7 May 2001

Good morning, all ~

I guess it's well into the morning in the East, but it's still pre-sun-up here on the West Coast. Out in the San Joaquin, temps will be close to 90* again. At least the wind has died down and the hay-dust isn't floating all over waiting to attack people's sinuses!

It was a beautiful morning at 2:00 a.m. today - cool, dark, peaceful. Not even the frogs and crickets were up to distrurb the solitude - just the whispery sounds of the tree leaves in the occational breeze. On a morning like that, I don't even need caffiene.

The long, wet, cool spring we had, combined with the fact that I did not prune last year, lead to us having Monster 10 ft tall rose bushes that were decidedly top heavy. DD kept cutting roses off of it, but I think that just inspired it to new heights! It started to tip, so DH tied it to the fence... then it started to pull the fence board out... well, now it's been trimmed down to 3 ft. We'll miss a lot of blooms that it would have produced - however, we have preserved our fence and neighborly relations, so I guess it's a draw.

I keep dead-heading the CA poppies to prolong the bloom period, but now that Summer Is Here, there won't really be anything much to do to keep them going. I think I'll let this last set of flowers go to seed. I tape little paper covers over the seed pods when they start drying out, as they litterally "pop" open and burst the seeds into the air when ripe. Maybe in a few months I be daring and put some seed up for trade ;-)

Take care.

Happy Monday!

Karla