Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Hard to believe that we have blown through August and will celebrate Labor Day in a few days. This is the general signal that summer is over, and it is back to school for many kids. Some, I understand, have already gone back to school.
At my age that is not something I have to worry about anymore, but I did pick up some extra labor around the house. The previous owners of my house put in a very nice flower garden in front of the house. It took some effort, but I got it all cleaned up, and I have been rewarded with some outstanding “knockout” rose bushes. They are huge at over 4 feet tall and are at least that wide. They are on their second pruning (I like to cut off all the dead flower heads), and they are just full of flowers. From left to right as you look at the house, there is a red one, a yellow one, and a pink one. The red and pink ones are of the same species and have anywhere from five to eight blooms on each stem, so many that the branches bow under the weight. The yellow one has only one or two flowers per stem, but they are much bigger that her two siblings. This is where the labor comes in. At my old house, which I mentioned a few times in previous articles, I had to battle a continued attack from the Japanese Beetles on my roses. So when I moved here, I expected to rejoin the battle, but they, for some reason, did not follow me to this house. However, that was short-lived. They did not bother the first outcrop of flowers, but they showed up on the second cutting. For some reason, they do not care for the red flowers; they really like the yellow ones and will sometimes get into the pink flowers. I spray, but they are very hardy bugs, and it usually winds up with me putting on my garden gloves and going hunting for the little rascals. The only good news is that this batch is dumber than ones I previously had. At the other house, they were very hard to sneak up on. A shadow or even a usual movement of the leaves would cause them to immediately detach and fall to the ground where they could not be found. This group acts as if I am not even there. I can reach into the flower petals and grab them with a minimum of effort or lost opportunities. Despite the minimal effort, it is still a pain to look through all the petals and avoid getting scratched to pieces by the many thorns. I have very delicate skin, and it does not take much to make a puncture wound, which is just another invitation for the mosquitos to come home for dinner.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, the love of work is success.” – Dogpound Wisdom
As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember; there is nothing wrong with giving a solid day of work.
–JR
