Juicy Plums for Independence Day

A bountiful harvest has begun here at Rosehaven Cottage thanks to one Santa Rose plum tree that is laden with so much fruit some of its boughs are bending and touching the ground. This is really exciting for me because this is the first year that the tree has actually produced more than 1 or 2 plums. I LOVE plums (Hubby doesn't like them) so I am thrilled!

Some of you may remember that I wrote about this plight earlier in the year when the tree was blossoming as I shared some photos of the lovely spring plum blossoms. Now the majority of those blossoms have become luscious plums that are ripening at varying rates all over the tree.

Because sitting under the plum tree is one of my favorite daily activities, I have been watching and gently hand-checking the fruit each time I'm out there. Early in the ripening stages when a plum that's been within my reach has been ripe enough, I've plucked it from the tree and eaten it right there. Yummy!

Well, now that the number of plums that are ripe has increased, I was able to take my harvest basket out and pick the first bunch of plums all at once. That was a real treat!

The plums came inside and went into this nifty rinsing basket that Hubby has in the kitchen (the kitchen is Hubby's domain, by the way). After a good rinse in some cool water, the plums were covered with droplets and were very photogenic (as you can see in the photos above).

Of course I've eaten the perfectly ripe ones as a wonderful sweet treat as part of my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. As the others ripen, I'm going to try my hand at making homemade fruit leather with our home dehydrator. I'll make sure and photographically document the process when I do so I can share.

Now why, you may ask, am I featuring these fresh fruits on America's Independence Day?

Well, today is also my own Independence Day. It was two years ago today that I made the life-changing decision to eat, eat well, and gain my independence from the burdens of a chronic illness as well as OCD-related anxiety and depression. Along with adopting the WeightWatchers lifestyle, I consciously chose to no longer consume any hydrogenated oils and products (trans fats) while increasing my consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids in the form of walnuts and other nuts. I also chose to eat instead of continuing the pattern of "forgetting" to eat all day--a pattern that was taking me down a very unhealthy road and had caused my metabolism to grind to a halt. July 4, 2006 was a very big milestone day for me, to say the least.

As I've traveled this interesting health-focused journey for the past 2 years, I've come to love simple and luscious foods like these plums that I'm harvesting off our tree. Grown organically (as all the other produce in our garden), these plums are more than a summer treat for me. Instead, I see each one as a small package of health and wellness ready for me to consume and gain its benefits--the most profound benefit being independence.

Happy Independence Day!

Links to my writing on the Rosehaven Cottage Health, Wellness, and Food blog:
A Delicious Way to Get My Veggies
"Cute Attacks" and Feeling Healthy
Managing Anxiety and Depression with Nutrition

Links to spiritually-based resources at Provident Living:
Helpful Information on Social and Emotional Strength
Physical Health

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Back by Popular Demand... The Irish Creme Rose

The last post prompted a number of questions in the comments, so I decided that instead of answering the questions there I'd just post another photo of this lovely rose. This photo was taken back in May. Being the first bloom of the year the edges of the blossoms look a bit crinkled.

Some of you have asked if this is the real name of this rose. Yes, it is (believe it or not). It is really called the "Irish Creme" rose.

Others of you have asked if it has a scent. It surely does! The scent is a traditional vintage rose scent with a big of tanginess to it that isn't as citrusy as the Gold Medal rose but it does make it distinctively not musky. It's a bright scent that I usually associate with food.

I acquired this rose at WalMart, of all places. So not only is it unusually lovely, it only cost me about 5 or 6 bucks! It was a bareroot rose during the winter of 2006-2007. Since it was at WalMart, I'm assuming that it wasn't a new release and has been available for at least a year or more.

Finally, despite it being labeled as a "cool weather" rose it survived the summer of 2007 with record temps around 115 F (46 C). It got a bit leggy after that, so I cut it back (which is probably why it hasn't grown as much as roses normally do). We've already had a heatwave this year with temps over 100 F (38 C), and it did well even though the very tips of some of the leaves got crispy.

I think the trick to growing this rose in a hot climate like ours is to plant it where it only gets morning sun. It's planted on the east side of our garden so that the house casts shade on it in the afternoon and evening. It shares a bed with a Japanese maple, some lemon verbena, a hedge of rosemary, and other herbs that give it shelter. I let the lemon verbena and other herbs grow right up against it so the soil around the base stays shaded and cooler. I've got it irrigated with a small soaker hose going right by it's base and it gets watered every two to three days for about 30 minutes.

I'm glad I didn't see the "cool weather" label or I wouldn't have bought it. I would have missed out on this gorgeous and unusual rose being in my garden.

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A Bit O' the Irish

No, I haven't doctored the color on this photo. This photo is "as shot". That's the real color of my Irish Creme rose. Isn't it "yummy"?

This rosebush went in last year and has been slower than most in growing and producing. After I purchased it I happened to notice the fine print that said it is a "cool weather rose". Oops! I had to find a cooler spot in the front garden for it where it's sheltered from the scorching heat of our summer afternoons and evenings. It is fairing better than I expected and this bloom is the first "true" bloom it has produced. I think it's a great specimen so I had to share it.

