Happy 4th of July

When I bought my home, the former owner told me I had the "best seat in town" for watching the 4th of July fireworks here in St. Helens. Well, he was correct.

I spent the daylight hours gardening and, unintentionally, dog-sitting my neighbor's dog. About 2pm Buster "busted out" of the yard. I stuffed him back in once and re-barricaded the exit-or so I thought. Five minutes later, Buster was out again. The two neighbor girls and I tried to get him back through the fence. We finally dissolved in laughter when Buster went limp and none of us could manage the 110 pound dog. I thought he would stay with them since there were several young folks out. But I misjudged the dog. Going back to my gardening, I soon found a cold, wet, friendly nose nudging me. We spent the remainder of the late afternoon and evening planting roses, edging with bricks and loudly discussing where Buster would roam. When the M8Os would detonate, he would retreat under my deck and whine. If it was only firecrackers or piccolo petes, he would glue himself to my leg or hide under my deck chair where I retreated to have a beer. Buster is a great dog, but I would have no garden with such a beast. About 6:30 Jeff & Carol returned from boating in the river and reclaimed the dog. They had many apologies and gratitude, but I totally enjoyed my afternoon with Buster.

Evening came and the "real" fireworks began. My 16 X 16 deck is certainly the place to be to observe this show. I took several photos that I will include here. The illumination revealed my work for the day. I have planted miniture roses between my larger ones and they look very nice. I also planted Mike's mother's rose against my back fence. I hope it does as well there as it did for Kate and as it has for Mike. It is really a beautiful rose and should climb all over my fence.

The "find" of the day for me was a rose called Bonica. Mike has one at the coast and it is a favorite of ours. It is a shrub rose and has beautifully delicate pink blooms. I found one at, of all places, Wal-Mart. I purchased it and have planted it against my south wall very nearly under Edna's kitchen window. It, hopefully, will do well there and continue to provide those wonderful pink blooms.