Another what is it?

This is a very beautiful flower that blooms on a very ugly plant, and I cannot for the life of me remember the name. It came from the plant shop at the Volunteer Park Conservatory, and I lost the information sheet. It lives outside and gets ignored, except for once a year when it has these spectacular red flowers.

Ok, enough blathering about flowers for now. We're getting ready to have a vacation weekend in the Methow Valley. I'll look forward to writing some posts from the other side of the mountains-- we leave on Thursday morning.

Succulents and sedums

As Seattle summers seem to grow hotter and dryer, I like growing these plants in pots. And the sedum breeders are smart by creating all sorts of beautiful varieties, and then giving them cute names that appeal to impulse shoppers like me. Last summer I bought "Pork n' Beans" and "Frodo" at the West Seattle Nursery. "Frodo" barely escaped our harsh winter with his life, and was clinging by a thread when I re-potted him in March. After that he was almost finished off by a squirrel but made a remarkable comeback from a teeny, tiny nub. "Pork n' Beans" spent the winter in the kitchen greenhouse window and is outside again. I don't have an outdoor greenhouse so lose a few every winter, but most are surprising resilient. The pots look ratty and dead by February when I pull them apart and replant with fresh potting soil and a big dose of fertilizer. It is a day of dirty, cold work which puts me in a bad mood-- but after that they just take off for another year.

What I like best about succulents is their lovely quality of filling the shape of whatever you plant them in-- old pots, baskets, boots, whatever! I used to have a beautiful living wreath of succluents, but the squirrels ripped it apart don't ask me why.

And I'm not naming any names, but in my family I've heard "Hens n' Chicks" unkindly referred to as "old lady plants." But they are easy to propagate, and I love sharing them with other succulent lovers like Amanda.

Lilies in the sun

The morning in Seattle started out grey, damp and cold at the barn but turned into a beautiful afternoon at home. On Thursday we're headed to eastern Washington for the holiday weekend (more on that later) so I've been scrambling to get some last minute work done around the garden. Could use a little rain, but who's complaining? Thinking of everyone and hope you are having a wonderful sunny Sunday.

"Hole" Foods

This enormous hole is near the Junction and I drive by several times a week. This view has not changed in almost a year. All active work on the site stopped last fall, even though the developers repeatedly said the project was simply “between phases." Since then the declining economy and numerous lawsuits gave the situation a different slant.

A Whole Foods store was scheduled to be completed in a few months, but we know that isn't going to happen! Too bad because all cooks enjoy window shopping at Whole Foods. Sometimes I even buy things there, but I have to drive way across town, so it is out of temptation's way.
However, after years of dismal grocery store choices in our neighborhood (Safeway or Safeway) we now have the upscale Metropolitan Market and soon a new QFC (basically a fancy Krogers) will open just a block from here. So good luck to Whole Foods-- or I should say, "Hole" Foods! Frankly everyone in West Seattle hopes for a Trader Joes instead, and rumors continue to fly about that.

http://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=17039

Certainly the look and feel of West Seattle has changed over the years and not all for the best. Dozens of identical (think tall and skinny) new condo and townhouse buildings lining the streets, with "for sale" signs out in front of each and every one.

Wine garden

John has worked in basically the same location at Boeing Field for over 30 years, and the building where he spends his 6 am to 2:30 pm shift has no external windows. (This makes him pretty much a saint in my eyes, since I would go completely bonkers without big gobs of natural light each and every day.) Add to that the frustration of working for an airplane company that can't seem to build airplanes anymore. So in the summer before dinner, he strolls around the garden with his wine glass to check out the flowers and hopefully build up some vitamin D stores for the dark months ahead.

Our afternoon sun is intense this time of year, with sunset still after 9 pm and light until after 10. It seems like an awful thing to complain about the long bright days, but it is hard to go to sleep when your neighbors are bouncing balls outside at 9 pm, and just as hard to stay asleep when the robins start in at 3:45. Everyone is sleep-deprived in June, and John tells me there is lots of dozing off in meetings at Boeing this time of year-- no wonder.

