La Belle et la Bete

I'm going to try a segue here, that will ultimately make sense (we can hope anyway), by going from the film Beauty and the Beast to roses. Stick with me, and we'll see if it works.

One of my all-time favorite old black & white films---no, wait, my most favorite---is the French film La Belle et la Bete, by Jean Cocteau, made in 1946. I have loved this movie for years, and just recently watched it again on one of the movie channels, falling captivated and mesmerized all over again. The imagery of special effects, the wonderful story, perfect acting, and the cinematic genius of Cocteau, makes this an absolutely stunning film. If you aren't lucky enough to find a TV channel showing foreign films, you can actually order a very brilliant DVD of the original at Amazon.

Here comes the segue---

So, from La Belle...
In the rose garden, which is a large section in the front of the house, Alan and I have about 56 rose bushes. I love the gorgeous blooms, and the scent on a warm Summer's day is nearly overwhelming. The colors, fragrance, and range of variety is pretty spectacular. During the blooming period (for us it's June clear through to November), we are constantly getting compliments, from neighbors as well as total strangers, on the beauty of the rose garden.

Here is a small sample of the roses. A very small sample considering this is just a few of our dozens of plants.






I took the photo on the right just this morning. I love how the dew drops sparkled, adding to the beauty






to et la Bete...
The endless fiddling, pruning and deadheading of these horrible roses, to say nothing of the constant threat of bugs (greenfly, blackfly, whitefly, and any other frigging thing that flies), and diseases (black spot, rust, wilt, mold and mildew), makes these prima donnas the most aggravating of plants in the entire plant kingdom...!! I have been slashed, cut, and left bleeding copiously by the wretched thorns, to say nothing of the sepsis involved when a barb breaks off somewhere in your hand, finger or leg. Why anyone would have these horrid plants is just beyond me. Which begs the question: why do we have so many..??

Because they are beautiful...even when they're beastly...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation...

Remember when you were a kid, and after Summer vacation you'd have your first class in school, and everyone had to stand up and talk about how they spent the Summer..?? Well, since I totally forgot I had a blog for about 3 months, now I will have to do an instant recap sort of post today, very much like those old school assignments. I'm pretty stunned though that I haven't written since April...where, oh where has the time gone...?????

I have read many books since my last posting, but won't bore anyone with those details. I'm actually going to remove that part of my blog anyway, so never mind what I'm reading (or what I've read since April).

Alan spent 5 weeks in America (June/July), helping my mother to move, and dealing with some INS stuff. He had way more fun then I did as I was stuck in Edinburgh due to Ozzy's usual doggy sitter, Helga, being off on her own holiday. Still, there's something to be said about your partner being away: eat what you want, when you want; read all night if the book is good enough; clean the house when you can write your name in the dust, and other singleton experiences.

One great thing about Alan being in America: I had my own personal shopper. It was wonderful to have him bring back graham crackers, cornbread mix, Nestle's chocolate chips, my favorite black jeans that I can only get in the States, and several other cool items. It was like Christmas in July...!!

It wouldn't have been half bad, having him away, if I hadn't missed him, and then there was the garden which decided to turn into some sort of tropical rain forest over that 5 weeks he was gone. It got well beyond my efforts to control by myself, so now he's back all he's done for the past two weeks is wrestle things back into order.

Here's a glimpse of the chaos:




The front walk. Lots of roses, though the nasturtiums seem to be taking over. No doubt the tropical rain forest effect.












The cauldrons look wonderful, spilling out with lobelia, as does the sweet pea planter against the back wall to the front door.










The fragrance is just heavenly from these blooms. No wonder they are called "sweet" peas. I have a vase full in the house and you can smell them everywhere.








I'd like to say we've actually had Summer this year, but alas, this is Scotland. It would annoy me no end when I would chat with Alan on the phone from America and he's going on and on about the 80 degree days whilst I'm walking Ozzy in fog, rain, wind and a week of the muggiest weather I've experienced since Florida. Truly, we had about a week of dense cloud cover, but up there somewhere it was really hot, so it made things really muggy and humid, and miserable. Very weird. But, still, no Summer to speak of. There's been maybe a week of good weather (sunny, warm, and Summer-like) since May..sigh.

That's about all I can remember of the past few months, other than how fast time flies, so I guess this is where my "assignment" ends, with me all caught up, and now I get to sit down to let the next kid stand up in front of the class to tell how they spent their Summer vacation...