Very pretty. Thank you for sharing it......

My heart goes out to those who are suffering.

Maybe next time some clean fire lanes will be built to stop the fires.

Love the picture!!

toolbelt - one of the fires jumped 10 LANES of an inter-state highway, and between each 5 lane one way part of the hwy, there was about 10 feet of dirt, so 10 lanes plus 10 feet. So, these fires are so large and fast moving that no "clean fire lanes" built ahead of time can contain them. The firefighters are building containment lines, but these are much much wider and larger, and include large areas where they set back fires to consume all of the fuel. Even with that, none of the fires, all of which started over 3 weeks ago, are fully contained (meaning that the fire lines completely surround them, although the fire is not out yet) yet. The containment percentages range from the 20 something percent to 70 something percent, They don't expect the fires to be completely out until our Winter rains start (sometime in late Oct or early Nov), so there will be smoke all over for a long time as the fires continue to burn within the containment lines - 800,000 acres is a big area.

Jackie

That's a pretty picture, Jackie. I hope your beautiful property is not in danger of the fires.

My son is a Firefighter/Paramedic - Los Angeles County. Fourth generation - my husband, his dad, his grandpa - all LA County. He has been called to go up north to help with fires. I think most are under control here in the south. We were just in Mammoth Lakes - eastern side of the Sierras - and the smoke was getting really bad from all those fires. It blows eastward with the prevailing west winds, but then will all of a sudden change wind direction with a high pressure system and blow off shore out to the west.

There's nothing we can do about lightening-caused fires - a force of nature. the fires cause their own hurricane force winds sometimes.

If you live in a fire-prone area you can keep your house and property semi-protected by clearing dry brush, not having a wood shake roof or siding, etc. You have said that your city may make you cut down your roses off your house. That won't make any difference - the roses are green and growing - they won't catch fire. Only if the water restrictions are implemented again and you're not allowed to water them so they die and turn brown and crispy then they may catch fire. In so. Cal last year signs were put up everywhere at public parks, etc. that said "Brown is the new Green" - are you kidding me? How sad is that? They stop watering stuff and let it die, then when the winter rains come again, they replant and start watering again. It's stupid...

sorry...thanks for the beautiful picture...

@jacqueline9CA, your roses are just lovely, thank you very sharing them. I'm so sorry about what it happening right now in CA. I wish you and all California denizens safety and peace during all this chaos.

Beautiful picture @jacqueline9CA! It cheered me up a great deal. Thank you so much for posting. It is so crazy what is going on right now. Thankfully the SCU Lightning Complex fire is 78% percent contained. The air quality has improved around here and hopefully the fires will be extinguished soon. These are tough times, but there are brighter days ahead. Normally I am sad at summer's ending, but this year I am very much looking forward to the fall. This August has been a lousy, terrible month. I am ready for pumpkin spice and everything nice : ).

I hope everyone is safe and well,

damask_rose : )

Jackie - and the bees and other insects need a haven! Where will they go if there's nothing for them? I think your plan is a good one...hopefully no one will tell you to stop.

Those fires sound horrendous!!!! I've never been anywhere near an uncontained fire...it would be so scary!! I'm glad you have no fires near you!

Your roses are astounding!!! What a glorious place you've created!!! Totally beautiful!!

Good for you, Jackie!

The idiots who make these rules have no idea what they're doing! Hopefully you don't have any busy-body neighbors with nothing better to do than report you.

Keep planting and keep showing us pictures of your beautiful house and garden!

Jacqueline,

Most likely it would have jumped 20 lanes had they been there. However, maybe they need to take another look at how to build the fire lanes. Back in the horse and buggy days the fire wagons didn’t have much power behind their water streams, but today they do. Same things goes for the fire lanes. Don’t fight the fires with yesterdays technology. Maybe a few water tanks spaced around the areas with pipes running to pump houses that wet the areas down such that any flying sparks can’t start new fires. Screens to catch the flying sparks. Not that any of that would work but I feel they need to sit down and take another look at it.

Some time back my son told me that one of the ways they now fight fires in a building is poke a pipe through the building right into the center of the hottest fire and then suck the heat out. Sounds like that would just be adding fuel to the fire but it removes the heat allowing the water to put the fire out.

Also, in this day and age why not put fire/heat sensors around such that the fires are located before they become 800,000 acres in size. A camera feeding a picture to a program that would scan the pictures for fires would allow huge areas to be monitored without any moving parts needed. Just mount the camera up high so a large area is scanned.

Lets hope they get the fires put out soon as it sure is putting a hurt to a lot of folks.

That is a lovely picture, Jackie: thanks. I was wondering if you object to the government shutdowns to contain the coronavirus? You know we had an extremely severe two month quarantine here in Italy to stop transmission of the virus: it caused tremendous economic damage and personal suffering. But it stopped the virus, which has remained precariously contained since. I don't know what will happen this fall, but we at least had a relatively coronavirus-free summer; and the government has aggressive track and trace programs in place and is working hard to prevent a new epidemic from breaking out in force.

My own belief is that a country can have massive economic damage but contain the virus, as in Italy; or not contain the virus and still have massive economic damage, which is what I see happening in the U.S. There is simply no easy way out.

@jacqueline9CA i love your color combination! so beautiful

Excellent presentation, Deborah: thanks, and thanks in particular for thinking and writing all this out.

Melissa and Deborah - both of you make good points! Thank you!