The plant towering over him is a magnificent weed called a mullein, and I have no idea where it came from. I did a little research and found out it actually has some medicinal properties. According to legend, it also wards off witches and does other useful things.

http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/veth1.htm

The gardener's worst enemy

It isn't drought, weeds, aphids or squirrels. The worst enemy is our own impatience. How many times have I bought a fancy new dahlia tuber, planted it, and then 3 weeks later dug around to "check" if it sprouted and in doing so snapped off the new shoot. And do I learn from this experience? Nope! I'm just as likely to do it again next year. Fortunately the tuber usually forgives me.

The weather turned dry and cool this week . After the heat wave, more like our typical Seattle June. So it was a good morning to go out and deadhead and think about things like why I can't seem to grow anything from seed. I admire gardeners who throw a packet in the ground and soon have beautiful vegetables, zinnias or sunflowers. My seeds get eaten by bugs, lost, stepped on, dried up, cultivated out, accidentally pulled when I'm weeding-- or just plain given up on. That patience thing again.

But despite all that, things looked pretty this morning in the warm(ish) grey light, the roses at their peak and the lilies just starting. School is out across the street, and everything is quiet except for the crows chasing an eagle. (no kidding)

With a little sun, we'll have the blue clematis (that green lump in the center of the picture) which is covered with buds now.

Sparrows, crows and starlings

My Beak is Bigger than Yours....
Originally uploaded by no1chrism

I know I shouldn't do it, but sometimes I'll throw stale bread or cake crumbs on the grass for the birds. Of course this just attracts the lower classes. Crows hang out on the wires and trees year-round looking for a handout. And this week there are suddenly flocks of starlings in the yard with many immatures. I suppose they are out with their parents, learning how to freeload in the city!

My Dad built us a nest box many years ago, and we hung it on the shed hoping for a wren or something nice. The sparrows immediately moved in, and that was it. They court and spark and raise at least 3 noisy broods each summer, and have produced hundreds of baby house sparrows over the years. But they are fun to watch and since no nice, self-respecting bird would nest in such a fetid box (I've never cleaned it out) it's no big deal having them around. Not that we could get rid of them anyway.

And it isn't hard to see why sparrows are so successful. The starlings like to torture the sparrow parents by hanging on the box and trying to spear a baby or egg with their sharp beaks. Starlings have beaks like needles, but not quite long enough to reach the bottom of the box. The sparrows attack back ferociously, clawing and pecking them on the head. A finch-like beak is no match for a starling beak, and the starlings are 10 times their size so you have to admire their bravery in defending the nestlings.

For more on the English sparrow:
http://www.sialis.org/hosphistory.htm
And the Starling:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/european_starling/id

Lily time

The Asiatic lilies come first here, in hot orange and yellow colors. They make garish and long-lasting cut flowers for the house. This clump has been growing in the same place for years.
Gardeners can be pretty fickle, and their relationship with flowers changes over time. For a year or so, they can't get ENOUGH of just one color or plant-- I've gone through big dahlia, fancy leaf geranium and a potted succulent stage (which I'm still in.)

Sometimes the gardener does go off the deep end, and becomes President of the "Seattle Helioborus Society" or something odd like that. (Then you know there is no turning back on your obsession.)
I feel this way about my lilies, and can never get enough of them. My very favorites are the big trumpets that come in late summer. The fragrant Orientals like "Casa Blanca" and "Stargazer"are wonderful too, but fickle from year to year. But these sturdy orange guys are always the reliable start of my favorite season.

Cruelty to dead fish

Pike Place Fish Market - Seattle
Originally uploaded by bradunc01

If you live in Seattle, or have ever visited here, you know that a top tourist attraction in the city is the salmon throwing stall at Pike Place Market. For the locals (on the rare occasions we even shop there) the gaggle of tourists crowding around the stall with their cameras brings sighs and eye rolls as we squeeze past the crowd and go about our business. Although we are way too cool to admit it, we love the stall and all the attention these guys generate year after year.

The same organization (PETA) that made itself look ridiculous criticizing President Obama's fly swat last week recently called the Pike Place Market fish throw a "corpse toss." According to PETA it was morally no different than "tossing dead kittens." Thanks Dave for reminding me of this Steve Martin line from The Jerk:

"...I've heard of this, CAT juggling!"

Anyway. PETA raised concerns about the "ethics" of using dead fish as props in a team-building program at a veterinary event. Heading down this slippery path could lead to kittens on the barbecue! As you can imagine, having a cherished Seattle institution irrationally criticized caused quite a fervor in the local press and sure lit up the blogs. I just wanted to make sure those of you who don't live here didn't miss out on the fun.

