Skylar, the rescue Doberman at the Beach!

Two weeks ago my husband and I went with our rescue Doberman, Skylar, to the Del Mar Beach to get him more acquainted to beach life.

Skylar seems to like being at the beach, but so far he has not been very keen on water. We hope, that he can overcome his fears and really start to enjoying it, like many other dogs do. Here are some of his first attempts of becoming a great beach dog!

"Mom, is Dad serious, am I really suppose to go in there?"

 

"Okay, a little pet can go a long way, I feel so much braver now!"

"I can walk relaxed by the waves, but prefer to do it on the side facing away from them."

"Heh, mom, do you see me? I am so much closer to the waves now!"

"I am this close to the waves now, but I am not sure what to think about them! Dad really wants me to go in there, though. Mom, do you still think I should go, too?"

"Alright, I do it!"

"Well, it is not too bad."

"Especially if we go out very quickly after we have been in."

"Okay, I can do this again!"

"Hmm, can I drink this?"

"I am really deep into the water!"

"To splash a little bit around in the waves is fun, especially if Dad gets wet, too...

...but I still like jumping at the beach so much better. Do you see how high I can jump? Every dog can go into the water, but not every dog can jump this high. All humans are looking at me, when I do this."

"Yes, this performance deserves a treat!"

Oooh, there is another treat..."

"Look I am as tall as Dad is!"

"I love treats."

"Always."

"Do you have some more cookies?"

"Come on, give the treat to me!"

"Just give it to me."

"Give it to me, now!"

"Yes, I know, I am a good, boy." 

Wishing everyone in the US a wonderful rest of the Thanksgiving weekend!

Next time I will see you in the garden, again.

Christina

I am linking to Rose Garden Malevik

Garden Tour: Roses and other Happenings...

Work has gotten the better of me, again and for that reason the blog had to be somewhat abandoned. But here I am today with a new Periscope video for you.

It is another tour through my garden and I am looking predominately at roses that were still in bloom when the video was taken about three weeks ago, but also checked on other plants that were recently planted. At the time when I shot the Periscope video, my gardener was trying to open up a clogged drain in our front yard to get our property ready for a hopefully generous El Nino (Winter rains), so you see a little bit of that, too.

Hope you enjoy having a look!

As always, thanks for watching! I would love, if you could take the time and leave a comment!

See you in the garden!

Christina


Thanks for hosting Hakan

October Roses

Sorry for coming in a little late with the post about the roses that bloomed in October. My recent trip has delayed the writing and publishing of this post.

In general October is a good rose month here in San Diego. Because of the cooler autumn temperatures the roses are often able to produce very beautiful blooms. This year October was an unusual warm month though, but some roses still managed to flower generously.

In my eyes 'Pierre de Ronsard' beat all other roses by far with the extraordinary beauty of his blooms.

Each flower of this rose seems to be a masterpiece.

The blooms are huge, I would guess four inches (about 10 centimeter) in diameter.  

Here is the rose in her full glory last month. I would estimate that the bush is twelve feet wide (about 3.5 meters) and eight feet high (about 2,5 meters). No wonder that is it able to produce these good size flowers. I can't image how big the rose would be, if it wouldn't be growing in severe root competition with my Queen Palms from the right and the Pygmy Date Palm from the left. I also think that in addition to that our very humble annual rain fall in the last four years and the drastic water restrictions limit the ultimate size of the rose. 

The first set of close-up pictures of the blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' in this post was taken in the morning light and the colors of the rose blooms are much more muted at that time of the day, but when our intense sun hits them fully later the pink can take on a wonderful warm glowing hue like in the photo above.

I just love my 'Pierre de Ronsard'!

'The Prince' has been a very reliable rose for me in the last couple of months and was also not letting me down in October. 

With the cooler temperatures the color of the rose becomes darker and the blooms take on this royal dark red, which can even turn into a very dark purple red.

My favorite Tea rose 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux' gave me some of its perfect Tea rose formed blooms. What is not to love?

'White Meidiland' becomes more and more comfortable in its dark spot in my front yard. I am still amazed that the rose is able to bloom in so much shade and also that it is completely healthy there. I can't imagine how well it would do in more sun. You really look for such good disease resistance in a rose like in this one.

'Belinda's Dream' pleases with picture perfect Hybrid Tea bloom form. Unfortunately the Queen Palm close by seems to stunt the growth of the rose bush.

'Marie Pavie' always makes me happy with her delicate small blooms.

A rose of which I can post photos every month because it is so floriferous: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'.

'Pink Pet' seemed to especially like the October weather and bloomed extra opulent.

The delicate porcelain like beauty of 'Heritage'.

Last but not least a stunningly beautiful flower of 'Lavender Crystal'. This miniature seemed to have settled in into its new spot in the front yard and bloomed a little more. You can't call it profusely yet, but I hope it is getting there.

That was it from my roses from last month. I hope you found some that were appealing to you!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Garden Tour: Roses, Verbena Bonariensis, Bearded Irises and more...

I am traveling again and hardly have any time to blog, but I wanted at least to put up a new Periscope video that I recorded about one and a half weeks ago, so that you can follow the developments in my garden.

The focus of the video is on roses that were blooming at that time, but I am also checking on other plants that I have recently planted in my garden. I will be talking about which of these plants have become successes, but also about a few that disappointingly failed in my garden.

In terms of the roses you will see the particular beautiful blooms of rosa 'Scepter'd Isle', rosa 'Grandmother's Hat', rosa 'Yolande d'Arragon' and others. I hope you got interested and come with me for a tour of my garden. To get started, please click the video below.

Thanks for watching! I am curious, what was your favorite rose featured in this video? If you can spare the time, please leave a comment and let me know.

See you in the garden!

Christina