Where oh where has my wooly coat gone?

Unlike a hair stylist, our shearer has only one cut...all over naked.

Garden gone wild

Once upon a time long ago my garden was HUGE.. almost 2 acres... neatly tended and loved. It had hundreds of old-fashioned roses and perennials. It was in zone 4 with fierce winters and dry, hot summers. The annual precipitation is only 12-14 " a year and this garden received no supplemental water and survived. It was featured in Better Homes & Gardens and in a book entitled "Beautiful Rose Gardens of America." It consumed my life and one day I quit.. just quit, and let it go wild. Now I like it better than ever before.

Now it is like a secret magical garden with survivors flourishing and peeking out from bushes, weeds, grasses, and trees. Every day is a suprise. This morning I photographed what used to be an arbor now impassable and smothered by an old climber spreading out 20' in all directions,


a foxtail lily almost 6' tall where no human could ever tread,


an old rose and a honeysuckle vine engulfing a gazebo that had collapsed under snow several years ago and the rose behind in covering an allee that the path under has long since disappeared in a dense carpet of wooly thyme,



and last but not least a gorgeous Chinese tree peony blooming gloriously wedged in by an old gallica rose and a mulberry tree on steroids. Every day is an adventure.

Grandfather's Rose

My grandfather planted this rose by his log house in 1907. My mother took cuttings in the late forties when the log house was torn down. It has been propagated and passed down now to the 4th generation. His homestead was high in the mountains of northern Idaho and this rose can easily survive -10 degrees without any damage.

It has a life of its own and we have to continually hack it back as it grows over the roof of the barn and causes leaks by growing between the sheets of metal roofing. It only blooms in June but what a show....When I had my nursery I propagated thousands and sold them here in Spokane. Now in June you see it blooming all over town and I know my grandfather (dead for 60 years) has to know and be proud.....Had to share.

Basted block for Breast Cancer Quilt

This block is constructed with fabric from donated

wedding dresses and is a fundraising project for breast cancer research. Leslie Ehrlich is coordinating the project and assembling the quilt.

It is a so special to be included. Now the embellishments begin!