To make a long story short, sanity eventually returned to the Emerald City:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009319216_apwapetathrowingfish.html

What is it?

Are you thinking, what on earth?

My sister Marji was visiting from Las Vegas in April, and we were sitting in the kitchen yakking one morning. She noticed the random cactus plants in the greenhouse window and mentioned she would send me an "unusual" specimen that grows like crazy in her dry garden. I didn't give it any more thought until this week, when a little box came in the mail from Marji. I opened it, and UGH! at first glance it looked like a box of dry, dusty spiders. Anyway, I planted the critters in this pot, gave them a good soaking and their "spines" perked up fast.

It looks like just an ordinary sharp cactus, but these white "spines" are as soft as paper. Very unique, thanks Marji! I'll let you know how they like the dark Seattle winter...they just had their last drink of water until October.

http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Cactaceae/Opuntia_papyracantha.html

Amanda's baby shower

What a lovely baby shower for Amanda on Saturday afternoon. These pictures are of Amanda and me, Tom's Mom Irene, also Danel and Heidi who hosted this wonderful shower. All her best girlfriends were there too, and lots of adorable kids. It truly was a shower of beautiful gifts! Check out the Flickr link for more pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39178983@N03/

Still sitting

Last summer, our friends Candi and Roger spent a few happy days with us when we went to see the opera Aida. One afternoon we were poking around the West Seattle Nursery, and Roger generously bought me this beautiful Buddha. OK, I said-- but only if you find a place for him in the garden. Roger, with his perfect artist's eye, plunked him down on a shelf with the bonsai, and he hasn't moved since. Even through the worst Seattle winter in memory. And he gets more beautiful with age.

If you have ever tried meditation and stuck to it, you know that sitting is the easiest and hardest thing in the world. Most of us start out with big health goals for our practice and this can be motivating, especially in the beginning. I suppose sometimes we even attain these goals. But more often, even better things we never expected creep in the backdoor. Of course you can only "learn" meditation by doing it, not reading a book about it. That said, there are some wonderful and wise writers like Jon-Kabat Zinn who have a gift for making complex ideas and practices accessible to everyone.

http://www.amazon.com/Jon-Kabat-Zinn/e/B000AQ12GA/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

And there is also my favorite reference book "Meditation for Dummies."

http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Dummies-Book-Stephan-Bodian/dp/0471777749/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245243396&sr=1-1

And then, there was once a man who was not a dummy at all who wrote:

"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."

The World As I See It

Albert Einstein, 1932

"Just Joey" rose

What a beautiful picture! (I didn't take it-- John's new camera again.) Our neighbors down the street have this rose, which I pass almost daily and have coveted for years. I've been dropping heavy hints forever, and John finally bought one for me at the West Seattle Nursery for Mother's Day. I planted it in a big pot until I figure out where to put it in the garden. It has a few flowers already.

Rain this morning in Seattle, which is incredibly welcome. We've had a 29 day drought, very unusual for spring which tied an old record.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/171705.asp

Hummingbird vine

There is an invasive plant in the eastern U.S. that I (almost) wish I had, just because it has the wonderfully horrible name "Devil's Darning Needles."

Here in West Seattle, I have a vine with the pretty name "Hummingbird Vine" which really is a devil in disguise. I bought this one maybe 10 years ago from one of those cut-rate nursery catalogs for a couple dollars, and I remember planting a pitiful looking dead stick and thinking not much will ever come of this thing. HA! It really has surpassed even our bamboo hedge in it's invasive tendencies (and this is saying something.)

I cut the top off it last year when we had a new fence put in, and this just encouraged it more to send up suckers in about a 50 yard radius around the yard and under the sidewalks. You might wonder, does it attract hummingbirds for all the trouble it causes? The answer is yes, but only for the short and messy blooming season late summer. When most of the hummingbirds seem to be other places doing other things.

As any gardener will tell you, some plants are just too successful. This is a picture of mine, getting ready for the summer rampage. It looks innocent, but beware.

If you are interested in the Devils' Darning Needles:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1168/

Or, the Hummingbird Vine:

http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/plantoftheweek/articles/Trumpet_Creeper.htm

Life is good again

Othello is back to his normal good life at the barn after all the excitement yesterday. You will notice a small orange bandage on his right foot, put there by a nice and efficient vet at the emergency clinic.

