Continuation, so to speak.

We had a very pleasant Christmas yesterday, with DD at home for the holidays. We were quiet, as everybody was coldish and tired, but it was a glorious mild sunny day, so I lay out on the grass for a couple of hours, and later we all went for a drive around the countryside.

The weather has been overall kind this month, mostly sunny with a bit of rain, but we also had one snowfall, only about six inches here but it did an amazing amount of damage, which I've been cleaning up ever since as I found time. This morning I was out tidying up the bed in our front yard, the one I see from the living room window. It has roses 'Noella Nabonnand', 'Jaune Desprez' in the corner, and the semi-climbing "Miss Mystery", with a lemon verbena growing under the latter; a mature myrtle in the back, three phlomis, also mature, in the front, two more roses, 'Odorata' and 'Comtesse du Cayla' on the far side where the clump of three palms is, and Salvia guaranitica winding through everything. These have all been here for years, doing fine with little intervention on my part, but the snow flattened the salvia and the myrtle, and smashed the roses here and there. The phlomis need to be cut back anyway, as they've grown forward and left me only a narrow path out of what used to be a modest patch of grass. I'm hoping that cutting them back hard won't harm them: practically nothing else does.

Salvia guaranitica is a great plant. It has fuzzy leaves of acid yellow green, with plumes of electric purple flowers, and it gets huge. When our winters were colder mine used to freeze back to the ground every winter, which helped keep it under control, but for a few years now it's been evergreen, getting up to ten or twelve feet, with the more prostrate stems layering, so that now it's rooted in a good deal of this bed. It tends to get along well with other shrubs, as it's not dense, but has an octopus-like habit. I understand it doesn't like full sun, another reason to grow it with other plants, but it takes drought and heat, and mine went through temperatures in the low teens once with snow cover. It blooms any time it has the necessary conditions of growth, sun and water: mine is flowering now. I believe it does well in Florida.

So, the salvia got smashed and is now getting a needed cutting back. Idem for the myrtle, which I suspect I'll end up reducing to five or six feet. Idem for the lemon verbena, likewise pruned lower, forced back from the path, and cleaned up. Idem for the phlomis. 'Odorata' was the worst damaged of the roses, but it brought a needed pruning of aged canes. "Miss Mystery" has layered, and started new canes! She has always been reluctant to do this, so I'm happy. Once I get enough of the debris out of the way, I'll look at training 'Noella Nabonnand', which is flopped over a good of this bed, somewhat like the salvia. I'm carrying armload after armload of pruned material down to the fruit trees for mulch, their stony soil being in desperate need of organic matter. The weather forecast is for sunny weather for the next several days.

O, it's SO good to hear from you, Melissa-something about real gardening and real roses instead of all the marketing bs that seems to be taking over a bit too much in the regular roses forum. It's my fault, too, since I haven't contributed anything worth much recently. The reason is quickly told-we had a huge wind storm that knocked the top off of the already maimed oak that overhangs the main area of the garden. A huge branch is hanging by a thread, threatening to come crashing down on very young roses that can't take a beating AND on one of my "sculpture-rose supports" on which I've been working for years. I did contact a gentleman who should be able to remove the Branch of Damocles without causing more damge, but he is very, very busy. Tommorrow I plan to call him, since he said he'd try to carve out a morning during the holiday season to come and do the job. I sure hope so-this has been weighing tremendously on my mind.

The storm caused a lot of other damage, too, which I am in the course of trying to clean up.It's not much fun seeing years of hard work damaged or destroyed by one night of wind. Unfortuneately, as is my wont, I overdid myself, trying to lift something that was way too heavy,and hurt my left hip. Six years ago I had to have the right one replaced, and I am SO scared that I've hastened the wreck of this one by my obsessive-compulsive inability to control my impulse to "do stuff".So now, I've got a painful right shoulder and a painful left hip-not a good thing when so much has to be done! So I haven't been in a very good mood recently. Nevertheless, Santa Claus took possession of my spirit, and I bent over backwards with my Christmas decor (doing that right after I hurt my hip may well have made it worse,but "it's only once a year, sir")and spent the last 2 days focusing on cooking some special things for my DS and DH,and I'm not sorry in the least. I almost never cook for them and so often stay out late at my land,

Well, now I'm heading out there for a short afternoon of work . Happy holidays !

