Three At The Shore

Finny and Max and Tessa enjoyed some bluff time recently. Finny is great at that little nose wrinkle, isn't he!

The Alley Lake

Thursday, July 15, 2010 -- Pigeon's downtown took on close to 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. Here's the lake behind the Graywood Designs and AVCI buildings.

I like the reflections. . .but not the water that was almost up to the doorsills.

Heidi is Blogging From Singapore!

Heidi Hayes Johnson, one of my sisters and a namesake to the Dortmund Sisters roses here at Cedar Bluff lakehouse, is in Singapore this summer.

Follow her adventures here:
http://2voices10fingers.blogspot.com/

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Joni's Pink Roses

joni clark gave us some roses last spring that had been planted at her home in Bad Axe. "They need a new home," she told us as she delivered a large plastic storage bucket filled with cedar chips and bareroot roses.

There were lots of plants that she had dug to make way for a new fence. She sunk them in the cedar chips (the kind that you use for gerbil cages), watered them and kept them alive over the winter. We planted three "clumps" of roses from joni last spring. Then, this spring, I found another rose that had rooted over the winter in our mulch pile. It was from joni's bucket and so now there are four clumps along the wooded north lawn of Cedar Bluff lakehouse.

Each clump is made up of one, two or three rose starts along with shoots of hostas. Here is a closeup of one blossom from a week ago. It's wonderful to think about how these rose bushes will accent the lawns here at Cedar Bluff for years to come. Thank you, joni!

By the way, joni is the "other grandma" to our grandsons, Max and Finney. When the boys visit Grandma WJ at the lakehouse we can go out to check Nana's roses. Cool.

The Dortmund Roses in June

All six of the Dortmund sisters are blooming this week and they are a treasure. This is their third season in the ground at Cedar Bluff lakehouse. That's Carla on the left in this photo. Martha is on the far right. You will remember from a previous post that the six roses are named for the six sisters in my family -- Carla, Wanda, Penny, Mary, Heidi and Martha.

The Dortmunds were just getting their "legs" or roots last summer. They were planted around the Fourth of July in 2008 after being purchased from Great Lakes Roses here in Michigan. In reading about roses I learned that the Dortmund rose will blossom all summer and that one plant can cover an entire fence. Just imagine what the sisters will look like five years from now when they've filled the split rail. Their color and texture, backed by the cedars along the driveway, will be a splash of red and green delight!

A Moment in Time

The New York Times Lens blog sponsored a glimpse into the life of the world through its "Moment in Time" project yesterday. Through the blog, the NYT put out a call for photographers all over the world to take a photo at 11 am EDT or their corresponding time wherever they were. By Sunday evening close to 10,000 images had been uploaded to the Lens blog.

The image that I took is of my quilting studio on Sunday morning. You can see the Featherweight sewing machine and my cutting rulers on the left. On the design wall is a quilt that my mother-in-law and I have been making for my granddaughter, Hannah. The ironing board and an iron occupy the right side of this photo. Look carefully and you'll see the tin can holding golf balls that I use as a target for putting practice in my studio.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Moment in Time photos which will be posted during this week.

Daffodils Among the Dortmund Sisters

I visited the Dortmund roses late afternoon yesterday. Their glossy deep green leaves sparkled in the low sunlight. Yellow daffs dance at their feet.
Here they are -- my Dortmund climbing roses. They have names. From left to right (north to south): Carla, Wanda, Penny, Mary, Heidi and Martha. They are rose ladies who will spread their thorny stems along the split rail fence and explode with red petal bunches this summer.
The ladies. My sisters. I am blessed.