Not photos of roses
I have millions of photos of roses. Thousands anyway. And I know a lot of them are in a great seething wodge in a nice big old wooden box that probably wonders why it couldn’t have been left a tree if this is what it’s going to be used for, it had more in mind carrying provisions on journeys to the North Pole and similar adventures–and maybe it did that before I got it, and therefore spends its days in romantic memories of past splendours–but it does improve the tone of my attic, at least before you lift the lid.
But a lot of my rose photos are actually organised and filed, amazing to relate . . . right up to the moment I try to find anything. I can find the ‘A’s . . . but they mysteriously start with Albertine, which means Agnes is still hiding in the shadows somewhere (with Abraham Darby and Adam). I can find the ‘Mme’s but the only Mme Gregoires are offcuts, and I know I did this whole amazing series of Mme Gregoire with the wisteria one year at the old house. And there is no Mme Alfred Carriere. What have you done with Mme Alfred Carriere? I’m talking to you. And I can’t find Old Blush at all either, nor any other Os (Omar Khayyam, Open Arms, Ophelia), and neither she nor Mme Gregoire is really out enough here now to start photoing this year and if this weather continues everything is going to be over in about a day and a half and the moment will never happen at all. Aside from the fact that I still haven’t settled down with one of my copious free hours to figure out how to use my new digital camera, and I don’t think the old simple-minded one has a zoom function. I’m also missing film. You can’t see what you’re doing properly on a digital, which means you’re leaving far too much of it up to the camera. And how do I know that this camera loves roses? I don’t see this mentioned anywhere in its CV. I don’t feel like relying on a silent assistant who doesn’t really love roses. Being on speaking terms with my computer would be a plus also.
When in doubt, revert to critters.
First, I never posted the platypus link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife
Second, a brilliant clever person* sent me these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPaK_W3ACLk also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goA5V7lq0Mw
There are several more of these. I haven’t watched all of them (yet) but so far this one’s my favourite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6TYvCu1z-Q&NR=1
Given Winston’s attitude toward ingestibles, however, I’m amazed he’s not walrus sized. Maybe he mostly sticks to plastic forks. I’m told plastic forks are very low-cal, and if you stir-fry them with a little soy sauce they’re not at all bad, but I’m having trouble finding organic plastic. . . . **
And last but absolutely not least another brilliant clever person sent me this link a little while ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4
. . . which it seems to me improves on repeat watching, thus declaring it to be art. I’ve now got it bookmarked, like I Has a Sweet Potato.
And I heard my second cuckoo today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove/reports/the-cuckoo-chorus/
Which is one of those serious heralds of summer in England, and one of those things that gives me a jolt of Hey! I live here! every year, year after year. Cuckoos are England, like skylarks and King Arthur. And they’re now on the endangered list–with skylarks (if possibly not King Arthur). So hearing them gives me an extra little frisson of and we’re all still here: especially because there are noticeably fewer around in this area than there were seventeen years ago when I heard my first one, lying in bed on a blue April morning. Heard the first one this year, hmm, three or four days ago? At the beginning of this effing heat. I’m glad it’s pleasing someone.***
* * *
* I have tended not to identify people who send me links because it feels a bit like outing somehow.^ Here you are mildly sending a nice link to a friend/acquaintance/some maniac who writes a blog, and the next thing you know there’s your name in lights. What do people feel about this? I’ve always identified recipe posters (at least I hope I have) because your recipe is yours and it would be rude not to, like not mentioning the author of a book.^^ Links aren’t yours in the same way.
^ Unless I’m turning you into a Heroine for the Day. I haven’t done that in a while. Mwa ha ha ha ha.
