Where I've been in the silence

Hi world,

If you wonder where I've been in the last little while of silence....most of it isn't glamorous or fun per se...most of it has been at work.   My job is either like drinking from a fire hydrant full blast, or it is twiddle the thumbs and ponder the number of holes in the ceiling tiles.    I'm in full swing, fire hydrant, full blast no nonsense.   I think the last month has been a minimum of 70 hours a week.   I've also been working on a charity golf tournament and auction to support Research for Down Syndrome.  

Then of course life, and home, and step-mom, and.....lol...yeah....you get the idea. 

However, a couple days ago while talking to a friend I laughingly made a snide comment about how I should blog about my rose garden education for people who have black thumbs like me and desperately need more information, or at least the knowledge that there are others out there in the universe like me....most of my friends and family can grow stuff in their sleep with one hand tied behind their backs.    'Just plant it' doesn't work for me, for gardening advice.   I do that, the plant dies, and it's sad.   So....I've learned a lot over the trial and error of the last two years...and I should blog it.    My friend laughed.   (She was one of those born with green digits, and the growing elixir in her veins instead of blood.  She, I think, is baffled by how complicated it is for me.   She thinks about the plant, and it shoots up.  So she does her best to assist, but honestly I think I am an oddity in her universe.) 

Well, lightning struck, and yesterday...after the migraine 'please shoot me, streaming tears of misery' had cleared...I started writing.    I contemplated putting it here, but it's very easy to create a separate site, and I was in a compartmentalization mode....only time will tell if that was smart...or not....

However, if you want to take a look at what I have written and support me....here is where you can find my new, specialized blog....link below....I titled it Rivelare's Garden since this, my main blog is Rivelare and well it's still me sharing and thinking and writing...only about flowers and such :). 

http://rivelaresgarden.blogspot.com/

Enjoy...and all the best to you all... :) Drop me a line.  Despite my busyness I can usually respond to emails as long as you give me a day or so of grace and don't care if I'm writing it at 2am.

Jurried Legos---A tribute and a thank you

Note: I've worked more than 70 hours last week and more than 16 today...grammar probably is non-existent or hodge-podged together.   Apropos given the subject of the blog.  Anyway read on if you dare.

So, late last night...or early this morning...depending on how you look at it.  I call it night since it was the time between sleeps...but the clock said it was morning...

Anyway...

So last night I had some chores and projects to do and I've been working iNsAnE hours of late so if I get anything done it means cutting up that precious sleep time.   Chores are part an parcel to having a nice place to live and having clean clothes to wear...so no biggie there, just dishes, laundry, sweep, mop, fold and sort.   Projects come as part and parcel to living in a home...this is my first (of my own beyond the time in which Mom took care of everything), so as my first home it has been a novel experience.

One of my "current" projects, "current" being an ever growing and frequently changing list, is to provide a sun shade of sorts to my own root roses.   To preface this for all the non-gardeners out there...there are basically two types of roses.  Type 1- grafted, meaning new little plant has been grown on top of something that is already hardy and can pretty much withstand a lot of 'novice' handling.  This type is most common as it requires less care, and can easilyl be distributed to the mass markets.   Type 2- own root, meaning all that it has came from it's very own wee wittle seed.  This type is less common because, well like any youngling it requires attention, care, pampering, spoiling, correcting, and can be moody, etc, etc.   However, the second type is worth the fight.  (As with most things in life, what you work for and put effort into is often more rewarding and worth it.)   I have invested, yes invested, in some own root roses since purchasing my new home.    Now a lot of places will say you can't buy an own root roses from Oregon and have it survive the shock of Texas...not true...you just have to be creative and pay attention.

My roses have loved their new home, and have even bloomed several times.   Now, they are still tiny roses, even on the big plants...well because they are only 3 months old.   But my 3 month old roses are enjoying the sun, the breeze, the cedar bark, the soil, the peat....but over the last week tempertures around here have started to rise and the beginning of the Texas bake has started.   I noticed a drop in number of rose buds and so knew something was up with my toddlers.    It didn't take me much time to figure out 'heck it's hot out here!!!'   (If I put misters inside my garage I could call it a sauna.)

So I began pondering the solutions.   I came up with something and last night I was putting it together.   I was feeling profoundly glad for two things:  One - my Brothers, who played with legos as kids, and so thus did I.   Two - my Mom, who is perhaps the best Artist at jurry-rigging stuff, and who coincidently taught me without teaching me (another skill I'm woefully in awe of), that sometimes becoming an inventor is fun and comes with a little bit of duck tape, creativity, and well...may or may not work but then you try something else...so jump in and have fun with it...

I was jumping in to my project...not the first time...not really knowing the complete "plan" per se as much as the problem exists, and with a little of this and a little of that I just might have something that works...but the only way is to try it and see.  

For example...a typical home improvement dudes conversation over the last little while as I have been on some quest to find some treasure.....

Hi mam, can I help you find something?
"Um, maybe, I don't know, maybe.
What are you looking for?
"I'm not sure, but I'll know it when I see it." 

What is it your are working on? 
"Well you see I have X, and the issue is Y, and I think if I can find something like this bendy shape, of this substance, and then a connect-er-y part, and I take it and twist it like so, and do this then I can make the X do Z and...."

Then the inevitable look accompanied by the scratch of the head as if to say: "this is why women shouldn't come in here....." upon which they will usually leave me alone.  Apparently the typical employee follows instructions out of some-assembly-required furniture and has not had brothers who played with legos nor an inventor for a mother and so thus does not know what to do with someone like me let alone if my "plan" will work or fall on my head.

Anyway, I smiled last night as I sat admidst, tacky glue, duck tape, cotton balls, dowels and the lid to a tub...and thought of you all fondly.   It would have been fun to jurry-rig with you, and you were with me in spirit.  At 1:30ish am the creation went up.   Thus my tribute to you!!!!  Consider yourself toasted.

Thanks Jodus & Dylan (my brothers), I had fun creating bricked worlds with you.   Thanks Mom for showing me that rarely do you stumble upon brilliance the first time, that the learning curve can be fun...and yes, that sometimes you just have to throw the hammer for things to work.    Who knew these crucial skills would be so valuable in life?!   I owe you all more than I ever imagined.  

P.S. my roses are happier today.  I have two of them budding and a bud now in bloom.