Toni, this is funny...you know I threatened to burn my return plane ticket, and now I may have to. My youngest daughter didn't get a job in San Diego, but instead may have one in Denver. I may help her move up there in the next week. I hope it isn't that cold then, because all I've packed are sundresses and shorts!
I brought an extra suitcase thinking I would fly back with roses and tropicals, but after shopping nurseries here I realized what I ordered from Palatine was a better deal. Roses I've seen here are $25! I only bought one small guava tree that I will bonsai. The suitcase will probably be on top of the car with my daughter's belongings in it.

Instead of burning your round-trip, see if you can get the days changed. Then you can buy a 1 way ticket & use the round trip at a different date. And if you do make it here to Denver, you'll be fine in sundresses & shorts until next Tuesday. That's when it's supposed to go down in temps. But you might need a jacket for night-time temps as you're probably not used to the cold just yet (went for a walk Sat night & it was a bit nippy out there, but I was wearing a sleeveless shirt & it was 56 degs).

http://www.accuweather.com/en/...

Tried to catch a good shot of the mountains this morning. It's completely overcast but the tips of the northern set of mountains in the D-metro were lit up with the morning sun. It was quite pretty, but kinda hard to snap at 60mph while weaving through traffic. Here's Long's Peak.. the mountain featured on a Colorado quarter.



It definitely smells like autumn out there. Cottonwoods have a very distinctive smell when it comes time.. and I guess it's time. When I got to work, I could smell autumn in the air. I believe that yesterday was *it* as far as high temperatures.. thank goodness. About time.

Mountains I'm in now. Wonder if I'm near steve's back yard? That's kind of how he described it. Actually surprised I get cell service!

IT'S RAINING IT'S RAINING!



We got probably about a quarter inch all through the night (a very slow drizzle that soaks in) and it's still raining. Yesterday afternoon was our last 90deg+ day. 73 days of 90+deg heat. Before everyone goes off on how they've had 100+ deg heat, lemme xpost something I posted in Cubits.

----
It's not the "heat" persay the ambient temperature. It's the altitude. I live at 6,000 ft. But I found this article about sunscreen in Vail: http://www.rmsunscreen.com/pdf...

"UV intensities increase with altitude because objects are physically closer to the sun. In general, intensity increases at a rate of 6% per 1000 ft. above sea level for the same latitude. For example, at 5000 ft. the sun is 30% stronger than at sea level. At 10,000 ft., the sun’s intensity increases by 60%. At very high altitudes, the sun’s characteristics also change due to the thinning of the atmosphere."

Found this very interesting article about dehydration & high altitude as well: http://www.highaltitudelife.co...

"Higher altitude means lower air pressure. This results in more rapid evaporation of moisture from skin surface, and from your lungs. Most high altitude areas are also very low in humidity, which means evaporation is further accelerated. The combination of those two factors means that the higher up you are, the more water you need to keep your body functioning."

Sad thing is that I'm stuck with altitude. I've lived at extremely low altitudes & I couldn't BREATHE! I felt like I had an elephant on my chest all the time, my sinuses were always swollen, and I was a miserable mess. Any time I went to visit my parents in NY (going from 6,000 down to about 42 ft), I was usually sick sick for the first 2-3 days. No energy. Altitude sickness in reverse.
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But it's raining!!! Saw tons of geese heading south on my way in to work this morning. Yesterday I was wearing shorts. Today I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt as the high's only supposed to be like 63degs. And next week, the lows are dipping for the first time into the 30s!

and per 9news:

Snow also fell on parts of Colorado Wednesday. A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY is in effect for portions of the eastern Sawatch Mountains, including Independence pass and Mt. Elbert, and for portions of the Sangre De Cristos, including Pikes Peak from 9 a.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday. Only locations above 11,000 feet are included in the advisory. Four to 10 inches is expected to accumulate.

The gophers invaded one of my older flower beds where I never bothered to dig up the roses and replant them in gopher-proof cages. Within just two days, five big rose bushes were gone. Grrrrr!

