Into the Rose Garden

It's that time of year again. The Rose Garden is in full bloom. Just have a look at some of these beauties.

There was no pruning done this year before the rose bushes started to get going. So the bushes were allowed to grow at their whim and put out a wonderful display. Although this created a mess of branches and runners going every-which-way, it made the garden more natural and honestly, just a lovely riot of untamed colour. 

The bushes will be cut back once they have finished their initial blooming, which will most likely cause them to put forth another growth spurt and more blooms later in the summer. Which is not a bad thing. 
 

First up is our Peace Rose. It's a gorgeous salmon or peach colour that becomes more yellow in the center as it opens up. 

This one starts out dark and then fades to a more delicate pink as it fully opens. It has the most wonderful scent as well.

This is one of the yearly favourites, called "Rio Samba". It has been in the garden for a number of years and each year it puts forth a beautiful display. It doesn't have much of a scent, but it makes up for it in striking patterns and strong stems. And large thorns.

Here is the same "Rio Samba" once it has fully opened. 

This beautifully full rose is a David Austin variety. David Austin roses are known for their fullness, or "double rose" as they often have twice the petal count as other rose types. 

Another David Austin rose; this time in peach (and it the rain). 

This pink stipes-and-speckles rose has the sweetest, almost innocent scent. It has been in the garden for as long as I can remember (which is a fairly long time). We have dubbed it the Candy Cane rose because of it's stripes. It blooms twice; once in late May and then again towards the end of August. It has clusters of flowers that don't last as long as the other roses in the garden, but it makes up for in the number of blooms it puts forth. It's probably one of my favourites in the garden. 

This dark rose is a new addition to the Rose Garden this year. I took Dad to the garden center to pick out a Father's Day gift. He saw this and immediately put it in our shopping cart. It's called "Purple Tiger". It took to it's new home just fine and put out a beautiful display of blooms despite being replanted in mid-June.

This is just a small sample of the roses in bloom this year in the Rose Garden. The weather has been so warm the past week that most of time I am just focusing on staying cool and keeping hydrated. Hope you enjoyed this short trip into the Rose Garden.

A Year of Pretty - January 26, 2014

Today's Pretty Post is this sample of really detailed ribbon and bead / button embroidery from pintangle. Pintangle is a website with amazing examples and tutorials for Surface Embroidery.

As a gal who loves texture and design details, this is right up my alley. If only I had more time.

I used to embroider all the time. And by all the time I mean every evening, or on long car rides, or on the bus. I think I was probably the only teenage girl working with needle and thread. More than once I caught the eye of an elder woman and we shared a small smile. Embroidery takes time, it takes commitment and it takes patience. And she was letting me know she knew this.

So I can just imagine the time and effort that went into making this sample shown above. Then imagine this as part of a larger quilt. Months, years even of selecting just the right button and stitching it on in place.

To this day, there are several large embroidery projects around my parents' house. Some are pillows, some are wall hangings. But each is treasured because they were made by hand over many, many hours.

Traditionally, women would get together and work on their projects, exchange the recent gossip (who's cow had gotten out of the pasture and trampled the prize winning begonias, who was seen walking together after church last Sunday). And they would learn skills and techniques from each other. This doesn't seem (nice pun) to happen anymore; at least not here in Vancouver, BC. Which is why websites like pintangle are so essential for sharing these ideas and methods.

In our fast paced world of mass production, give me a piece of material, some thread and some beads or buttons; a comfy corner with good lighting and a cup of hot tea. And then leave me for hours at a time and I will be perfectly happy.

Come Sit for a Bit . . .

mmmm, to curl up with a good book (or even a wonderful cookbook with all sorts of inspiring ideas), a cup of tea and some soft music . . . . inviting, yes? Maybe some nice raspberry jam tarts or one or two lucious lemon bars to nibble on. A plump content cat lazing nearbye would not be unwelcome.

I could spend the better part of a Sunday morning in a setting like this. Actually, it doesn't even have to be a Sunday . . .or a morning. I think 3:45pm on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon sounds just about the perfect time for a cup of tea and a little snooze . . .?

Ah, it's nice to dream . ..