Summer - Again

Packing in process

This is all I have to say...it's summer again. I am already miserable. I just have to live through it. It could be worse; I could be living in Yemen.

Happy in the Spring

A postcard from Belarus
which gave me joy when I found it in my mailbox

Spring is officially here. I might as well be happy. I am happy. There's lots to be happy about right now.

Hygge Time

Smokey Rose knows how to get cozy

(I am feeling ok now. Others are getting sick all over the place, but I am better. Just have a cough sometimes still)

Jul is over and none too soon. While there is certainly a lot to like about the holiday, it is usually too much for me in the end, and I don't even have kids or a big house, don't entertain, don't bake things (for Jul anyway), don't have seasonal music playing all the time, don't travel anymore to be with loved ones, don't do a lot of things one is supposed to do at this time of year.

Red Butte Garden Now

Fall 2013

I haven't put up many pictures of Red Butte this season. One reason is that I found that this years' pictures are a lot like last years' One rose alone IS a lot like any other rose pictured alone, after all.

Red Butte Garden Ready for Winter

I walked at Red Butte last weekend, checking out all my gardens. A lot was all torn up, not looking that good, ready for winter.

Here's part of the rose garden, for example. You can see there is some snow that has stayed because of the elevation that's higher than the city.

Right now you have to find the beauty in the shapes and textures.

Many grasses still look good.

The hardscapes and art are always lovely.

 And the vistas are mighty fine, as usual.

I was fascinated by the look of the roses blossoms that had frozen on the plants. We did not cut off all the flowers because that encourages new growth which we did not want towards the end of October, so there were plenty of these really interesting rose flowers to check out.

Some of the red roses really retained good color.

There WAS color throughout. Some yellow things,

the evergreens, of course, (and talk about interesting shapes and textures ...look at the cones here)

but the predominant color was red. Red leaves,

red berries,

red branches

red bushes,

red thorns on roses. This IS Utah, after all, the red state in so many ways.

The pond was frozen, the geese gone.

Even though it's not exciting right now, I still love to spend time there.

There's always something interesting to see.

Red Butte Garden in Early October

Folks at Red Butte Garden have decided that we will set some kind of record for the number of spring blooming bulbs. To that end we are now planting 100,000 of them. That's about all we are doing, sitting on the ground planting bulbs. Sometimes we do get up and hack things to the ground (aka cutting back perennials for the winter & throwing away spent annuals). These activities do not make for good photos.

Before we started all this, I did take some photos of the lovely things that were happening in early October. We are no longer deadheading roses, but there were plenty that were at their height in early October, especially yellow ones.

Thought that many of the rose blooms were especially large.

We have some special fall flowers like colchicum.

I always love the grasses,

and many have changed color for fall.

The red garden was looking pretty good.

And the four season garden is fine in this season as usual ... notice the beautiful grass.

There were some early signs of autumn color,

although only a few trees had actually turned colors.

Here are some more grasses.

It's hard to resist taking photos of the roses.

There were just so many beautiful plants.

I could go on forever, but I won't.  Well one more....

Welcome to Red Butte Garden. Autumn is a great time to visit.

July

I hate July.

July is the heart of summer. I do not like summer very much at all. Everyone else in the world seems to love summer. Not me.

I suppose I would feel differently if I lived in someplace like Barrow Alaska or Archangel Russia, but I don't and probably never will.

I hate being hot. I do not think I would like to live in any place that is tropical or warm most of the time ... that cuts out large chunks of the world. There are a whole lot of places in the world that I do not want to even visit because of the heat. I know, for example, that India is a fascinating place. I'm fine with reading stories and looking at pictures taken by other people.

I do not like my summer clothes. Seeing as how I have no need to get dressed up during most of the summer (sometimes all of it) I just wear tee shirts all summer long. I'm real tired of tee shirts. I don't like short sleeved woven shirts either ... they need ironing to look nice and who wants to iron when it's so hot in the summer?

There's too much light too much of the day in July. You have to be too careful about being outside in the sun in July. Sunburn happens to me too easily, but preventing sunburn makes me hot and sticky.  It's difficult to see during the day in the bright sunlight. I need dark glasses AND a hat with a brim during the day in July in order to be able to see well enough.

Independence Day is not my favorite holiday.

July is just something that needs to be endured.

I don't really wish for a life with less time in it, but I could do without July.