july 29th 2006

today it's raining. a meloncohly kind of day. i took the dog for a nice walk on a trail over looking the bay. we go there often. it has a beautiful panoramic view of the city and the bay of islands. i feel so fortunate to be living here.
all summer long i've been having a wonderful relationship with a small yellow bird. i think he's a yellow finch. the first time i saw him i thought he was an escaped canary. he had a lovely song and seemed to want to engage me in conversation. i often tweet at the birds and they often tweet right back. i think they think i'm an aberration. in any case this little fellow comes out and darts around twirping as my dog lucky and i walk. he sometimes ventures so close that i can almost touch him. he hasn't failed to come out when i announce my presence.
the strange thing is that i've seen a yellow finch outside my house which, as the crow flies is about a mile away from the trail. i know it most probably is not the same bird. i like to think he's followed me home.
there is also one at my cabin across the bay. now i do think it would be too farfetched to think he actually flies across the bay. it is about 20 kms as the crow flies.
he does the same thing though , greets me and tries to catch my attention.
it's been a wonderful summer. i have seen more dragonflies than i have in ages. i like to think my mom is a dragon fly. it suits her and she loved them. she could let them pitch on her. she had a real gift for nature. she loved all living creatures. bees, birds, flowers,insects, wild animals. she had an intimate relationship with the natural world.
i am heart sick at hearing news from the middle east. is there no voice of reason left in the world? what have we become? people can be detained without recourse to the law for years and years. a country founded on principles of justice, fairness, and freedom can condone torture. the invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation justified by lies and deception. the control of the freedom of the press. the bombing of civilians in lebanon. what is happening in palestine. afghanistan. for what ? don't tell me "freedom" or "democracy" those words have lost their currency with me.
who are we in the west to dictate our political/cultural/religous/social mores on anyone. look around we haven't been so successful ourselves.........
we have a family here who operate my favourite pizza take out. they went to lebabnon to attend a family wedding. they are now stranded there with no way to get home.the canadian evacuation is ended. they are in a region too dangerous to make their way to beruit. it brings the news stories close to home. these are innocents. a young husband ,wife and two small boys.how will they survive?
how did this happen? how can i help?

my old blog spot was http://bluebirdofparadise.blogspot.com
i don't know how to link it with my new blog which is http://bluebird-of
good luck in finding me

sunday, july 23, 2006

wow i'm back .
it's awful growing old. i couldn't remember my id or my password and you can't retrieve one without knowing the other.
so yesterday i started a new blog. i wrote a fabulous piece on roses . it took about 3 hours. i was so pleased with it . however my typing is not great, so i had a few spelling errors to correct. so i tried to edit it, but everytime i would replace a letter, i would lose the next one. it meant i had to retype the whole blog. and wouldn't you know, somehow i lost the whole piece. was i ever mad! i tried everything to retrieve it . i was convinced it was somewhere in my computer, if i could only find it.
i didn't and i lost the blog. i couldn' remember my id or my password.
then today i tried again on my original blog and lo i found the id and the password. now i have them written down. (heres hoping i can remember where i wrote it)

so here's what i can remember of my brilliant piece on roses:

i have fallen in love with roses specifically rugosa roses. . every morning upon wakening i lie in bed and recite the names of my roses."morden blush", "new dawn", "persian yellow", "purple pavement", "iceberg" "sweet briar" "alba maxima" ,"maria bugnet", "golden showers" and a no name that i call " my wild rose".
i am reading lois hole's book " rose favorites " as one of my spiritual books. i highlight the roses i want to acquire next year and the year after and the year after that, till my garden is full of roses..........
when i meditate i visualize a rose rather than a lotus flower. my mantra is " i am a rose".
i have dedicated my roses to my grandchildren, my children and some friends. my circle of roses grows.
my largest and oldest rose "sweet briar " is for my eldest daughter. it is about ten feet tall and has delicate pink tudor roses with prickely thorns that snag me as i putter around in the garden. it has a sweet scent and requires very little care . it is very independant and hardy.
"persian yellow" is my newest rose and it is dedicated to my youngest daughter. when she was little she named herself "lemony". it was a combination of her name "emily " and her lemon coloured hair. this is perhaps the only yellow rugosa. it has yet to bloom. according to the nusery owner it is a carefree rose who will surive the harshest winter.it is also known as "the yellow rose of texas".
my eldest grandson, has the "purple pavement " it is a short hardy rugosa. it has beautiful deep rose coloured blooms and is always in flower. it can withstand the cold harsh sea breezes that blow in across the bay.
"new dawn" is for alden . it is a fabulous pink climber.i first saw it at my daughter's neighbour's house in little rock . it has large double soft pink
flowers that climb over arbors and fences. my son in law bought me one for mother's day and planted it in the front yard. i thought it would only grow in the south and was delighted to see it in vesey's catalouge. so now i have one winding it's way up my clothesline pole. it hasn't bloomed yet but looks very healthy. it's a robust climber just like my robust grandson.
"my wild rose " is for my ozark mountain boy. it's a rambler and grows so fast. i picked it up at a yard sale two years ago.it was in a small pot and was maybe 6 inches high. it is now about 6 feet tall and has the most gorgeous fuschia flowers, it blooms continually and has a very thorny stalk.
"golden showers" is for my youngest grandson. he has long golden ringlets the colour of this rose. and he has just as golden and sunny a disposition.
my red haired grandson has a rose called "iceberg" it is an icy almost a translucent green rose. it isn't a rugosa but more of an english rose. it's well defined , beautiful and very dramatic.
"morden blush" is a rose i fell madly in love with. i saw it at a nusery when my daughter was expecting. having had 5 grandsons i was hoping and praying for a girl this time, afraid to jinx the chance, i avoided buying anything pink. but i had to have this rose. so i bought it thinking if the baby was a girl it would be her's , if not it would serve as a memorial to the grandaughter i never had. well much to my surprise and delight it was a girl. and this is her rose "morden blush" it's blooms are the most beautiful pink blush.
my friend turned seventy this week. to mark the occassion i bought him a white rugosa rose called "marie bugnet". this rose was developed in a place called "legal , alberta". it is a very hardy rose which will withstand the harsh winter sea winds and not require a great deal of care. my friend is a wonderful poet, who just survived colon cancer. we planted it below his window. as he writes his beautiful poems he can look out on "marie bugnet' and enjoy her beauty and be inspired to write beautiful love poems.
we had a wonderful old country rose at our cottage on the river. it was a fragrant white rambler. i found it's name in lois hole's book. it's called "alba maxima". it's an old english country rose, that's often found growing in the country by abandoned houses. it just goes on growing as a memorial to those who once dwelled there.i used to pick bouquets and put them in the bedroom at our cottage. it filled the room with a heavy intoxicating perfume.
my sister and i went to bar harbor maine a few years ago. we walked along a seaside path lined withhedges of beautiful pink roses bushes. i dug up a root with my nail file. i couldn't believe roses could grow in such an exposed environment. i wanted to plant them at my new cottage on the bay. i brought it home and planted it in a container. it survived several winters in the basement, finally i gave it to a friend for her new garden ( this was before i started to garden). it didn't make it through the winter. i always regretted not keeping it and vowed if i ever went back to bar harbor, i would dig up another piece of that rose. well this june i did just that. this time i dug it up with my bare hands. i got a good long piece of the root. carried it all the way back to newfoundland. i planted it in my new garden, but you know i think it's died. i'm hoping it may send up a new shoot , but it doesn't look hopeful. i think it might be a "dart's dash" or a "hansa" . i might make that my next rose purchase and dedicate it to my sister.
my two son in laws will have to have roses named for them . one i think will be a crimson rose, the other a salmon . and i want an apricot rose perhaps "folklore". and i have to have the most famous"peace" rose and "abraham darby", the miniture rose "cupcake" and the giant "cabbage rose" ,which dates back to the 1600's. oh the possibilities are endless..............
my litany of roses will grow year by year. in the meantime
"a rose to you ....."