When I arrived at the barn at my usual time, Jennifer (our great barn manager) was in the parking lot with Othello in her arms and cell phone in hand. He had accidentally torn off one of his spurs, and was bleeding quite badly. We took him to a clinic a few miles away, with Jennifer holding a tight compress on the wound and me driving. I will say that despite the injury he seemed to enjoy the ride, and talked (bok! bok! bok!) and looked around the entire way. I believe he thought he was finally flying. Being an emergency case, he was rushed to the back for treatment where the vet put two stitches on his foot. We don't think he was in too much pain, as we heard him talking through the "procedure." Back at the barn, Dr. J. put him in his kennel to rest for the night and this morning, good as new. This is one little rooster with a big personalty!

Fun times with Amanda

Amanda is here for the weekend, she had a good safe drive over from Eastern Washington and we're very excited to have her home for a few days. Babys-R-Us shopping trip coming up tomorrow!

We drove over to the stable for a quick look and to say hi to Sizzle. You can see she wasn't too interested in us-- out for a great afternoon with her nose to the grass!

Wife of Bath

Our David Austin "Wife of Bath" rose is gorgeous and lives right next to the "Brother Cadfael" rose. Remember The Canterbury Tales from your English literature class? (hummm...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_of_bath

OK, I'm showing off pink roses, but it's only once a year! :-) We're excited because Amanda will be here tomorrow, and staying with us until Monday. A baby shower on Saturday, and more family pictures and news soon. Plus, some breaking news about Othello the stable rooster. He is FINE, but had a big adventure today.

Sunday Symphony

Yesterday we went to hear the last concert of the season in our Sunday afternoon series at Benaroya Hall. We're looking forward to the new season in September. I love our 4th row seats, and we've had them for several years. A bit close to the stage, but a real bargain since we're in the cheaper section and the folks behind us in the 5th row are paying much more for basically the same view.

We missed our usual nice seat neighbors, and look forward to seeing you in the fall. Yesterday, a quiet lady sat next to me in Betsy's seat, but she got so excited after the Ades violin concerto she started to hyperventilate! I wouldn't say the concert was all that thrilling, but contemporary compositions are usually interesting. The symphony also played the entire Firebird ballet, and Night on Bald Mountain which this Seattle Times critic described as "rather a silly piece."

I listen to it every year at Halloween, but have to admit it doesn't have quite the same effect on a warm June afternoon.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2009331805_zart13symphony.html

American hausfrau

We lived in Zweibrucken Germany for a year when Amanda was just a baby. Our house was on the outskirts, a short bike ride or long walk from the center of town. The little old houses on our street were identical, and I heard whispers it was one of Hitler's original housing projects, to be exact. But I never heard the "H" word spoken out loud on our street.

We had nice neighbors, and being Americans and having a cute baby made us very popular in those innocent days. And I did strange and amusing things, like hang out our washing on Wednesday afternoon instead of Monday morning. Each day of the week had its own designated chores.
Every morning in the summer, our elderly neighbors would bake a simple cake to eat with their 11 o'clock coffee, and I was often invited over. My German was horrible, but baby Amanda was great entertainment. The cake was topped with whatever garden fruit was in season because nothing was EVER wasted on Contwiggerhang Strasse.

This recipe is from the July "Gourmet" magazine, and it's a nice easy cake to make on the weekend. I used chopped strawberries instead of raspberries. John gives it a thumb's up with vanilla ice cream. Let me know if you try it!


RASPBERRY BUTTERMILK CAKE

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 stick butter, soft

2/3 plus 2 tbs. sugar (divided)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 cup fresh raspberries



Preheat over to 400, and butter and flour a round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, soda and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar until fluffy, then add vanilla and egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating in 3 batches and mix until just combined.

Scatter fruit evenly over the top of cake, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until cake is golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out on a rack.

Alliums and bees

Alliums are easy and fun to grow, the bees just love them. They multiply slowly, and have great names like "Globemaster" and "Mt. Everest." I used to have a variety called "Schubertii" which looked like a firework on a stick, but unfortunately it pooped out over the years. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/Allium/Allium_schubertii.jpg

Like all the spring bulbs, they disappear completely for most of the year, and of course you forget where you once planted them. When I'm planting tulips in the fall, sometimes I'll slice into a nest of alliums with a shovel which makes me feel bad, although plenty always come back in the spring. The bulbs are as beautiful as the flowers: round, white, smooth and as big as tennis balls.

