roses & other flowers

the so called rosebed at the shack has been neglected for years. i do remember cutting it one spring but that must easily be 5 years ago. yesterday i decided to do something about it, finally.

there are 2 different kind of roses on the bed, rosa rugosa and rosa pimpinellifolia. the white pimpinellafolia i don't mind, it's actually very pretty in bloom, although the blooming is very brief. it's the pinkish rugosa i don't like, it's gone wild and too tall, and it's blocking the view from the deck to rest of the garden. besides there is, somewhere under all those rose roots and weeds, a nice stone wall that would look even nicer exposed with a few low growing perennials







i managed 3 hours and 2 meters of the bed. that resulted in 3 full wheelbarrows of rose choppings (i did cut the stems smaller to save space in the compost). i had to get the iron bar to help with the roots, some of which were 4 cm thick! then the heat got to me, i just plain wore out, and i did have 2 huge blisters on my fingers... i only have about 15 more meters to clear, wonder if that happens this summer?







a lovely, now destroyed, rugosa with exceptionally beautiful flower, they usually only have 5 petals







the flowers, leaves and seeds of digitalis purpurea are fatally dangerous, if consumed, to humans and some animals. the digitalis has been showing up in the back yard at the shack







lovely pink, almost as nice as in the peonies...







varjolilja in finnish, lilium martagon to the rest of you. this has also been showing up on the back yard







can you tell i'm excited about the peonies?! this was taken last night







same bud this morning. oh, i did ask martha about the ants and she replied to me! no worries here, ants are normal and drawn to the sticky substance in the peonies. now i have that from an authority







this was my late night snack yesterday, strawberries and creme fraiche (mixed with a little sugar and vanilla)







this is the souvenir i got from certain someone when he returned from way back east, i do like the unusual collar. the shirt itself is also quite unusual, there are no shoulder seams. the collar has been embroidered around a hole in the fabric