^^ Perish forfend
** It’s not a funny one, but I’m riveted by the video of Winston getting a bath. Are all Persians this mild-mannered? I think this guy’s tats are disguising all the scars from attempting to bath normal cats in shorts and a vest. Although the next question is, why do you bath a cat? Barring an unfortunate encounter with a skunk, which I believe is more dog territory, and I didn’t see any tomato juice or peanut butter, nor do you cuddle the wretched animal, even after the tomato juice. (Peanut butter is supposed to work too, but I don’t want to have to get it off again.) ^
^ Speaking of peanut butter, usually the mice in my garden go away during the summer when they can ravage entire vegetable patches elsewhere, but this year they seem to have decided to settle down, buy a house and a dishwasher, have a few kids+. . . .So before they destroy the roots of every plant I have in a pot–don’t they know tulip season is over? Tulip bulbs this time of year aren’t fat and juicy, and are not worth diving for: stick to the herb patch, will you? I’d be positively grateful if something discouraged the mint, sage and rosemary a little. Just a little–I unearthed a few mousetraps, baited them with peanut butter, and put them inside broken pots so the birds wouldn’t make any mistakes. I like peanut butter because it’s sticky. A mouse has to be a bit authoritative, which is what you want in a bait-taking situation. This morning two of the traps were untouched. The third one, the peanut butter was gone, and the trap unsprung. Maybe I need new traps. Maybe the mice have invented frictionless retrieval.
+ And when I see a mini-SUV chuntering over the gravel or winding among the dahlia cuttings there will be SCREAMING.
*** Both hellhounds still somewhat heat stricken. We had our late walk around town and met everyone we know, all of whom said, gosh, they’re so much calmer! Well done you! –Nothing to do with me, I reply sadly. They’re just hot.
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http://bp3.blogger.com/_ZxBBL9basA8/SBEJDc_rQZI/AAAAAAAAAB0/Mo4R18TQWC4/s1600-h/IMG_1828.JPG
and
http://bp3.blogger.com/_ZxBBL9basA8/SBEJOc_rQaI/AAAAAAAAAB8/qb63BnaNfxw/s1600-h/IMG_4516_3.JPG
These open much too big–I’m afraid I can’t see them on my computer/settings/whatever.
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Thanks for the platypus article. WOW! And the one in the photo is pretty cute, in a weird sort of way…
The only times I’ve ever bathed Kippy was when there were fleas about. And then EVERYONE got baths, even the ferrets. Was a hard time. Don’t ever want to do it again. Ferrets complain about baths as much as normal cats.
Mmmmm … roses….
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21742944@N05/sets/72157604616360806/
I put my order in. It was approx **cough** 20 **cough** roses. But I haven’t finished yet because some of the *old* style roses I have to go elsewhere… And I have this *list* of recommended ones. **mutter mutter**
PS. Maybe you have found the answer to limiting extreme hellhound behaviou? Just turn the central heating up……. ;) hehe
We have so few roses in common–I haven’t even HEARD of most of yours. I used to grow Dove, which was a wimpy little thing, and Autumn Damask, which was lovely. I do grow Tess, but she’s been told she has to pull herself together because I haven’t got space to waste on any weaklings.
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The trouble is there are so many to choose from! LOL
Dove *was* a wimpy little bush – until this year when it has gone crazy. Not *big* but healthy and heaps of flowers. Tess is in a most inhospitable position – it gets the howling southerly freezing gales. Damn thing loves it!! It’s over 5′ tall.
We tend to get roses from the US a lot. Most of the ones from the UK now would be Austins (I think). I love Duet – it was the first rose I grew from a cutting and it is *tough*. Would flower all year if I let it. It came from the US. Does well as a cut flower but not the scent that you get from something like Autumn Damask. Fiona’s Wish is an Australian bred rose named after our first heart transplant recepient Fiona Coote. Quite a striking bloom and a nice scent.
Also in my garden which I grew from a cutting is ‘Chateau de Clos Vouget’ which was bred in France in about 1918 I *think* and as a bush rose is quite rare in Australia now. Spindly little bush but wonderful velvety red flowers with scent. I gather the climbing sport is a lot more vigorous.