Bears in Seattle

Seattle at Light Speed
Originally uploaded by moog55

After John heads for work, I usually turn on the TV and watch about 10 minutes of local news. About all I can take. The big excitement and lead story for several days last month was about a black bear sighting in residential Seattle neighborhoods. The theory is he wandered down from the Cascade foothills, then managed to cross our murderous freeways and hundreds of city streets. Every morning there were new "sightings" (some dubious, from clubbers and assorted night owls.) The news crews were out in full force trying to find and film him, without luck. He covered quite a bit of ground, and probably scrounged enough to eat. In Seattle, we're now expected (make that required) to recycle our kitchen garbage in what used to be the "clean and green" bin, so I expect he found plenty of greasy pizza boxes and chicken bones. The wildlife officers eventually shot him with a tranquilizer gun, and took him back to a "safe" place in the mountains.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406320_bear18.html

Another bear was recently captured in the wide, wild median between the lanes of I-5, just north of Seattle. This one got tired of eating grass, and I heard they trapped him in a cage baited with Krispy Kreme donuts, smoked salmon, bacon grease and peanut butter.

Garden envy

Eryngium
Originally uploaded by Sigrid Frensen

My very favorite garden writer is Henry Mitchell. For years he wrote "The Earthman" column for The Washington Post, and his essays have been collected in a several books. They make wonderful winter reading.
http://books.google.com/books?id=O5fRmqDualkC

He wrote a funny column once about how envious gardeners are of each other, how we like to brag that certain plants are "practically invasive" in our gardens, when friends struggle to grow them at all.

For example, for years I've been trying to grow Eryngium (Sea Holly.) It looks like a soft grey thistle, and in my opinion not all that attractive, although John likes it for some reason. This spring I bought a $12!!! bag of Eryngium starts at Costco, and tried again. As usual, most died, except for one puny plant that I'll probably rip out accidentally because it looks like a weed. Some of our friends are wonderful gardeners-- Candi, Roger, Nils, Tim and Sam for example. If I dropped by, it wouldn't surprise me to see whole beds of Sea Holly in their gardens. But then I could brag about how "I just can't seem to get RID of all the crocosima in MY garden!"

Black spot, aphids and other evil-doers

I hope I haven't given the impression we're living in the Garden of Eden. I was walking around the garden today before dinner with a glass of wine in my hand, and I realized there was hardly a square foot of space that wasn't occupied by some sort of critter. Of course most of these are harmless, or even wonderful, like bees, butterflies, worms and birds.

I guess one of the reasons we keep gardening is for the surprises. Nothing is exactly the same from year to year, no matter how much we want it to be. You look forward to last summer's most spectacular plant and it disappoints. That other "something" you planted years ago finally comes into its own. For example, my roses are already covered with black spot and dropping leaves (maybe the wet May?) Usually I can be pretty vain about them until July or so.

Speaking of critters, the raccoons are taking a bath in the fountain almost every night. A few years ago, a mother gave birth to an entire family under the shed. She accidentally left this one on the pine tree, and he was one unhappy tyke until she came back.

And squirrels! There should be a Catholic reform school for young squirrels. They remind me of junior high kids, always busy and looking for mischief. From the kitchen window I watched one the other day running across the top of the fence where I'm trying to grow the pretty climber "Joseph's Coat." As he went along, he snipped off the flower buds, and I can think of no other reason to do this except it was just plain fun. :-)

Peonies

It's hard to imagine a more beautiful flower, and John's new camera takes fabulous close-ups. Of flowers, that is. This cruel camera also does a great job on lines and wrinkles, but that's another story.

The peony blooming season is so short, you never get tired of them. The bushes take years to get established, and I think mine have been growing undisturbed for over 25 years. I've never seen an aphid or bit of mildew on any of my peony plants-- they die to the ground in the fall and come back each and every spring. Other than a bit of staking during flowering, totally carefree. A vase of peonies lasts almost a week in the house, beautiful till the very end when the petals shatter apart all at once in an enormous mess on the table.

And that is that, until next year.

