Evey - check out my post on the Buying Roses, then Vintage Gardens. Now you understand.

Evey, Toni meant to send you to her Garden Valley Ranch post, not Vintage. Excuse her, please: She has shopping fever.

That's the photo, Mike. As soon as I saw it, I wanted that rose.

I hope it blooms that way for you; coloration is so easily affected by climate.

Zuzu - I already mentioned that I'm the Rose Cubit's Gibbering Idiot! That should be perfectly clear by now!

And for that, a picture of my Waffles.

Every village needs one, Toni.

Waffles is absolutely too cute!

If you want Sir John Betjeman, Mike, we can go to Garden Valley Ranch and get you one while you're here. It's only about 10 miles from my house. The nursery itself doesn't look that impressive in February because all of the roses have just been pruned, but you'd enjoy meeting Fallon, who works at GVR and is now a member of Cubits and of this rose cubit, and the guys who own it. They're now selling the most fabulous European vegetable seeds too. I have no room to grow vegetables, but I'm talking all of my local friends into growing them so I can have a nice supply of fancy produce this summer.

zuzu said:Evey, Toni meant to send you to her Garden Valley Ranch post, not Vintage. Excuse her, please: She has shopping fever.

That's the photo, Mike. As soon as I saw it, I wanted that rose.

Ahhh, thanks for the explanation! I was wondering... =)

Zuzu,

As soon as I saw your post on Sir, I went to the nursery's web page and was surprised to see that it was right in Petaluma - the same locale as the Bluegrass Camp and near your home. I went ahead and placed an order for one, along with three Rainbow's End minis, which I love to use to fill in small spaces, because they are little blooming machines (not all that little, really - they can get to be a couple of feet). And the colors of their blooms really are a collage of oranges, pinks, yellows, and reds all at the same time. I started to add a Midnight Blue to the order, but thought I'd ask you if you had any experience with it first, and if so, how you like it.

I would love to visit the nursery - let's put it on out list of things to do on Friday.

Mike, I'm a fan of Rainbow's End too. I have one here in our garden and there are several flanking the entrance of a gazebo at one of our local parks. Here's a photo from early season at the park, for those who haven't seen the plant before.

Sir John is gorgeous! Even more interesting than Cristopher Marlowe. Austin will be at the Phily flower show, not sure if I will be able to make it, but will look for it if I do!

I have a baby rainbows end. Hope it survives the winter.

I love Midnight Blue, Mike. We'll definitely go to GVR on Friday then.

Fallon, are you lurking here? Expect a visit from us on Friday afternoon.

Evey, is that the climbing variety of Rainbow's End? I'd love to get the climber if it's as profuse a bloomer as the regular bush.

Zuzu, I'm glad Midnight Blue is a good one in your book. When we go over there on Friday I'll ask Fallon to tack it onto my order.

Well, I'm all packed and ready to head out to the airport tomorrow morning. I have a very short layover in Minneapolis, with just half an hour between connections. I hope my first half of the flight is on time so I don't miss the connection!

I hope you make your connection too. Good luck! I can't wait to see you. You and Sue and I are going to have so much fun.

Yep, Mike, it's the climber. I have the climber at home as well. It's definitely as profuse. Mine gives a great show many times each season. Dan is offering it over at Brushwood and I highly recommend it!

Andi, I didn't know David Austin was going to be at the Philly show this year. That's pretty cool. I had wanted to go this year, but will be in upstate NY during the show.

Hi Zuzu,

Well I made it out to California just fine, and stayed in Frisco last night at Fisherman's Wharf. Of course since it was Valentine's Day the restaurants and hotels were mobbed, and it took a long time just to wind through town to get from the airport to the hotel. Plus, there was a city-wide pillow fight, and the streets were mobbed with hundreds of kids walking to some designated park with pillows under their arms for the big event. Never seen anything like it, and had no idea what was going on till the hotel clerk told me what it was. But I got settled into my hotel, and then went out to the wharf to get a very nice dinner, and enjoyed the carnival-like atmosphere. But being three hours ahead on internal NY time, I turned in around 9:00 PM, and awoke this morning to a fogged-in city (no surprise there). I headed across the SF Bay Bridge about an hour ago, and the fog was so dense I couldn't see much of the the bridge as I crossed it. Once I got up to Novato I pulled off at a Starbucks to get a cup of joe and use the WiFi to check my email, and here I am!

I can't begin to describe how nice it is to be somewhere warm and green. It may seem like winter to the local population, but it looks and feels like spring to me, with the mild temperatures and some of the trees in bloom. What are the beautiful yellow trees - is that Witch Hazel by chance? I've never seen it (though I use it), but assumed that might be what it is since I've read about their yellow leaves/blooms appearing in February. And are those red buds I see blooming, too? Wow, we won't have those in NY for another two months.

It looks like the sun is trying to burn off some of the fog -- I can't wait to see what everything looks like once the sun breaks through. I can't believe how green everything is! We're getting another 8 inches of snow back home tonight, so I picked a good week to come out here!

Well I guess I better get back on the road and head up to the Walker Creek Ranch and Conference Center. Here's a photograph of it.

Talk to you soon!

Mike

Oh yay, we get to visit vicariously through Mike! Keep the descriptions coming, please. =)

A community pillow fight for Valentine's Day.... what an adorable idea!

A pillow fight? San Francisco is such a silly city. I loved growing up there.

I know what you mean about the winter landscape. I'm used to it now, but we arrived in this country in February many moons ago from Japan, and I can still remember being overawed by the greenery, especially as we rode through Golden Gate Park to our new home. I think it was more surprising than anything else about America in our initial impressions.

The yellow trees probably are Witch Hazel, but some Acacias are in bloom now too.

You did pick a good week to come. We've had a lot of rain lately, but this week promises to be fairly dry.

Enjoy your music camp. Do you play an instrument and/or sing, or do you just like the music?

Today's first day of camp was great. It was mostly demonstrations by the faculty and some grounding in music theory in the Bluegrass style, but tomorrow my vocal classes begin in earnest. I've sung for many years, studied voice when I was younger, and even did a little bit of professional work on stage back in the 1990's. But I haven't done any serious singing in a long time, so this is a jumpstart for me.

Since it's a Bluegrass camp, there are different instructional tracks, including vocal, banjo, fiddle, guitar, dobro, mandolin, and bass. Although I'm attending the vocal program this week, I'm also learning to play clawhammer banjo with a professional instructor back in New York. My main interest is in Southern Appalachian mountain music - a subset of the narrow world of old time string band music. I'm really having a great time, but since I'm still on New York time I'm running out of steam this evening faster than everyone else.

Well, there's a jam session I need to get to, and then a campfire. I feel just like a little kid again in some ways, even though I'd guess the average age here is somewhere in the 50's. Well, best to stay young at heart...

G'night all,

Mike

Mike sounds like fun!
I'm not a big Bluegrass fan but I have a growing appreciation
for old timey music (especially the dulcimer) and the southern
Appalachian culture.
We went to Gatlinburg TN last Fall and I was captivated by the
Smokey Mountain National Park and the local history.

'Cades Cove'