An Award!

Today I was surprised and honored to be given the "Arte y Pico" award by Miss Peach at Miss Peach's Meowz.

"The 'Arte y Pico' award was created and to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and their talents, whether it be writing, artwork in all media. When you receive this award it is considered a 'special honor'. Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to at least 5 others."

I feel very honored to receive this award and am so thrilled to be able to pass it on to the following blogs that inspire me with their creative energy and talents:

Joanie at Joanie's Balonie because her digital scrapbook layouts are truly ART! She is a Photoshop genius (in my humble opinion). You've GOT to check out her work. I want to someday accomplish what she does in Photoshop.

Catherine Holman at Pigment of Your Imagination just because work makes me "drool" creatively and everytime I visit her blog I want to get into my studio, push up my sleeves, and paint something!

Gretel at Middle of Nowhere because her creative journey has inspired me in so many ways I can't even recount them here. Her work is magical and whimsical, and if you haven't taken the time to visit her blog, you must. I will warn you... you'll fall in love with her work and want it for yourself.

Thea Burger at Shades of Life for her amazing paintings that have hints of Mary Cassatt in them with their impressionistic interpretation of beautiful objects. Then with the addition of great framing, her art is simply gorgeous.

Helen Read at Brushstrokes Etc. because her paintings always make me think beyond my own current style and inspire me to explore. Her current work on sunflowers is just phenomenal! She is such a prolific creator that it astounds me.

Sunflower Sunday

Today, just outside the little red door of Rosehaven Cottage blooms the first sunflower of this summer. The pale lemon-yellow sunflower is a "volunteer" from last year's sunflowers.

We keep our sunflowers up on their dried stalks long after they've wilted so the birds can use them as natural birdfeeders and pick every last seed out of them. But no matter how ravenous those birds are, there's always a few seeds that fall to the ground and reseed for the next year.

This is the first of those to bloom in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens this year--yet another happy delight of summer.

Glads and Cannas

Summer, despite the heat, has its treats. Two such treats are the gladiolus and the canna lilies that bloom profusely around the garden here at Rosehaven Cottage. Both are very carefree in our conditions (which makes me a very happy gardener).

Glads like the dense soil we have here and don't mind the dryness of our late spring and summer seasons. As long as the winter and early spring rains happen to get the glads started, then they're happy with just the little misting they get from the drip-mist irrigation system I water our garden with. Like many of the bearded iris, glads also have a neat pearlescent sheen to them that make them sparkle in the summer light. If you click on the purple glads above to enlarge the photo you might be able to see the little sparkles.

Canna lilies are very happy in our climate as long as they get lots of sun and have wet feet. There aren't many plants that like those conditions so I was happy to find that cannas like the boggy full sun area around the pond in the back garden. Even though they die back in December and look like they'll never come back, they always do.

I discovered this year that I can plant canna lilies in terra cotta pots that sit on bricks IN the pond. The yellow spotted canna pictured above is my latest acquisition that is growing in a pot in the pond. The bricks raise up the pot so only the bottom stays wet while the top is out of the water with blue mexican beach rocks on the top to keep the soil safe from critters. I am so pleased with the results that I'm contemplating starting a canna collection in my pond. Right now I only have three varieties of cannas around the garden with only one in the pond so I have a way to go before I can call it a "collection". Now the only issue is deciding which variety I want next.

Lucy Models the New iMac

In a comment on the last post, Kylee over at Our Little Acre requested a picture of the new iMac. Well, I never want to disappoint Kylee... so here it is!

Lucy is helping to model it. That's a 20-inch display in case you're wondering how big Lucy is in comparison to the iMac. Yeah, she's still a petite little thing. And so is the new Apple keyboard at less than 17 inches long.

It's all pretty snazzy and exciting. I've been reading a book I got by David Pogue about switching from a PC to Apple's operating system called Leopard or OS X (that "X" is the Roman numeral for "10"). Here's a cool little tidbit I read yesterday... the Leopard operating system is Unix-based and that's why it's so stable as well as resistant to viruses and spyware. In fact, it is based on the NeXT computers that Steve Jobs worked on during the years he was away from Apple.

I'm running Fusion's VMware (in fact I'm typing this in Windows Explorer right now on the iMac) so I can flip back and forth between Windows XP and Leopard (Mac OS X). Pretty nifty! I'm still learning the in's and out's of file-sharing between the two operating systems, but considering I was able to figure out how to move the above photo from Windows XP to Mac OS X and then back again without opening a manual says something for the user interface and how intuitive it is.

All in all, I'm extremely happy! I did a test-run of the HP Scanjet G4010 that we got this spring for scanning my illustrations and paintings so I can create multimedia art pieces. I was so happy with the result I jumped up and grabbed Hubby around the neck and continued jumping up and down. The scan was so beautiful and perfect. I wish I could show it, but I can't share that yet because I'm still in the creative stage of that piece and don't want to spoil the fun.

I feel like I've discovered the best kept secret in the computer world. All those PC users that think they'll lose flexibility and control or think they're "dumbing down" by acquiring an Apple just don't know what they're missing.