Ain't no mountain high enough....

Since I couldn't make up my mind how I would like to spend my 12 days summer break, my friends made the decisions for me and they are going to take me along on their 10 days series of rock climbing in the Dolomites Italy, which they will be doing as part of their fitness training before they climb their next four thousander peaks in late summer. I probably will not be doing all the 10 days series of rock climbing but sitting at the foothill searching for bugs and wild flowers to photograph.

Last Sunday they decided to put me on some kind of fitness training to make sure that I will be ready for the coming so called adventure and able to carry my own gear and equipments. These friends are serious rock climbers, which means they have more than enough gears to carry on their own and I must be prepared to handle my own things because there is no such thing as porters or sherpa over here. Since I don't like doing weight training, I decided that it is best that I get used to my heavy camera equipment and my climbing gears all thrown in together in the back pack.

Even though I am fully equipped as though I am a professional rock climber with all the hard wear gears, I am never really serious about this sport.I use to follow them, male and female in the group but I really am into photography, laid back and often distracted and got lulled behind those wild flowers and insects in the meadows and always too slow for for everyone else's pace. This butterfly is attracted to the orange colour on the backpack.

Another reason why I haven't done much rock climbing was due to the recent trend which made everybody wants to go climbing and that had turned the mountain wall into a circus full with people trying to scale their way up and the treks became congested with trekkers and climbers, their backpacks and their 60 meters ropes. Traffic congestion exist even in the wild back country treks. I'm beginning to believe that there is really no place on earth which is not yet discovered by tourist.

For my friend Maki who was once worried about me doing this sport; I did the advance climbing course ten years ago and all the top rope and rescue techniques skills just incase of emergencies. I also did it to be sure that I know what kind of risk I putting myself into.

To start my fitness training, we decided to warm up by going on a long walks at the nearby rolling hills of Germany's Black Forest. This nature reserve is really a beautiful forest with very tall old trees and vegetative leaves so huge, they reminded me of the tale Brobdingnag or the tropical rainforest. The rain from the last couple of days did made the river treks very muddy and slippery. My very short dog was totally covered with mud and looked more like a giant rat than a silky terrier. I had to let him swim twice in the river to free him from the mud that was caking up and encasing him. Pooch is a good swimmer. I've even let him swim in the sea when we go sailing but this particular river, the current was strong. I don't want to lose my dog so he had to swim with the leash on but both dogs had so much fun splashing in the water to cool down. I haven't seen so much mud on a trek since trekking in Borneo's Mulu National Park many years ago. The humidity was high, maybe because of the warm day, and also the river and the amount of water on the ground after all the rain several days ago. My biggest relieve was the absence of the blood sucking leech that are all over the place in the tropical rainforest.
The long walk turned out to be extremely l-o-n-g, because the signs and directions are not really that clear for first timer in this forest. We ended up walking 24 kilometres, while the dogs doing double that because they were running back and forth all the time. By the time we got out of the forest to the main road, we were still 7 kilometres away from where we had left the car. 2 guys had to walk all the way to the car and came back to fetch me and the rest who decided to "baby sit" me who was already "finished" like a flat tyre. My foot was steaming hot in the trekking shoes. The sportiva trekking boots are perfect, its just my feet that are not.
I was so thirsty with only one litre of water for an unexpected 24 kilometres walk. Parched would be a better word to describe my thirst. I refused to drink the spring water after someone jokingly said there's something wiggling in his drinking bottle! The first thing we all seek out once out of the forest and back into civilization was to find something that can quench thirst. While walking like muddy zombie looking for a restaurant in a small village of Münchingen, I saw this kid sitting in a trolley pulled by his father. He is so cute and didn't even blink an eye while I took his pictures. He probably couldn't tell if I am a human or some kind of mud monster.

Along the treks, I saw this Martagon Lilies growing at some spots. One of the flower in the picture is missing. I suspect the wild deers did try to eat it but they probably don't like the taste of it and left the rest of the flowers to bloom giving people like me and you to enjoy the lilium beauty in the wild.