I just looked up gophers and i think those are the critters I saw in Arizona at the Desert Botanical Garden.
There's lots of control ideas in Caddyshack...If i lost 5 rose bushes to a critter, I would be buying munitions of some sort.
I watched a snake chase a frog across the lawn today. It was just a garter snake, and the frog was a nice sized leopard frog. This is the time of year that mice make their way indoors, so i have to consider the snake my ally, but I did intervene and let the poor frog escape. Now I feel a bit quesey knowing there is a snake in the flower bed right by my front door. The purple sweet potatoe vine is so dense there could be a family of raccoons there and I wouldn't see them.
My beloved older dog came to us yesterday with a swollen face and we thought she probably had either bee stings, a spider bite or a snake bite. We gave her benadryl. Today the swelling was much worse so we visited the vet. She'll get $$$$ surgery tomorrow morning. Turns out it's an absessed tooth that has to be extracted. The vet said she probably bit something hard and broke the tooth. At least it wasn't another rattlesnake bite. She's sleeping peacefully with pain killers and antibiotics in her now. This morning, my daughter saw her chewing on a leather rug we have. I think she was smart enough to know the leather would soothe her. Poor baby.

Cindi - Awww.. poor baby puppy! If you can get her to lay on an ice pack, it'll help. Years ago, Sebastian (DH's asshole dog) stuck his nose in a carpenter ant's nest.. his snout was completely chewed up & swollen. So off to the vet we go.. again, to the tune of only $350 THAT time (I was one of the vet's best customers.. I'd get a personalized Merry Christmas card from them for years 'cuz I probably dropped about $20,000 in 4 years there between Freyja, Sebastian, Conan, & Wolfgang.). But at least it's something simple, like an abscessed tooth & definitely not something horrible like a snakebite!! To keep snakes outta bushes, put a few mothballs in the bushes. It'll keep the snakiepoos & 'coons, & other critters out for about 3-4 months. And humans can't smell them after like 2 weeks.

Your right about the moth balls. I used them to keep my cats out of my potted house plants. Now I use them to keep critters of all kinds out of my tender plants in the yard. I get them at the Dollar Tree here in town.

Why do they have to advertise this the day before??? If they'd advertised this a WEEK before, I would have set aside some $ for this sale!

http://www.botanicgardens.org/...
http://www.botanicgardens.org/...
http://www.botanicgardens.org/...

not fair...

oh Toni, I've been to that sale. In fact I joined the DBG for the purpose of being able to buy during the members' only times. The lines were so long, I swore I wouldn't do it again, I did do it again, but at the Kansas City gardens, then at one closer to home. It is not fun to stand in line holding big boxes of plants, waiting to pay. I got there early for one, and had boxes of special plants that were in short supply, and found out when I set down my box to look at something else, people started shopping OUT OF MY BOX! Unless I can have someone go with me whose sole job is to guard my selections, I'm going to stick with mail order.
Santa Rosa started a great clearance sale today...take a look at what all they have for $2.
http://www.santarosagardens.co...
I'll have to resist that sale. I bought a lot earlier this year and they sent beautiful plants.
Our vet just called. Our poor old dog has 3 cracked teeth, all abscessed. They think they can have her fixed and back to us today. No more bones for her.

Cindi - You evil evil creature you. Just bought another bunch of plants. And you're not the only one to have said something about the DBG sale being a free-for-all. Guess that's why I've never really strived hard to get to it.

ASC-TUB Asclepias tuberosa
2 $1.99 $3.98
BAP-AUS Baptisia australis
1 $2.49 $2.49
PHL-BLU Phlox paniculata Blue Paradise
3 $1.99 $5.97
VER-HPUR Verbena canadensis Homestead Purple
2 $1.99 $3.98
VER-ROY Veronica spicata Royal Candles
4 $1.99 $7.96
VER-TIC Veronica Tickled Pink
4 $1.99 $7.96

Found a couple of coupons (one for $5 off, another for 10% off), so it came to only $32! Yay! I'm having them shipped to my office so DH doesn't see them...