Good to hear from you, bart, and happy holidays to you, too! Ours have been good, and most of the effort is past, since right before Christmas we have DD's birthday, a big celebration in our house. Now the house is clean and decorated, presents have passed from hand to hand, we've been eating well, and we can just cruise for a while.

I don't know if our snowstorm was your windstorm, but I sure have plenty of damage to clean up from it. Nothing as threatening as your 'tree of Damocles', I'm happy to say. I hope your man gets out very soon and removes the threat.

Also I hope that you get better soon. I don't have your problem of working beyond my body's limits, because I have no energy. So in a way, you're lucky. Still, it's best to be able to work energetically without pain and without having to worry about your wrecking yourself, and that's what I wish for you, and soon.

I was out this afternoon, too, clearing out dead growth from 'Mme. Alfred Carrière' and the yellow buddleia it's flopped over. It was fun.

I love hearing from you two. My challenges are more akin to yours in my wild garden.

Sheila, tell us what's going on in your garden! The adjective is intriguing.

Melissa, right now I am waiting for my sap to rise before I start my fertilizer spreading and some dormant pruning. We are enjoying rain which is a great time for a rest up. I fortunately do not have downed trees or other such severe cleanups required. I have been here 10 years now, and could take out some old and damaged rose canes. The rose stem girdlers are a real pain. I could also order more poppy seeds to sprinkle, even though my California and Romneya poppies are the only ones that like me here. The annual poppies have dudded out for me, as have perennial flax. I can also trim up all the perennials I have left over the Winter for the wildlife. We have 30 quail in our courtyard here.

Sheila, thanks for checking in. The rain sounds good, so does the rest, so do the quail....everything, really. Enjoy your rest while you can.

We're enjoying a run of mild, gloriously sunny weather; and it's dry, which is good for wearing my wrecked, leaking, but comfortable work boots; less so for the garden, which could use some rain. We have cane-damaging bugs here, too, although Teas and warm climate roses seem fairly resistant to their damage, compared with the early spring yellows, for example, or rugosas.

The wreckage from the snow got me started pruning, and led me to realize how much there is to do beyond that particular round of damage. Lately I've been working on 'Mme. Alfred Carrière' on the terrace pergola. The rose has an enormous amount of dead and old canes--fortunately, also many young ones coming along--so I've been cutting, lopping, and, in a few cases, sawing away old growth, getting ready to retrain the young canes. In the same bed, the two mature pittosporums need a major cutting back, and I've been shaving away a little of the every-expanding Mediterranean fan palm, working on which is not without risk as its fan stems are edged like saw blades. Let me get this done, and it will be one more little corner of the garden set in order.

Yesterday I was crawling around under the palm and the pittosporum, investigating and pruning, and, though it's perhaps ten yards from our front door, it was a spot I hadn't been in for years. I love this about my garden: that it has so many places to explore, and, since I can never keep up with maintenance, there are so many discoveries to be made going into areas I haven't been in, or at least looked closely at, for ages.

