Duh!  Of course it is; this is my personal blog!  A good friend of mine, Les, accused me of that earlier.  This is from the guy who - from now on - will only buy coupe car models because “it’s all about him.”  So neener.  Just to throw a spanner in the works, check out the page where I relate the story of how I flirted with Alex Lifeson and got myself a t-shirt.

Haven’t posted in a while, been very busy.  Caught up on my new movies - saw “The Dark Knight” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” - both very cool but let’s face it, TDK’s storyline was so involved and layered it was thought-provoking without being preachy.  Neat trick if you can do it.

I’m working on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series now.  Boy, does that bring back memories from HS.  Speaking of, did you see “The Big Bang Theory” season finale, The Tangerine Factor?  It has to do with geeks relating to non-geeks: the example used was Schrodinger’s Cat, and yes, it’s alive!  I have a memory like that but it had to do with the moon landing and the Sea of Tranquility (or, in Latin which sounds much more romantic:  Mare Tranquillitatis).  Although in the interest of reasonably full disclosure, while I may not have been as cute (and still am not) as Kaley Cuoco, the young man in question was (still is) way cuter than Leonard. 

*sigh*  Too many years and a lot of living packed in there … is it any wonder I’m tired?  Siestas for everyone!

Do take a look at the Garden album in the Gallery - I’ve put up new photos of the current state of the roses.  There’s lots of good news:  roses that I had to prune heavily (Golden Celebration, Winchester Cathedral, Sight Saver, Knockout) are coming back!  Some are more advanced than the others but as long as I see healthy growth and progress I’m happy.

The blooms are spectacular with great color and form, and the foliage!  Super!  However, the critters of this world want to change that…

The japanese beetles are out.  *sigh*  I hate to spray, with all the birds I have around the garden, but to save the roses I need to.  But first I’m attacking the spider mites.  Those little nasties are much sneaker and harder to get rid of.  Most of the really effective miticides (spiders mites are mites, not insects, so an insectide won’t work on spider mites - or any kind of mite) are either Restricted for use by professionals, horribly toxic to other life besides the mites, or for nursery use only.  This leaves me with either a sulfur application or horticultural oils/soaps.  I’m trying the oils first, as they’re very low on the toxicity scale, and only affect the bugs they come into direct contact with.  Depending on the weather, tomorrow or Friday I’ll attack the japanese beetles as well as apply Messenger.  I don’t like spraying two different products too closely together, such as an oil and anything else.  (According to Eden BioScience I can mix the two.)

The consulting rosarian course this past Saturday was neat; I certainly learned a few things, especially in the disease/pest area.  When I saw the spider mite damage on my own roses I was fairly confident of my ID.  What was truly amazing was the resource I found on pesticides:  The NYS Pesticide Product, Ingredient, and Manufacturer System (PIMS) hosted by Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension.  It tells you whether or not a pesticide is for sale in New York State, whether or not it’s Restricted (only a professional can use/apply it), and gives you links to the chemical labels.  It’s good for serious gardeners who use chemicals to reference this and print out the labels to store in your gardening binder … just in case.

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