There’s going to be a big MacEnroe family gathering (read: my in-laws, Paul’s family) here tomorrow and I have been tasked with a cake.  Not that I mind; I’m using it as a practice run for what I’m planning to enter in the NYS Fair this year.  It’s the “La Porcelaine” cake (the cover cake) from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible.   So far, so good.  The components are ready, the assembly is - er - today.

I was e-browsing when I decided to visit Neil Peart’s site to see if he’d posted anything new - which he has.  He writes of his travels and such, and makes a special mention of his favorite road in California.  I may need to re-read Ghost Rider and Soundtrack (and borrow Roadtrip from Les) but I wonder if he’s ever visited the Sequoia National Forest area.  Paul & I did as part of our California vacation last November, and words fail me when I try to describe it. 

Parks in the West are so different from ones here in the East.  Here, there are towns and houses in a protected area (like the Adirondacks).  There, you enter the park and … nothing.  Just the knowledge you’re in the park.  And the signs that state your elevation.  I also can’t forget the lack of nice, high safety rails on the roads.  I’d be driving on the road, and all of a sudden the turn would open up into … nothing.  Whoa!  Stay on the road!  After the first few times jerking the car to the left to recover I kinda got used to how the scenery would play hide-and-seek with me. 

What I found most breathtaking was when we stopped at a parking area … and it was above the valley, above the clouds in the valley as well (we were at 6000′ + at the time).  It looked like a surreal combination of fluffy snow and cotton candy that we could step onto.

Man, I would love to try that on a motorcycle.  The drive through the park, from the north to south entrance, is about 4 hours by car in perfect weather.

At work we have three iBooks in varying states of disrepair.  I was pretty sure one of them had a bad internal hard drive.  However, as Apple aficionados know, internal hard drives are not designed to be easily replaceable.  I did find a tutorial on iFixIt.com which showed me how to do it.  Here are a few photos for your enjoyment.

All puns intended - one of my fave shows, Moonlight, has been dropped from CBS’ fall schedule for next year.    It’s never good when a show you like is in the Friday time slot - that and Saturday night are the graveyard slots.   Some critics have argued that the serialization of the storyline made it difficult to attract new viewers; i.e., once you lost the story arc, it was difficult to return.  I happen to like that.  I’m not a big fan of everything wrapping up nice & tidy in 42 minutes (21 minutes for a sitcom) in my dramatic viewing.  Sitcoms are another matter entirely.

There’s a site you can visit to print postcards in order to snail mail to other networks in the hope one of them will pick up the show.  Rumor has it that the CW network is looking to fill a couple of hour-long primetime spots.  Moonlight’s Nielsen numbers (8 million viewers on a Friday) would be a shot in the arm for the network: that one show would have double the viewership of CW’s currently highest-rated series (Gossip Girl).  We can hope, and with this ad in The Hollywood Reporter, perhaps we’ll be rewarded with the return of Moonlight.

Roses, I mean.  When I first dipped my toe into the never-ending lake of rosarian-hood, I tended to plant my roses too far below the soil level.  Generally speaking, in the northern climates, you’re supposed to plant the bud union (the part of the plant where the flowering part of the rose meets the rootstock) about 2″ below soil level.  This helps protect a more tender variety.  Well.  As anyone who knows me will attest, my gauge of distances isn’t all that good.  Two inches, six inches, whatever!  (Insert ribald joke of your own here.  You know I’m already thinking it.  )

What has happened is that those roses have suckered - new growth which should have been canes turned into roots as they were underground.  Unfortunately, they’re not supposed to be roots, aren’t suited to be roots, and drain the vitality from the plant.  Solution?  Dig ‘em up, prune off the suckers and replant.  I have to take a picture of Sight Saver, one of two original plants I still have.  It is huge. 

We’re still waiting on David Austin Roses to send us Crocus Rose & Glamis Castle; once those are in, as well as Sight Saver and Teasing Georgia, the rose planting is done.  Next will be the lilac planting.  We’re expecting six shrubs from a nursery based in Canada.  They won’t bloom this year, but next year!!

The plants I started from seeds back in March/April are out in the garage, gradually hardening off.  I’ll probably take them to the back porch Friday or Saturday, when the weather’s supposed to improve.  The tomatoes look great (knock on wood), as do the marigolds. dahlias and delphinium.  The peppers are coming along, slowly but surely.  Cukes?  They’re gourds … and doing well.

At work we have a few old iBook G3’s in varying degress of distress.  At least one HD is toast (I think) - it boots from CD and runs great but don’t ask it to boot from self-same HD.  I get no display on the other - I have yet to try an external display.  However, I’m kinda hoping I’ll need to perform this repair on it:

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/726/diy-obsolete-ibook-logic-board-repair

Maybe I’ll use the scented tealights for ambience?

The last couple weeks have been almost non-stop gardening during the daylight hours.  If it’s not at home, it’s up at the Parker Scripture gardens at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Oriskany.

The roses I pruned last week - floribundas & HT’s - are doing excellently!  Wish mine at home were doing as well.  After uncovering them, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve been covering the bud union too far and leaving them covered up too long in the spring.  They’re coming out of dormancy, finally, but it’s like getting a teenager out of bed in the morning - a lot of kicking and screaming and you hope all turns out for the best.

Tonight I pruned out a David Austin shrub rose - Gertrude Jekyll I think - that certainly needed it.  Austin’s shrub roses have a tendency to have a lot of more slender growth - like a floribunda - that need serious pruning to “air out” the center and get rid of old growth.  People unfamiliar with pruning roses are often nervous about pruning too much out but with a reasonably healthy plant, that’s usually not a problem.  It’s also easy for me to say this as I’ve got a lot of experience in the pruning biz.

Paul & I also worked on pruning a climber - William Baffin - that needed some serious attention.  Old rose hips were still on it from last year.  Old, dead canes needed removal and we had to inspect it for tent caterpillars, which are supposed to be bad this year.  We found plenty of both.  Climbers / ramblers / etc are always a little tricky to prune, simply because they bloom on last year’s growth (also known as “blooming on old wood”).  You want to balance the amount of bloom you’ll get with the overall health of the plant.  But if we found tent caterpillars, we pruned a little more aggressively to make sure we got any infestation out.

When we got home, my Anne Boleyns had shown up (finally!) and they’re heeled in, waiting for Thursday (Libra, semi-fruitful).  I’m crossing my fingers & hoping that the J&P order will show up.  I called David Austin Roses yesterday and my latest order will be processed this week; hopefully I’ll get them by Memorial Day.  Apparently they got slammed with 500 orders, which because of the economy, they weren’t expecting.

For our reward we had steak for supper, with homemade biscuits and strawberries for dessert.  Yeah, I like that.

CCE in Oriskany

Fourth book in Stephen Baxter’s “Time Tapestry” series: http://www.amazon.com/Weaver-Times-Tapestry-Book-Four/dp/0441015921/ref=pd_sim_b_title_4

Man, how come these things happen to cool people?  While grazing on the internet prairie, I came across Steven K. Z. Brust’s blog/site, which led me to C. E. Murphy’s site, which informed me of Terry Pratchett’s condition.  Apparently he’s been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.  As it so happens, my father-in-law is somewhat more advanced in his stages, but fortunately, he’s in a good care facility.  While some of you may think that cruel, let me tell you from witnessing it first hand - it isn’t.  May you never come to the day when you can’t remember how to tie your shoes or how to sit down in a chair.

I have a problem - I’m addicted to roses this time of year.  Take a look at the sketch I made of the re-vamped back garden, then count the number of shrubs in it.  To that number, add 21.  You’ll get a number which is just too large.