Finally I'm back again to this thread with news-the Branch of Damocles is down!!! Yesterday morning the tree gentleman came with a colleague to do the job. They are both young men who well deserve to be called "gentlemen"; it was a pleasure to deal with them, But what a job! First of all, when I called up to conferm the appointment at 7AM, it was not raining, so we decided to forge ahead. As soon as I got into the car, however, it began to rain, and not just a light mist,though not heavy either. Once I got out there and opened the gates, they arrived, and it continued to rain on and off,getting gradually worse as time went by.The actual job was complicated even for these experts, because one could not see clearly just how the branch was being held up. One of the men was way high up in the tree ,making cuts with his battery-operated chainsaw (you couldn't use a regular one for a job like this-too bulky. Not to mention that it would have been literally impossible to turn the thing on whilst suspended posibly 10 meters above the ground!) The other made cuts from below using a telescopic hand saw and telescopic lopper-type pruners. They had to proceed slowly, carving away at the mess to find the key to getting it down without causing harm. In the end, the man in the tree was climbing on the remaining limbs of the tree, way high up, and holding the base of the branch in one hand tied a rope around it using the other hand and his teeth,and finally they could rock it over onto the other side and fell it. Whew-what suspense! and what danger, dare I say-balancing oneself that high up on branches made slippery by the rain! AND doing all of this in rain-don't get me wrong, I adore rain , but it is very, very hard to work outdoors in it even if you're on the solid ground,let alone being way high up in a tree. They then pruned the over-hanging branches a wee bit. But they said that in reality, trees should not be pruned,so I was unwittingly damaging my poor tree further by my interventions. They aren't like roses; pruning gangly branches does not re-inforce them. So I hurt the tree and myself out of total ignorance. What can I say?

Any way, the whole thing took maybe 2-3 hours, I think. By the time they were done,the rain had re-inforced, and the wind had kicked up; I was glad to get out of there and I bet they were, too. They did a splendid job in spite of all the challenges and I am SO grateful! I felt kind of bad, too-when the said the job could be done if it was sprinkling rain,I wonder if they realized just how wild it can be out at my land. The forecast was to blame, since only light, occaisional rain was predicted. But I am so relieved and thankful that the work is done.

Enjoy your rain and rest, Sheila! How did the quail get there-are they wild, or do you raise them? Melissa,the wind storm happened around November 22nd, before the snow. We didn't get any snow here, and out at my land there was no accumulation, but higher up there was,however on the other "versante" of the hills; i.e., on the Emilia-Romagna side.

Hopefully it'll rain for the next few days so I can rest. I'm going to get an MRI done on my hip; I think it'll probably have to be replaced. It wasn't in great shape 6years ago when I had the right one done, and Heaven knows I don't know how to "take care of myself", etc. But what can you do? I love my work and I love my land.

Happy New Year!

You sound intrepid, Bart. Our quail are wild and love our wild property. My husband feeds the birds on top of us having seeds galore all over our 5 acres.

My husband has had both hips resurfaced. It is a good thing.

I'm glad you are getting rain.

Wild life can be such a joy-as long as they don't mess too much with one's garden, lol!The quail sound great.Would it be possible to see a picture of them? I have my nerve asking this, since ,having no camera, I can't post photos myself. I do want one, but our finances are not in the best of shape, what with everything being so expensive nowadays.. Fortuneately, our darling DS has got himself a job-like his dad (expert physical therapist and researcher/author/professor on physical rehabilition) it's a job dedicated to helping others (works for an institute that assists kids with psycological and social difficulties). Hopefully this will be of some help to our family. Sad to say, yours truly can't provide much in the financial line; I wonder if unconsciously this contributes to my over-doing in my work-I never feel like I'm giving enough of myself. Maybe it's a shame that I can't tolerate just being a humble housewife, but I literally can't.But my DH knew this when he married me, so it's on him, lol.

Is your DH into sports, Sheila? I looked up hip resurfacing, and it seems like this procedure is mainly adapted for younger men who do sports.

Melissa's talk of pruning reminds me that I've got to start getting ready for spring myself. This past month or so, having completed (almost) this season's planting,I've been working on building my new rain-catching roofie-thing,building a pergola for wisteria to shade the main path to the garden, and repairing the pieces that were damaged by the storm . But now it's time to interupt this work and start putting down fertilizer, re-constructing my drip watering system (how much damage has THAT sustained during the winter???),cutting up the sea of cut branches that lie beneath the wounded tree ,and doing some pruning. This year I also intend to do anti-fungal spraying on the new implants.At this point, I feel pretty sure that that "creeping black death" thing that happened to them these past couple of years may be due to something fungal. Of course, they don't get abundant water-impossible for me to do that-and the temperature in summer is just too hot, and these things are doubtless a part of the problem. So spraying is my last shot; if these roses continue to "grow backwards" after this attempt, it's time to give up on them; it will mean that floribundas are not for me,period,and perhaps now that the weather has become so bad in the summer,even other modern roses might be off the table. The important thing is that I give it my best shot.