White-crowned sparrow

white-crowned-sparrow-029
Originally uploaded by mikebaird

We have wonderful backyard birds this summer, including a pair of American goldfinches and the black-headed grosbeak. These birds might be common in other parts of the county, but right in the city they are rare as jewels. Maybe has something to do with our wildly overgrown hedge and the free food and water?
But the white-crowned sparrows are our favorites for their lovely song, and we seem to have more than usual this year.

Yesterday morning, the little NPR program "Birdnote" ran a short segment on regional variations in white-crowned sparrow song.
http://www.birdnote.org

Stall cleaning blues

A 1,000 pound horse creates 50 pounds of manure a day, or 8 tons a year. Good Grief! Managing manure is an environmental hot button in densely populated western Washington, with housing developments, fragile streams and wetlands. While manure loses some of the "ick" factor when you spend lots of time around horses (what's the big deal?) it really IS a big deal, and relentless daily cleaning of stalls and paddocks is the difference between a sweet smelling healthy barn, and well... the opposite. I've seen both in my visits to many boarding stables over the years.

http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/clmt/pdf/manure_composting-farm-basics.pdf

Because of the long commuting times, I've always kept Sizzle in "full-care board." This means that her stall was cleaned daily, she was fed hay, grain, clean water and was turned out in a paddock or pasture during the day. At my new barn, I now have the option to clean her stall myself, as many times a week as I care to. Great idea! I love barn work, and and can also save a few dollars a day on my board payment.

I have new appreciation for the hard-working folks who've cleaned my stall without complaint over the years. Just like people, there are two kinds of horses: neat or messy. Sizzle likes to walk circles in her stall all night, stamping her manure into quarter sized pieces and pushing her bedding up the stall walls. 45 dusty minutes into my first stall cleaning, I was wondering if I still had the energy to take a ride afterward? Stay tuned.

Amanda and Tom

A couple of nice pictures of the happy parents-to- be!

Everything is going well, Amanda is healthy and the little one expected in mid-August. Jerry took this photo on a visit earlier this month.

Meet Othello

Chickens are so cool. In Seattle, its become somewhat of a fad to keep them in your backyard. Of course they lay wonderful fresh eggs, but are also just plain fun to watch. I'd guess thousands probably live in the city limits in coups ranging from high-end custom deluxe, to simple old fashioned boxes that have been hiding in backyards for years.

This lucky guy has been living at the west Seattle horse barn for 10 years! He is the barn pet and mascot. Everyone (almost) loves him, and he gets lots attention from the lady boarders. He lives alone, but spends his days checking out the riding arena mirrors for the "other" roosters, patrolling the parking lot and eating lots of delicious and unusual things you find on the ground at a horse barn. If you pet his back and talk to him, he also does an adorable little rooster dance.

Roses and cameras

A box came yesterday from UPS requiring a SIGNATURE, an ominous sign. A new digital camera for John! My first response: I don't want to learn anything new! Well...not exactly, but I don't have the bandwidth for a new gadget right now. But take a look, after a day of intense study, he's captured the "Brother Cadfael" rose perfectly. John ordered this beauty from David Austin several years ago, and its become one of the stars of our summer garden.
http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp

Country horse, city horse

Sizzle gets around. She's lived in boarding stables in Renton, Ravensdale, Snoqualmie and Issaquah over the past 10 years. What does this mean when you live in west Seattle? Hours and hours of driving, thousands and thousands of miles on the odometer (sorry, John) and hundreds of hours sitting in traffic for so long you get to hear the NPR stories twice. Still, I consider myself the luckiest person to be able to actually live my horse dream for so long.

For years I heard rumors of a west Seattle horse barn. It sounded mythical. How could this be in such a densely populated part of Seattle? Two years ago I finally learned the location and went over to take a look. I drove home and cried. 10 minutes from home, tucked away on a hill, a beautiful little secret island surrounded by houses and apartment buildings, but 3 blocks from a large greenbelt park.

Of course openings are very rare, who would ever leave? But last month a dear and savvy friend (thank you, Lori!) sent me a Craigslist ad for an available stall, and I was incredibly lucky to reserve it. We moved Sizzle 3 weeks ago, and she is settled in nicely with her new herd of friends. And I'm making some new horse friends, too. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible. I'm still pinching myself.