Rose Show

This weekend is the Kansas City Rose Society's 2012 Rose Show.  This is a big event at Loose Park. Take a look at all the roses.  They cover tables on three sides and the center of the room.

This also was a good year in terms of the number of people of people who hadn't entered before and overall number of people submitting entries.  Three members of our family submitted entries, a few of which are pictured below.

Cousin Samantha brought these two blooms.

One of our miniatures, Vista

Grandpa Hodges brought this one.

Another one of our roses, About Face.

Pumpkins!

One of Janice's projects this year was to grow enough pumpkin for her harvest loaf recipe (pumpkin bread).  It is the only pumpkin bread I eat and I think part of the secret is the chocolate chips.  Good stuff.  Anyway, she let Cassandra touch the insides of the pumpkins and Cassandra seemed fascinated.

Janice was able to get five pumpkins to the oven.  We might have had more but some borers got into the stems and started killing the vines.

Cheap Organic Food

Janice has been busy this year planting stuff in our garden.  From left to right, we have tomatoes and peppers in cages and then green beans.  The third row is a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower.  Beyond that is a row of potatoes followed by a row of cabbage.  We then have a space for pumpkins, a row of onions, and a row of snap peas on the far side, using the fence to grow up.  The fence is three feet tall so you can get a feel for scale.  Finally, we have lettuce in bunches on the side with the gate.

Better view of cabbage, very important for bierocks.

Spring Has Sprung

Harison's Yellow has gone crazy.  It is amazing as this plant was a small cutting just a few years ago.

Yard In Progress

We've been working on the back yard for over two years now.  Major improvements include the addition of a vegetable garden, removal of junipers, and the re-edging of the flower beds.



Before

We ripped out the shrubs in front of the deck and placed the garden there.  We then proceeded to "shovel prune" the overgrown bushes around the fire place.  The center of our replacement plants is "Harison's Yellow," also known as the Yellow Rose of Texas, that Janice got from her grandparents place in Ohio.  (Yes, with only one 'R' that is spelled correctly.)  We placed an arbor behind it for Don Juan, a red climbing rose.  We 'recycled' several Peonies, both to anchor the corner of the garden and on the far side of the roses.  We've also placed roses, centered on the "bays" of the veggie garden, with Irises in between.  Again, two of the four roses are recycled.  You can see them in the before pictures below if you look carefully, behind the junipers.

After

Before

The rose bush in this picture is behind the Juniper on the exterior corner of the house.  Doesn't it look sad being choked off back there?  We also reused the Buddleja which is the short thing in the corner below and we've placed Phlox to either side of it.  Behind the Peony on the exterior corner, we have placed Echinacea as well, with Aster in front and Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan) .  So, why are these five plants important you may ask?  They all are flowers that attract butterflies!


After - Butterfly Garden

Before

The rose bush that we recycled from here is behind a juniper, just to the right of the corner of the house.  See that little bit of red?  The centerpiece of this section of garden is a Hydrangea, centered on the section of the house without windows.  (You can't really see it because it hasn't really greened up.)  We will be adding holly bushes around the front of it to frame it.  The picture below also gives the best look of our red brick edging.

After

New Hardware

While Robert and I were working to install new door hardware on the front door, Janice snapped the picture below.

Robert is not nearly so scary as the lighting makes him look.

We have installed the new hardware in the door (including drilling holes as previously there had been no deadbolt) and now are working on the strike plate.

New House

I'm beginning the process of pulling pictures of our house and sharing for your amusement and amazement.  As time permits, I will post pictures of our projects as we complete them.  For now, here are a few pictures that show some of the unique, er..., character of the house.  These are some pictures from when we toured the house.

Master Bathroom:  You can't tell, but the wallpaper under the border has a snakeskin look.

Hall Bathroom:  If you look to the right, you will notice the curtain over the window blending into the wallpaper.

Living Room:  Note the faux crown molding (wall paper border) topped by real crown molding.

Dinning Room:  Same decorations as the living room, but also includes a chandelier.

Kitchen:  Curtains match the wallpaper here too.  Doug referred to it as the orange ninja wallpaper.  The previous owner took the light fixture with him, much to Janice's disappointment.

Upstairs Bathroom:  How do you like the hand painted wall decoration?

Our house