This is a picture I meant to take on Wednesday, but forgot to. It shows the two roses my helper and I planted along the fence above the gate. These are two roses from the corral that have been living for 3 (or 4?) years in wine barrels.

When we got into the tubs to transplant them, the dirt was incredibly compacted. I remember that when I planted them, I wanted to use partly native soil to acclimatize the roses to it. It is a testimony to their toughness that they managed to survive this bad dirt!

I grew these roses from cuttings of roses at my current house. They are Sally Holmes and Phyllis Bide. Sally Holmes is a rose that came out in 1976. It is supposed to be a shrub or small climber, but in my current yard it is easily 15 feet across and would get bigger if I let it. It has a 5-petal flower of creamy white, but if happy, will put out huge trusses of 50 or more flowers. Three of those in a vase look like a bridal bouquet.

Phyllis Bide is a climbing polyantha from 1923. It has small, very prickly thorns which grab you by the dozen as you go by. At the old Vintage Gardens on Highway 116, they had one on a fence that must be 20' long. It is a fabulous re-bloomer, and as long as it’s happy will always look wonderful.

Here are two more holes along the fence below the gate, waiting for two more roses.

Just west of the driveway, there is a gorgeous rock formation. From the road below, it looks like a turtle with its head sticking up. Here is another view from the driveway looking southwest.

I understand from the geologist, that this is volcanic rock, like almost everything on the property.

Yesterday, while I was elsewhere, my excellent helper chopped all the weeds in the corral.

Looking through the remaining roses at the south side of the barn, you can see that they got most of the siding done and windows hung. Just the last window on this side and the two on the west side remain to be hung.

Here is a closer look at the south side of the barn. Now you can easily see the opening for the office door and bathroom door, as opposed to the windows.

Kai told me that they won’t put on the balcony until the barn is stained and the battens attached. He says that it is important that the wood be treated first with a finish, such as stain, before even the battens go on. So the next step after the siding is done will be to stain it.

Here is a nice long-distance view of the barn from the house pad. You can see what I mean here about the roofs disappearing into the landscape.

As I stood on the driveway taking the pictures, I heard what I THINK is a meadowlark. When I turned toward the sound, I saw it perched just on the tip top corner of the roof. For some ineffable reason, the sight really moved me, so I took this picture.

Here are two new roses (victims?) to be planted in the tubs vacated by Sally 1 and Phyllis 1. (There are 4 more of each still in other tubs.)

The new recruits are Cecile Brunner, climbing and Veilchenblau. Cecile Brunner is an extremely famous and extremely vigorous climbing rose with a pale pink flower. Mine only blooms once a year, although Cecile Brunner is supposed to repeat. I now think the repeater is the bush version. This rose will get 30' across in a heartbeat.

The Veilchenblau is also a vigorous once-bloomer, but it is purple. Once bloomers do really put their all into their big show, so sometimes it’s worth it to give them house-room, so to speak.