Currently on order are ‘Pegasus’, ‘Sunshine’ (ok… I’m only getting them for their names….) and ‘Scentimental’. To be ordered includes ‘Dainty Bess’, ‘Hebe’s Lip’, ‘Kazanlik’, ‘Maiden’s Blush’, ‘Mutabilis’, ‘Roger Lamberlin’ and ‘Stanwell Perpetual’.
Arrrggh! This blog has corrupted me and now I can’t stop myself! LOL
I grow Scentimental; she’s nice and healthy and she makes the hoity toity’s eyes bug out. :) I grow most of the rest of these barring Stanwell whom I think is overrated (sue me) and Rober Lamberlin . . . well, maybe he/she will like Oz, but she is the *most* miserable, crabbed little thing here. . . . I grow Baron Girod de l’Ain for white edges. She can be a trifle temperamental but I find if you feed her really well she’s good.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the engineers. I thought they were a complete hoot. I went to Caltech for graduate studies and half my friends were like that. Hell, in many ways, I was like that, sans cats (my grandmother’s Persian, Puffy, gave me an aversion it took a long time to cure). On the Platypus side of things, how fascinating. One wonders if it makes them more prone to Y-linked or X-linked diseases. I’ll have to read the Nature article I guess.
I think you have it hotter than us right now. The hellhounds may be hot, but are they eating?
If the Nature article is on line, please post. I just haven’t chased . . . something about ‘time’ . . .
are they eating?
********* *Sort of.* They’re wearing *me* out. . . .
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LOVE the engineers & cats clip. I particularly liked the deadpan expressions on the faces of all the participants. :)
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Good. And yes, absolutely!
Aw I am embarrassed and flattered to be called a brilliant clever person and the links/recipe distinction seems fairly logical!
Rich bathes Winston because he smells, apparently (like an “English Muffin of funk” http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2006/05/bath_time_is_fu.html ). Light googling suggests bathing Persians is pretty common. Maybe it’s related to all that overbreeding to get their muzzles pushed in like that?
More about Winston: http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2007/04/my_april_fool.html
She’s got the right idea about the way animals take over your life, and if you don’t want your life taken over, forget the animal. Also ‘mobile fur’ –yes. :)
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Well, many people who are allergic to cats can live with them if the cat is bathed weekly with Allerpet. It’s worked for my brother and my cousin, and I considered going that route before I decided I could not live dogless. Also, one of my friend and coworker’s four cats had severe skin problems when she was a kitten and bathing was the only thing that gave her some relief. She still likes baths.
I just bought two sad looking roses last week as an impulse buy – terrible mistake I know – and I’ve already killed one of them. I’m looking forward to those rose photos when they decide to appear :)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4U0dSxVCiKc – well here’s a cat who takes themself swimming,
and I couldn’t resist this –
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zgQAp7EYw&feature=related
- would Oisin approve?
despite great personal cost
http://southdowner.livejournal.com/
- here are some photos :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26303732@N02/sets/72157604993937314/show/
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zgQAp7EYw&feature=related
- would Oisin approve?
******* That cat is PLAYING THE PIANO. I don’t know, but I’ll let you know.
despite great personal cost
http://southdowner.livejournal.com/
- here are some photos :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26303732@N02/sets/72157604993937314/show/
************ YAAAAY. I see SIX dogs. Where are the other FIVE?
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Drat! You can count!! OK I normally allow 5 or 6 loose together as routine cause I can cope with them in a “small” group even when not fully awake, but I need to be WIDE awake and armed with clicker & treats to have fun with 10 or 11 (Beefy is a teenage nutter, so hmmm, depends on his state on any given day). I can’t hold a camera with 10 or 11 – so now I have to enlist friends.
I did take pictures of the other 5 playing with Beefy being very silly, but I can’t upload them so far ……. Will keep trying :(
I can count to *eleven*. All my fingers and one over. :)
Ha! Computer 37833391, me 1!
