbor.  Go ahead, you can make it.  Just push the clematis out of the way.  By the way, the furniture on her front porch is covered in sheets because that crazy robin, Robby, keeps paying her visits and pooping on everything.

a few dogs to go with all the flowers

As you get closer to the arbor, you can see that you really can get through it.  That may not be true much longer, since Butterfly has an aversion to pruning.

the gardener responsible for all of this

It’s hard to believe that she actually cuts these bushes back really short in the winter.  They are NOT tree roses.  They don’t know that, but they aren’t.  Someone asked me what kind of fertilizer we use.  We don’t.  Never occurs to us to fertilize.  It’s all we can do to weed.  Butterfly does, however, cut up banana peels and put them around the bases of the rose bushes.  They do like their potassium.

Double Delight

4th of July

Happy Mother’s Day!