Back at home, my own garden lilies are also blooming. The first two are very fragrant with perfume that wafts in the air. The lilies stamen can stain light coloured clothings and difficult to remove.
Each plants that exist in this world seemed to have been created to complete a chain that support other kinds of wild life. Lilies and the beetles are probably made for each other. This larvae spend most of its time eating the foliage of the lily plant and covered itself with its own feaces probably as camouflage from the prey birds .

This yellow lilium are not fragrant but they make a striking contrast against the blue campanula Kent Bells and a sea of green foliage


Lilium are also very cold hardy and always come back year after year. They multiply easily with tiny bulblets around the mother bulb as well as along the stems. The bulbs requires light, well drain soil.

Eat local food - help local economy and reduce global warming potentials

Can eating local food really help in reducing the potentials of global warming? In some ways, I personally think we can help reduce the potential of global warming by consuming local products. Food stuff that flew half way across the globe, not to mention the costly jet fuel, and the cargo ships that criss cross the seven seas contribute to the pollution to an already polluted sea. The long distance heavy weight logistics transportation choked the motorway causing long traffic jam. I dare not speculate on air pollution readings as the only statistics can only come from the environmental air survey and control department for the exact reading of air pollution and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. One thing for sure, eating local food can definitely help our own local farmers.

Agriculture is still thriving here, with a high percentage of the farmers committed to the practice of organic farming. I am a big supporter for organic produce. Even though I am not a vegetarian, I can survive on eating a big bowl of fresh salad twice a day, every day of my entire life.
I don't eat much red meat other than beef. Being in central mountainous europe and landlocked, we are a country of natural lakes. Seafood is very very far away from my dining table, is also available in the market with a question "do you really want to pay that much for a few pieces of scallops? I love our fresh sweet water trouts from our local lakes and they are a lot of trouts being farmed here. My nearby local supermarket chain engage and support the local farmers and distributing the local organic products through a special programm locally known as "Aus der Region, Für die Region". Translated into english that means, "From the region, for the region". That practically means these tomatoes and other produce under this program came from nearby farmers not far from where I live.Only products that are grown organically will be distributed under the bio labels. Organic produce cost a little bit more compared to mass produce non organic way or those imported from nearby countries. Organic products that are imported from nearby countries cost even more but I believe the more people buying and supporting local organically grown produce foodstuff, the faster our local organic farmers will establish themselves in the market and will automatically lowers and stabilise the prices within the competitive market.

Our mountain climate could not support some basic important food sources, such as fruits from citrus family or the good lipids oil from olives. Whatever we cannot self produce had to be brought in from other warmer European countries. We produce our own canola oil however,
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but at the same time facing stiff competition with importers of similar goods. It is my duty to support the local goods first before looking into other imported options.

For the second week, I've decided to take up Small Footprint's challenge last Wednesday;
Change The World Wednesdays

For one full day this week, eat only local foods. No tropical fruits from across the world ... no veggies that traveled hundreds of miles to get to your table ... only locally grown foods (this includes meats, dairy products, etc., if you eat them).

I must say, Small Footprint has came up with quite a challenge. I've never really considered how I took for granted a lot of the foodstuff in my kitchen are products imported from other countries. Didn't realise how dependent I am on coffee until I took up this challenge. What a sluggish Saturday it was for me to start the day. No coffee to wake me up as it is not local product. We're too cold to grow coffee here, and its so hard to wake up in the morning with only fresh pasturised milk from the local cows. Ever wonder why babies went to sleep after drinking their milk? Can't have tea or orange juice either. All these are imported. I've always read somewhere "drink 1 or is it 2 litres of water everyday, which I did not. I've always been the person who like to drink something with a flavour, even if that means natural water with a squeeze of lemon or a few crushed leaves of fresh mints. This challenge really changed all that. I did siphoned in more water into my body to replace my normal tea intake. Water suddenly taste very refreshingly good.

Simple spices like pepper is not grown here. Fruits, especially orange and lemon, most of them comes from warmer southern european countries. I think we are all spoilt for choices living in the era of convenient stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialist exotic foodstore which sprout like mushrooms all around us. One don't have to fly 13 hours or more to Asia to enjoy mango, tandoor chicken, satay or even sushi.

Bircher Muesli was created by Dr. Bircher Benner for his patients in his Zürich clinic during the 1890’s. This is a nutritious meal in itself made of rolled oats, fruits, crush nuts, yoghurt and honey. Bircher muesli is one of the most popular breakfast item besides bread, butter etc which can be found all over Switzerland.