Here’s Beefy desperate to play and Rosie being very adult and unresponsive… and the other 3 are in there too if you look closely.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26303732@N02/sets/72157605041937656/show/
and pawtraits of all but Beefy – well, he got his own mini series, so…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26303732@N02/sets/72157605041891294/show/
and now I’m going to try the kchocolat with lemon and black pepper I found today – strange but good :)
Beefy’s series won’t run? Just that single photo? (More! MORE! :))
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26303732@N02/sets/72157605041937656/show/
this should give you the full on Beefy experience but the picture on my blog is only a photo (a photo which made me sweat blood and pay money to flickr and…) thinking pink clouds and fluffy bunnies, and BREATHE, and out…
(prays to computer gods – please work)
Oh my lord, WINSTON! Have you watched the other videos in which he stars? The bath is my favorite.
“some maniac who writes a blog” LOL! I think that’s how my friends secretly refer to me behind my back.
“Sumer is icomen in, lhude sing cuccu” — I figure you’re bound to get that from someone, so it might as well be me. :D The cuckoos probably do love the heat since they’re African birds.
People in general tend to think short-haired dogs like the heat and have big problems with winter. Unless they’re left out in the winter, I don’t think that’s true. Mine like to sunbathe if it’s not really hot, and when it’s *cold* they have their moments of being heat-seeking missiles, but they’re much more likely to linger outside on a cold dry day than on a hot one. (Lingering on any kind of WET day is not much of an option at all. You already know this.) Although there are always exceptions–my mother had a Dachshund who liked to catch rays on a blacktop driveway in southern California in the summer. Some dogs like going to extremes.
Did you get a digital SLR? Does it not use a viewfinder like a film camera? The point-and-shoot one I mean to replace does NOT use a viewfinder, which is why I hate it–not being comfortable with that makes sense to me.
Yes: I had my first whippet in maine and like, so? I didn’t leave her outdoors. We went for *brisk* walks and came home again.
I have NO IDEA what this digital thing is except that it has more wheels and buttons than *god* and I don’t understand ANY of them. I’ve been carrying the wretched thing–and its manual–around with me for WEEKS because ANY MINUTE NOW I’m going to FIGURE IT OUT. I’ve got to that infuriating stage of looking at something and thinking ‘that’s a photo for the blog’ and then I don’t have a camera. One that I can use. I *am* going to start taking old fashioned film as *back up* however.
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Okay, you people are FAR too interesting; I haven’t been able to visit for a couple of days because I was out Friday and was working on a project last night (nothing exciting; finance-related so I can figure out where I’m spending my money), and was just going to peek a little tiny bit before going to bed (since Romania I’ve had far less energy and getting behind on sleep for even a day or two puts me under for longer than I feel it should [I'm just glad I have no small children....]). But… I ended up reading all of the entries I had missed (which was a lot, somehow!). Sigh. At least tomorrow night when I come back I’ll have fewer entries to read. Theoretically.
First of all, I’m glad you posted the platypus link. We had it covered in our local paper as well; I’m going to post the link here because they had some different added facts:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/promos/wirepicks/story/355063.html
Hopefully that will work (the link, I mean). I was highly entertained by this article. I mean, really; TEN sex genes? (the bit about being similar to bird sex chromosomes was interesting too; I thought, “Birds have different sex chromosomes??”) But then I’ve always loved platypi (I know that’s not the official plural, but I think it sounds so much better than “platypuses”). One of those definite, “God has a sense of humor,” type moments. Not to mention messing with all of our nice neat little biological definitions of mammal vs. bird vs. reptile.
