See how the Garden Grows...

Meet Clementina Carbonieri (CC), a tea rose, which shows what teas are really good for and that is the variability of the color of rose they produce depending on the weather. This time of year you see more of the vivid colors seen in the upper left corner due to cooler weather, most of the summer you see the more muted colors seen in the bottom right. All pictures shown in this entry are from today or yesterday so with the exception of two cool nights many weeks ago it's been hot.

CC resides in the front garden for the entire world to see. Well mostly walkers since we don't get a lot of traffic this way but still on display to greet the masses so to say.

Other roses that reside with CC in the back row are Blush Noisette and Clotilde Soupert. Blush has begun to take over the turnaround driveway as you can see in the front garden photo and is actually a very prolific blooming rose. And as it is known Clotilde is either very good or horrid as she is known for her balling blooms when the weather turns wet. But then again what is wet these days so she has been exceptionally good this year. ;-)

Some of these are in the front and some in the back. Star of the Republic is a rose from Antique Rose Emporiums breeding of Texas roses. It does well here and is a sprawling rose. It resides in what I call the kitchen garden. Next the yellow rose is Irish Hope, a good reliable floribunda rose. It resides in the front garden and is hidden amongst CC, Natchitoches Noisette and a blush Knockout. Bottom left is Natchitoches Noisette is another good bloomer as it tries to out perform Blush. Finally, Tamora is an Austin English rose that has this awesome myrrh smelling rose (kind of like licorice).

Here are my humming bird's favorite flowers. They pretty much hang out on these so the feeders don't get touched that often. Wish they would sit still long enough, or rather I need a camera with a faster shutter. :)

Hope you enjoyed your tour.

Where's our Fall?

Well here it is now officially Fall and yes it is still 90 during the day. We did get a two day preview of Fall but then it went right back to Summer. The trees say it's Fall with all their leaves raining down. If this keeps up in another week it will require a daily raking of the driveway so we don't slide down the hill. :) We also got some much needed rain a couple weeks ago but now we are back into the drought. With this heat and dry weather I haven't felt like getting the standard Fall plants for planting as 90 is too hot for the pansies and johnny jump-ups to get going and the blooming Mums will go from bloom to drop in just a few days. So I guess we will wait and see what October brings and if there are any plants to be had come shopping time at our local nursery.

On a more somber note I found the start of RRD on one of my early climbers Souvenir de Madame Léonie Viennot. It's been in the garden around seven years now and although a once bloomer it was a long bloomer and worth the yearly show it would put on. Even with the drought this year it has put on lots of growth. The RRD didn't show itself till this past week. If you live in the East take time to look at this site on RRD so you will know if it has come into your garden and what you need to do.

MS3 - It's a Block and a Wrap!

Pattern - Myster Stole 3 KAL - Swan Lake
Pink Lemon Twist Patterns (p62)
Yarn - Alpaca with a Twist - Fino
Color - Champaigne (0201)
Needles and size - Clover Bamboo dpn and Addi-Turbo US 3 and Addi-Turbo Lace US 3

Happily the Mystery Stole 3 - Swan Lake has been finished. The knit along was lots of fun and each of the seven instruction installments were given each Friday. Clue one was 100 rows starting with 1 stitch and growing to 99 stitches total. Clue two and three there were 50 rows at 99 stitches. Then with clue four there was a decision to make the stole shorter or longer. I opted for longer so 220+ rows at 99 stitches. With clue five the theme of the mystery stole was revealed as Swan Lake and the beginning of the wing was begun with short rows, 100 rows starting again with 3 stitches and going to 99. Clue six and seven continued with the short row wing, 50 rows continually growing to over 200 stitches.

Since clue one was released the last Friday of June and I was still on the fence as to whether I was going to do this one...ok after seeing photos of several finished clue ones I was hooked. Clue two was released before I had picked up my yarn, beads, and swatched the practice pattern to make sure the needle size was good. It was off to knit clues one and two before clue three was released. Almost but not quite, but I did catch up by clue four and kept up the rest of the time. So time spent around 6 weeks and many hours. Clues one and two were challenging to me and required that I remove myself from other distractions, lest I miss a knit together or a yarn over and then have to tink back a few rows to correct. Life-lines were good to have, but not needed...Did have one point where I dropped a stitch and had to go back three rows. But that was minor and at 99 stitches not too bad. :) From clue three on it became repeatable pattern work so I could return to the real world while knitting. Melanie should have this and the variation patterns available in Sept 2007 for purchase at Pink Lemon Twist under Patterns.

Here it is blocking...too big to fit on the table
so I blocked one end and then the other.

Bonsai Tunic

Pattern - Bonsai Tunic from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 (p62)
Yarn - Berroco Bonsai
Color - Sora Blue (4148)
Needles and size - Addi-Turbo US 8 & 6

The Bonsai Tunic was started at the end of June and finished 3 Sept. Time spent on the project around 30 hours total. Modifications to the pattern were made since my size fell between the options of 34 and 38. If I were only going to wear this during the summer I would have made the size 34 but since this will look great with my long sleeve mock turtles and t-shirts I sized the pattern to 36 by removing 2 stitches from each side for a total of 8 stitches removed. The bamboo ribbon used to knit this was easy to use, but a challenge to hide the ends. I still need to take needle and thread to secure a few around the arms and neck. If you want to make this pattern with the yarn specified I would go with one size smaller than your normal bust measurement since this yarn like cotton tends to grow a little. If using wool you should be fine making either the smaller size or one with no ease. This is rated a fun and easy knit.