Bogieblog

Pictures from the Garden Part 2

This is a continuation of this post:

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Pictures from the Garden

A lot of stuff has bloomed since I last posted pictures of the gardens, so let's get right down to it:

  Double Delight

  Zephirine Drouhin

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Hampton Beach Sand Art

So after we got on the bikes and headed away from Weir's Beach, we headed towards the coast (and the "real" beach). Hampton was our destination to see the sand sculpters on display from some sort of competition.

There really isn't much more to say about it - so I'll just show the pictures:

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Bike Weekend 2008

Two weekends ago was the end of Bike Week, and the weekend that we go up to Weirs Beach to see the bikes. We left the house at 8 aM, stopped for breakfast with Jimmy, then we rode to Weirs. We got there early enough that we didn't have to sit in traffic - not a big deal for Jimmy's bike since he has a radiator, but a relief to WS whose bike doesn't.

  (Looking toward the Boulevard from the bridge at one end of town)

As usual there were several colorful characters

  (This guy rode up with a parrot on his shoulder just before we left)

and a lot of nifty-looking bikes. Some bikes are only for show (and a quick run up and down the boulevard), and others are obviously ridden a lot.

  (Ok, this is really a trike, but it was nifty!)

In addition to bikes, there are vendors of more kinds of bike stuff (and non bike stuff) than one can imagine. We went thu a lot of the vendor stalls in search of specific items; riding glasses, gloves, neck bandana and T-shirts.

I scored a pair of Transition Lens padded glasses and a set of regular padded sunglasses. The Transition lenses are for when I leave in the morning for work; I leave in the dark and get to work in the sunshine. I had just been wearing clears, but that meant punishment for my eyes going directly east on 101A (trying to tell if the lights were green or red) and looking into the sun at the cornere of 122 (trying to tell if traffic was coming before I turned on). The Transition Lenses are great for that time of day or when it it is cloudy (I've proved out both). During sunny afternoons, I wear the regular sunglasses, since there is no need for them to change.

I was looking for gel-gloves, but couldn't find any in my size. I did find a leather neck bandana (like the one at this site), so I no longer have to use a winter muffler around my neck. Everyone else in the gorup (Jimmy, Pam, WS and me) found most of what they were looking for before we decided we had had enough of the heat and crowds

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No Show for Posts

Sorry folks, for the second weekend in a row there will be no blogging. Everything is fine - just extra busy. Hopefully next weekend I will get some pics up of where we were last weekend, new bloomers (flowers, not drawers) and maybe birds at the bird feeder.

Be good everbody!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Dad (Cop Car's Hunky Husband).

As usual this year, I did not get a card sent. This is especially sad because I bought the card when I got Dudette's BD card (which I got in the middle of May). My excuse is they moved Bike Week.

I can hear the peanut gallery grumbling that that makes no sense. Oh, but it does. It used to be Bike Week ended on Father's day so I had a full week's notice that I had to get the card in the mail. This year Bike Week effectively started on Father's Day - giving me no notice at all.

That is my story and I'm sticking to it!*

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Rain in June

Rain! Glorious rain!

Despite having a low chance of rain, overnight we doubled the amount of rain we have gotten in the last month. So far we are at 1/2". We probably won't see much more, but that will help for now.

I tempted the Weather Gods by watering several of the established flower/shrub beds yesterday as well as half of the vegetable garden. I figured that we haven't gotten rain when there was 80% and 90% chance of rain, so the measly chance we had for last night meant nothing. We even heard thunder rumbling in the distance last night, but still nothing by the time we went to bed around 10:30 (of course we have heard thunder plenty of times in the last month - hasn't mean much around here this year though).

However, the Weather Gods could not resist the gauntlet I threw down in front of them and they gave up the good.

If you guys out west of us want to send a couple more storms our way, we would take a couple more inches (in 2-3 storms, not all at once). In return, I'll work on a recipe for you to reduce the storms and rain that you have been experiencing*.

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Spring Blooms

So there is a post on roses that have been blooming this week, here are some other flowers in bloom:

  I got white irises from the neighbor a couple of years ago. This is the first bloom that I have gotten. Only one plant is in bloom; the rest look like they will be all foliage again.

  The Gold and Champagne iris is from Cop Car. As far as I can tell only two have survived the winters, but they sure are beautiful!

  These are just common Pinks (dianthus) that go about their business every year. Their color really pops out in the late afternoon sunshine and so I couldn't resist a picture.

Many other things are in bloom, but you can tell what doesn't like how dry it has been. Many plants are blooming, but they are lack-luster and and the bloom-period doesn't last as long as usual. The honeysuckle never really got a full bloom and the varigated weigala is looking dispirited - which is strange because those are established shrubs. Other items, such as pygmy barberry and the snow mound spirea, look like they will do extremely well (planted at the same time as the honeysuckle and weigala, and in the same area - go figure).

That is one of the reasons that I have about a gajillion different species of plants; If some don't do well, others are sure to come into their own.

First Rose Flush of 2008

I was so excited the other day when I got out to check out the flower gardens - there is so much in bloom! I was especially delighted with the roses.

Without further ado, let's get to the Rose pictures:

  From the deck planters, where there are potted up roses that I recieved this year, comes Excellenze Von Schubert, a Polyantha rose. This bunch is off the end of one tiny little branch (the plant is only 12-16" tall). The blooms are on the small side, but are fragrant. When the plant grows up, it is going to be stunning covered with its flowers and probably have a power house of a fragrance that will announce itself well before getting close to the shrub.

  A couple days later, the same bunch of EVS flowers have changed hues a bit.

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Looking for More Bad Publicity

After the debacle of buying a bike there, last week I got a funny letter from Best Cycle. It came from the General Manager and stated how happy he was that I had bought from them and he trusted that my experience was great (this is not a quote, but my interpretation). It was a full page letter that ended with the notation that I might recieve a survey on my buying experience and if there was any reason I couldn't mark the survey as I would definitely recommend to someone else or that I would definitely buy there again, I should call him up to discuss the matter.

Monday I took him up on the offer and called him. After explaining that I couldn't mark either of those categories positively, he wanted to know why. I explained the whole story and he said that it sounded like they didn't get much of anything right. Um-hu.

Then he asked what he could do to help make ammends. I said that getting me that promised gift certificate might be a start. He asked how much I was promised and I told him, he said he would get it out to me.

I also suggested a hand-off checklist. He said there was one and he would look to see if it was filled out. After a bit more discussion on the checklist, we ended the conversation.

The funny thing is, it has been 5 days since I talked to him - there is still no gift certificate in my hand. I guess they really don't want me near their store again. Not a problem, I will go to their rival in Concord for all my business - which includes maintenance and parts.