Today is rainy, too, thank Heaven. I hope to spend the next few days resting (and making the MRI appointment). Next week is supposed to be sunny and dry,so with any luck I'll feel a bit more sprightly and will be able to go to work on these seasonal jobs.

This is great bart, good for you, and kudos to the fellows who got the limb down so that you don't need to worry about it any more. It's good to get your mid-winter news. Best of luck with your hip. Sheila, good to hear from you as well, though I wish you were less concise....I want to hear more!

I've been very tired lately and the weather has been bad, so I've been almost completely idle and have been sticking by the fire. No, I don't like it. I'm hoping for improvement starting tomorrow, with SUN, which has been very much missing the last several days, and less humidity, so that going out in the garden is once more desirable and not a punishment, one I'm not up to. I do appreciate the recent rain, as it has been dry.

Yes, my husband is athletic, Bart, and the resurfaced hips last a long time. Regular THRs are good too and more done on women.

I agree my writing could be improved. I enjoy your writing so much, both of you and Diane's. I think I have always had this writing style. I will try to get a quail photo.

I had rather a good day today, in spite of a couple of days dealing with the aftermath of my Covid vaccination, including a night when I COULD NOT get warm, in spite of two feather comforters over me. This morning, a sore throat. Anyway, today the temperature was tolerable, and the gray clouds thinned in the afternoon and we got wonderful sun. The forecast is for some days of lows in the twenties, first time this winter, so I finally set seriously about getting some of my colony of potted plants in the ground, the safest place for them. It's late to be planting, but I usually run into mid-January, anyway. First, a fig, in a place where I'd already planted one, which died. The soil failed the fingerprint test, meaning that in spite of previous amendment it was pure gray clay you could leave fingerprints on, with whorls, so I added a bag of compost and hoped for the best. Then five plants of Ruscus hypoglossum, a low-growing evergreen plant for serious shade, and I hope it likes life next to the drainage ditch and shaded by the Leyland cypress. Finally, a lilac, to join another on the steep slope below the rickety barn; I may add a third one of a different color.

There are still a few roses flowering, or trying to: 'Reve d'Or' was covered with buds. I need to start getting it up on the pergola, while thinning out its companion, the probable 'Ayrshire Splendens' which is also spreading through the trees and shrubs lining the drainage ditch. It took 'Reve d'Or' quite a few years to get going, but it's launched now. 'Dumortier' above it is leafless but looks set for a handsome spring.

'Purezza' growing through the Leyland cypress has some blooms. I spent time today cutting dead wood out of it. There's an Ayrshire rambler growing through the other Leyland cypress across the ditch, but it blooms only in spring. The other roses I know to be in flower, or trying to be, are all up at the house: quite a few buds on 'Mrs. B.R. Cant', and 'Sanguinea', which is pink with the cold but blooming rather respectably. I imagine the freezing weather to come will do them in now until spring.

It's January and serious winter, but there's quite a bit of life in the garden. The annual grass is thick and green, for one thing; then, the hazels are in bloom, the winter jasmine is starting to open and the large hybrid mahonias are flowering now. The bees certainly haven't given up and gone to bed until spring. I saw the pink blooms of the Japanese quince at a little distance (that part of the garden, at the very bottom of the ditch, scares me a bit, so I haven't been down there for a while). The evergreen leaves of Oregon grape are almost black in the sun and very handsome.

I have intimidating amounts of work to do, and the Italian cypresses, for example, still smashed by the snow, are ridiculous. I've been pruning all fall, and the removed growth has been piled here and there where I needed organic matter, though that's nearly all the garden. I've almost completed pruning 'Mme. Alfred Carrière', and can now finally begin tying the new canes over its pergola. Once I've done all the planting I want to do.

Melissa, what a great start you are making to a new season.