Oh, you sly one you!

PPorkpal just cover your ears.. Toni you're letting out secrets! BUT you got some great plants for way less than dbg and shipping from santarosa is less than gas to dbg! So you saved money. I love the huge grass selection SR has. Nobody comes close to their list. Their plants come shipped in bags that have 1000 uses...maybe cat toys? You'll see!

Found more stuff I just couldn't live without.

Order Details:


ASC-TUB Asclepias tuberosa 2/$1.99 = $3.98
BAP-AUS Baptisia australis 1/$2.49 = $2.49
PHL-BLU Phlox paniculata Blue Paradise 3/$1.99 = $5.97
VER-HPUR Verbena canadensis Homestead Purple 2/$1.99 = $3.98
VER-ROY Veronica spicata Royal Candles 4/$1.99 = $7.96
VER-TIC Veronica Tickled Pink 4/$1.99 = $7.96
del-fir Delosperma Fire Spinner free gift
phl-moo Phlox divaricata Blue Moon 4/$1.99 = $7.96
sal-blu Salvia nemorosa Blue Hill 4/$1.99 = $7.96
tra-swe Tradescantia Sweet Kate 4/$1.99 = $7.96

DSC-106 $5 off coupon 1 -$5.00 -$5.00
DSC-60 Find Gifts Discount 1 -$2.73 -$2.73
Subtotal: $48.49
Tax: $0.00
Shipping Cost: $7.99
Grand Total: $56.48

What a bargain! Go for it!

YIKES! I was just going through & seeing what I ordered. The Blue Paradise Phlox is being sold for $14/ea for a little bitty 3" pot!

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com...

The Royal Candles Veronica is still high priced around here, too. Around $8 for a small pot. It's a fabulous plant for hot dry areas. Fabulous..
The Santa Rosa plants come in narrow, deep pots with really good roots. They are the best perennials I've ever bought by mail order, even better than $$$$$$$ Plant Delights.

Well, we're finally getting some rain. I've missed rain so much, but right now, I could definitely use a day where it's 100deg! My stupid dog bashed through one of my fences & I can't do concrete in the rain. Plus I'd forgotten ('cuz it's been so long since I've seen rain) that my right knee aches terribly when it's damp! I can usually tell if we're gonna get rain (right knee) or snow (left knee) to some degree. But it does make for digging holes much more easy! This is the tail-end of one set of storms that hit us yesterday afternoon. We've gotten a good inch since Tuesday... which is more than what we've had in the past .. what, 3? months COMBINED.

No rain here yet, probably not until November. A few weeks ago we had this orange glow in the sky so intense that it made the entire backyard a peachy pink hue, it was stunning! There was enough drizzle somewhere to create an intense double rainbow. I snapped a few shots off my back porch but my camera did not capture it the way it actually looked. The light and color show was awesome and over way too fast.


The roses are putting on some fall blooms, lovin' the coolor weather although we are supposed to hit 90 this Sunday.

Jeri Jennings, hard to tell from these photos but these are tiny blooms. Love the different shades it goes through.


Ahh, Summer Song, what a wonderful color! Seriously considering adding a second plant someday, it's a favorite!


Irish Hope, a new one I got last year from Heirloom. Very impressed with the plant so far, a nice upright bush and relatively clean nice foliage.


Clematis Ramona is keeping company with Graham Thomas. These are both planted next to the satellite pergola and I think as they grow in size, they will continue to make a stunning combo. In the second shot, you can see a bit of Graham Thomas on the right. The salvia (Salvia coerulea 'Costa Rica Blue') in the background is probably 7 ft tall. It will get frosted down in the winter but once the warm weather returns, will make it's rapid growth again and give me these stunning intense blooms! Blue Anise Sage (Salvia coerulea 'Costa Rica Blue')


Tradescant is in a shady spot in the mornings so the color is off but I loved the star shaped design on the petals.


The always beautiful Caramella.