I also wanted to jump in on the computer discussion with a story that I hope you will be entertained by (although I hope it doesn’t provide inspiration; I don’t ACTUALLY recommend trying this at home…). My first couple of years in Romania I worked at a computer school. We regularly got donations from people in the States of their old computers that were outdated. I don’t know if you’ve tried working with ancient and decrepit computers (many of them could only work with Windows 95, and were starting to be grumpy about that too), but it’s a pain (especially when they’re all different ages, working with all different operating systems, and you’re trying to get them all to communicate through a network). The head computer school teacher (“Mariana”; she was also my housemate in Romania) was brilliant at coaxing them into life (something like the constant amount of work it takes to make hellhounds eat, only you don’t even get a hellhound at the end, just a marginally functional computer), but some of them were beyond her skills.
My current housemates came to visit me for a little while during the time I was living there. The male half of the couple (“Chris”, although I’ll probably change that pseudonym for him should he jump into my comments again in the future) is a comp sci major, works with computers full-time, etc., so Mariana set aside some of the computers that she couldn’t fix so that he could take a look at them when he came. Mariana and I had this long running joke about how we would take a hammer to the particularly incalcitrant computers to make them work. So when Chris and family showed up in Romania and we were showing them around the apartment, Mariana and I made sure to show him where the hammer was, “So you can be ready to go fix the computers.” He looked at us, looked at the hammer, and said, “Hmm. If this is how you’ve been fixing them, I think I can tell you why you’re not having good results….” Mariana’s still at the computer school, and frequently still longs to take a hammer to them.
I also had to chime in on the whole TV issue (I know it’s been ages, but…). When I was younger I watched TV fairly regularly, but at one point in time my parents challenged my sister and me to go for a whole year without watching tv at all. The reward we would get was fairly substantial, and so I did (and I was always more of a book person anyway, although my tv time was… more than I wanted it to be). That was in middle school, and I never properly went back to it. In college my roommate and I chose not to have one, and were completely satisfied with that decision (who has time to watch tv at college anyway?). When I moved to Romania, our landlady asked Mariana and me if we wanted a tv (we got a furnished apt) and we both voted against it. Then I returned to live with current housemates (the ones who came to visit us in Romania); they own a tv but have no cable, and only use it for occasional movies. It is wonderful, and I haven’t missed it at all. It eats up so much time and can be so addictive; I remember that one of the reasons I wanted to stop watching it is that there’s this show that my whole family (myself included) watched regularly every week, and our schedule started to revolve around it (none of us were good enough with VCRs to program them and thus be gone all day while still recording it). I decided that I didn’t want a tv show to control my life like that, no matter how good it was (and I have a hard time stopping once I get started).
So now I don’t watch tv. It’s restful and peaceful, plus we do all sorts of other things; playing with my housemates’ kids, for example (who once summer starts practically live outside in our large yard), talking to each other, reading together (okay, not the same book at the same time, but we can all sit in a room peacefully enjoying books together with that group camraderie that comes from being quiet together [except for the younger child, who can't read yet; he's three, though, and can sit for 45+ minutes to be read to. The older boy, who is six, can read by himself for an hour or two]), playing games, etc.
And I will say in response to the electronic babysitter idea that while it’s a useful fix and seems helpful when they’re really young, it quickly becomes addictive. The boys get very occasional movies (mostly when they’re either sick [esp. if they need some sort of medical treatment they dislike] or so tired they’re falling all over the place and smashing their heads into cupboards); at the older boy’s peak tv watching time (when he got to watch a movie while his mom was putting his baby brother down for a nap) he would sometimes see as much as 3 or 4 hours of tv a week. Sometimes. So they’ve learned other ways to entertain themselves. Like I said, the older boy can read for an hour or two on his own. And I’ve heard them sitting and playing, often with each other, for 30-45 min completely by themselves (“by themselves” as in they’re in the room over, no grown-ups interfering or guiding their play, and I’m in the kitchen washing dishes [my usual household chore] and listening for them). Both are very active; I shudder to think what would have happened to them on a typical tv diet. I have no doubt that they would have developed serious behavior issues from too much cooped-up frantic energy and no idea of how to use it.
