Bogieblog

Taken Just Because I Could

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!
I only scored 17 on the Obama Test

Found at Borepatch.

Disclaimer: there was one question I had to just pick an answer to because none of them fit me.

Taken Just Because I Could

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!
I only scored 17 on the Obama Test

Found at Borepatch.

Disclaimer: there was one question I had to just pick an answer to because none of them fit me.

Dick Kemp Museum Auctioned Off

Dick Kemps museum of trucks was auctioned off yesterday. If we hadn't gone on the memorial ride (see next post), we might have gone down to the auction just to look around.

The trucks at the side of the road will be missed. We always meant to stop and take a look, but never did. Now we won't get the chance.

Sean Powers Memorial Ride 2009

Yesterday morning we met up with Jimmy and headed to the Sean Powers Memorial Ride, the proceeds to go to a scholarship fund in his name. We didn't personally know Sean Powers, but he was a Hillsboro cop who was run off the rode, while riding his motorcycle home from work, by a drunk driver. We knew his sister-in-law, so were affected indirectly by the tragedy.

There was a ride last year that we were unable to participate in, but we made it this year. The Weather Gods were smiling on us as it warmed up into the low 80's (much better than the high of 69 we had the day before!) and there were just light, fluffy clouds in the sky (also much better than the dark cloud cover that we had all week).

The following is a few pictures I took along the way:

  Just some of the bikes that went. By the time we were ready to leave, they were six abreast.

  The Sean memorial bike (the white one)

  SMB from the side

Mid-July Blooms

We actually had a decent week last week; no rain until Friday night, and the temperatures anywhere from the mid 60's to the mid 80's. It was such a nice week that I actually got to ride in to work 4 out of 5 dyas (I got groceries the other day, and there were supposed to be thunderstorms - which never appeared).

Anyway, the non-rainy weather has been good for blooms. All the following pictures were taken July 15th.

  Endless Summer Hydrangea. This one always does me proud - kind of like the phlox, it makes me look like a freakin genious gardener!

  Excellenz von Schubert. It is hard to believe these are just little, tiny roses, about 1.5" in diameter.

Any Ideas?

I have a mystery plant down in the rock wall of the area that was formerly of the fruit trees. It is in the rock wall of the new driveway (the one that goes behind the shed into the back portion of the property), so I know I didn't plant it. It has shot up, over the course of this spring, to almost 6 feet tall. The leaves are a couple of feet long and broad. The yellow flowers on a spike that at this point is about 18" long. Since only a few of the individual buds to the spike aren't open, I am unable to determine if this thing plans on getting larger before really opening up.

Here are some photos, and maybe someone can help me identify it.

  The bottom portion of the plant

  A closer look at the leaves. They look fuzzy, but I haven't touched them and won't until I am reasonably confident of the identification (hey, I've been stung before!).

  The open flowers. The individual flowers are small, perhaps 1/2" diameter (if that big), but the spike itself is large and loaded with buds.

Any ideas from fellow gardeners?

Can't Give It Away

Last weekend, WS was doing a project in TAFKATFTS (the area formerly known as the fruit tree slope), and I had to get a bunch of phlox out of the way. The phlox has spread to a line of about 5 feet wide, from where it was originally planted (3rd picture down - and that is last year's pic). So, I pulled and cut of overgrowth for quite some time.

I placed the phlox (no soil) into large plastic pots, of which I have dozens from various plant buys. I gave four of those to the neighbor across the street, I planted two of them in other areas of the yard and I sent Cop Car two  (15 pounds worth in those two pots - okay, subtract a bit for the box, but you get the idea).

I have been keeping the pots in the shade, and keeping them moist (Mother Nature did that for me most of last week), and they are still nice and green. Yesterday, I borrowed a table from the neighbor, and placed the remaining 5 pots on it next to the road:

 

Not a single taker. I have never put anything at the side of the road (usable stuff goes to the swap shop), but heard that it always works - not this time. Fortunately, Karen came by last night and took two off my hands for her daughter. The rest sat out in the rain last night and the signs and instructions are probably total messes that no one can read. I guess worse comes to worse, I can bury them out in the mulch pile out in the woods (where they won't root).

On a different note, I got blooms from a rose I picked up earlier this year, and which has been sitting in the planter on the railing by the front door. It gets enough rain there to keep watered, but not so much that it ruins the blooms (as the rain has done to most of the roses):

  My fingers show how small the blooms are - well, only if you know how small they are. So, for those that don't posses that particular knowledge, the blooms are about 1.5" in diameter. And all the blooms in that picture, are off one spray - it is loaded with sprays over the entire (small) plant.

And this isn't quite a garden picture, but this was in the sky on Friday evening:

  The Hillsboro Balloon Fest is this weekend (fireworks went off last night but we dind't stay to watch because of the torrential rain).

The clouds are supposed to lift this morning, and we should have another beautiful day.

Ride to the Sky Revisited

A couple of weeks ago, WS and Jimmy took their bikes on the Ride to the Sky; up Mount Washington as part of bike week. A professional photographer, unbeknownst to the guys, was taking photos of the bikes as they went up the auto road. When they got to the top, someone informed them that their pics had been taken and they could get prints if they wished, and gave them the website to access the photos.

The photos were excellent, so I ordered one up of each, and they came in the mail yesterday:

  WS (of course)

  Jimmy

Thanks to the Phantom Biker for doing such an awesome job!

4th of July Weekend

Saturday, July 4, the weather was windy, warm and stormy (in the afternoon anyway). We spent the day doing yard work. The 5th though, was a different story. Although still windy, look what we saw:

  Blue Sky! As you can tell, we took full advantage of it and went for a ride. Jimmy and BIL joined us. We rode for a couple of hours in our neck of the woods so that we could stop and pick up SIL when she got off work at noon. While at BIL/SIL's house (SIL needed to change clothes), Jimmy got a call from a friend, who happened to be just down the road, and they came to join us.

Grilling

If it was ever warm enough or dry enough for a Bar-B-Q, this might be what it would be like. (no, seriously, bo read the description, the rest of this post will wait).

However, since the average temperature has been 62 degrees, and very dark and wet, I have used the oven and stove to cook, just to keep the upstairs at a temperature where I am comfortable in jeans and sweatshirt.

Yesterday was an exception, getting warm and being sunny, but we went visiting instead of making dinner, so no grill time for us.