Joey the Rose

"Just Joey"

It's official-- this past summer was the second warmest on record in Seattle. The nice weather goes on, although we must be getting down to the last 70 degree days. Another stretch of sunshine is coming up this week.  I've missed the horses and looking forward to going out to North Bend for a ride with Dolly. There is nothing like seeing autumn forest from the back of a horse to make you feel like the luckiest person in the world for a hour.

The garden doesn't want to call it quits and the dead-looking flowers I cut back a month ago are growing again.  Sometimes we call this a "second spring" in the Northwest, when the September rain revives things. I wish stuff would stop so I can clean up for the winter, but then again, I don't.

My favorite rose called "Just Joey" keeps on blooming.  This rose was voted "The World's Favorite Rose" in 1994 at Rose World Convention in New Zealand.  No wonder.  John bought it for me a few years ago because I kept whining about seeing it bloom down the street.

I think Joey is spectacularly beautiful-- a classic tea rose with large blooms of deep, rich copper shading hat lightens toward the edges. The apricot flowers age to a nice buff color when they open. So lovely in the evening light this time of year.

After a little poking around I learned that "Just Joey" is an English rose, bred in 1972 by a company called Cants of Colchester.  Cants was established in 1765 and to this day is run by direct Cant descendants. They are the oldest rose grower in the United Kingdom, with over 245 years of experience, which is pretty amazing considering Lewis and Clark didn't even show up in our corner of the world until 1805.

Colchester in East Anglia is a fascinating place and considered the oldest Roman town in Great Britain.  In the mid-seventies, we lived not far from there in Felixstowe on the North Sea. We often went shopping in Colchester and toured the castle in the heart of town. I remember you could peer down a hole in the keep and see the foundations of the Temple of Claudius that the castle was built upon. Like all English castles, it had a nasty prison downstairs.

Anyway, the Joey rose variety was "born" in Colchester about that same time Amanda was a baby, and this new rose would someday be a favorite in a Seattle garden I didn't even dream of at the time.

So what else is new?  Well, I made two fabulous pasta dishes in the past four days that John and my sister will attest to:

1. Fettuccine with king crab and white wine sauce
2. Oven roasted garden tomatoes with Italian sausage, basil and garlic

And not a single picture to show for it. For once I was so into cooking (and eating) I never got around to it.  If you want the recipes, just holler.