It does cost something not to watch tv, in a tv world, though. I can’t handle being in a house where it’s on. The commercials especially make me cringe, and give me a headache. And when other people are so used to it that they don’t even realize that it’s on, so they just leave it on, I go quietly mad. Sometimes to the point of not visiting them (I invite them over to my place, or we go out, or something). And it is hard not to feel slightly superior to people who complain constantly about how much tv they watch and never do anything about it (although I know that it’s not exactly fair, because I was always much more book-oriented. Some people compliment me on how much I read [because that's considered a mark of an intellectual or something]. This has always felt like being complimented on how well I walk on two legs instead of four; it’s just a part of my make-up).
My sister did feel vindicated by your website, though, Robin. Her family (I suppose I should clarify at this point that she’s actually my stepsis, although as far as I’m concerned she’s the real deal) watched tv more than mine, and she never grew up reading. I always gave her loving grief about this (and read several books to her; she is now a mild bookworm, which I consider mostly my fault), and if she went on about any particular tv show I would rag her about it. Well, she liked Buffy and talked about it a lot, so of course I had to tease her about that. But then I read Sunshine to her and through resulting conversations she found out that you like Buffy. After that, everytime she would make any sort of comment about Buffy, she would look at me with this glint of triumph in her eye and say, “But don’t say anything, because you know that ROBIN MCKINLEY watches Buffy too!” What could I say?
That was an excessively long post (this is why I really shouldn’t skip days), and I’d better go to bed so I’m not a total zombie tomorrow. About those short posts…. Sigh.
I know you are not comfortable with using computers, but Flickr is a great resource for someone with LOTS of photos and wanting to store online digital copies of them.
http://www.flickr.com – they have a free limited feature option so you can try them out, but its REALLY cheap to upgrade to a pro account and get full feature access.
Its really easy to use and you could group your roses by type ie Hybrid Tea, Musk, Climber etc
AND best of all, instead of battling with your blog software, you can just give us links to your Flickr page.
mine is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebluerose – which I have a few rose photos on, but the rest are here
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/9544/rose_photo.htm
I give my cat a bath because he has very sensitive skin. If he doesn’t get washed at least once a month, he gets ratty-looking and itchy. The first time I washed him, I involuntarily donated half of my blood, but he’s gotten used to it. Now he doesn’t mind (too much) unless the water’s cold.
Have you seen this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA
Nothing funny about this. Perfectly sensible fellow. :)
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So, I’ve been thinking for a while that I would love to share this YouTube clip, but I didn’t want to be one of those people who just posts random YouTube videos, because that seems rude and rather annoying.
But since you brought up animals doing funny things, this is the best one I’ve ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_uWa8i8kzc&feature=related
It’s not a cat, but a raccoon, and I could watch it every day and still laugh.
PS – That article on the platypus was awesome, thank you.
Cat flaps are *dangerous.* Absolutely!! :)
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Since you enjoy amusing cat videos, has anyone pointed you in the direction of this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yVjzd320gew ? It is seriously one of the funniest things I have ever, ever seen…
ROTFL!!
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Re: mousetraps with peanut butter – I used to use peanut butter, with the same result. I find raisins, wedged in there good and tight, with peanut butter ON them often do the trick…
I’m back visiting the blog after a long and very hectic spring – I like the new one!
Good! :)
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For mouse traps I use cake decorating icing “moulding paste”. Easy to get into a small ball like plasticine and then it sets like rock on the teeth of the mouse trap. The mouse has to really *work* to get a taste and they LOVE sugar. ;)
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What a good idea! I’ll try that. Thank you!
It’s generally considered polite in the blogging world to give credit to whoever you got a link from. It doesn’t seem a huge deal to me and I’m sure it’s not to most or all of your readers, but some people get quite uptight about it. I don’t know why, since as you said, it’s not like the person you got the link from is generally the author of the content, but this is the generally accepted netiquette.
Okay. I’ll start trying to do this.