Taking the challenge of Small Footprint’s about eating local food, I’ve prepared mine with ingredients locally produced with seasonal fruits which I plucked from my own garden.

Breakfast:- Swiss Bircher Muesli
2 cups of natural yoghurt (choose yoghurt that contain live bifidus cultures which is good for stomach flora)




















2 cups of rolled oats 1/2 cup of milk
a cup each of fresh seasonal fruits which is available right now ie;
Ribes Rubrum also known as red currant
Black and red cherries (pitted and halved)
strawberries cut into quarter
2 table spoons of sun flower seeds
a tablespoon of local honey
(I usually add some crushed walnuts, pecans, and hazels but all these are imported, so I have to exclude them for this challenge)

How to do it;
Mix the roll oats with milk to soften them. I usually do this the night before I go to sleep and leave the oat and milk in the fridge, but sometimes I just prepare them on the spot and chew on the oats bits a little al-dente. It kind of add some texture to the mass.

Add in the yoghurt, honey and mix in the fruits. You can crush some of the fruits to release their natural juice to add some colour to the roll oats mix.

Portion them into pretty serving bowls, decorate with the extra fruits and a spoonfull of yoghurt on top. Sprinkle with shelled sunflower seeds and serve 2.

These are just the basic recipe. You can change the fruits to any of your local fruits. I would love to have chopped mango, pineapple and banana for an exotic breakfast but that would defy the purpose of this "eat your local food challenge"










Lunch - White sausage salad
2 white sausage - boiled and thinly sliced
leafy salad
carrot - thinly sliced
eared corn kernels
a handful of sunflower seeds and pumkin seeds (I love them for a bit of nutty taste)
a small tiny piece of local cheese, slice or diced
Tomatoes, dice or wedges

Salad Dressing
2 table spoon of honey
2 table spoons of canola oil
2 table spoon of apple cider

a pinch of salt (according to taste)
(had to go without pepper because this one is imported)
Mix them all together until smooth.

Mix all the salad and the dressing in a salad bowl, serve with a slice of bread made by the local bakery with flour from the local mill and a glass of local wine from the vinyard behind the house.
(you can have it with beer if you like)

Tea time.
Mint tea
Boil water until tepid warm. Dont let it go to boiling point. Pick a few leaves of mint from the garden, rinse in water, dry it and steep the mint leaves in the tepid warm water for 3 minutes. Very refreshing taste and good for digestion after heavy meals.

Rhubarb Pie recipe;
5 rhubarb stalks from the garden - peel off the skin and cut them into half inch size. Boil water on pot until boiling. Remove pot from heat and blanche the prepared rhubarb in boiling water for one minute.
Use a sieve and remove the hot water.

A chrispy thin quick pie crust;
One cup of flour
50gms butter melted in a pot with 3 table spoons of water.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and knead into a dough. Use rolling pin to evenly thin the dough and line the dough in the baking dish, arrange the half softened rhubarb on the dough. Beat 1 egg and half cup of double milk cream together until smooth.
pour the egg mixture on top and put in the oven at 200° degrees, in the middle for 25 minutes. serves 2

Dinner (serves 2 person)
2 rainbow trouts (from local Swiss lake) - gutted, and cleaned. Fillet the fish with a sharp knife for a clean cut and rolled it on a bed of bread crumbs. 2 table spoons of canola oil in the pan(that's the only oil we produce here) Control the heat of the pan. Medium heat is perfect and pan grill the trout fillet until crispy looking on both sides.

4 brown mushrooms - halved, cut into quarter, quick 2 minutes pan fried also with local cooking butter
1 Fennel - sliced and boiled

Half kilo newly harvested local potatoes - skinned, boiled and drained
Parsley and chives - home grown - finely chopped
2 table spoon of canola oil (usually I use olive oil but not in this challenge)
1 table spoon of walnut oil
Add the copped parsley and chives, salt to taste, and dress up the potatoes.

Put everything on a plate, dress up with fresh sliced tomatoes and fresh basil leaves (plucked from the garden)

Voila. Bon Apetite!

The Red fruits from the garden

The beautiful cherry blossoms last spring has turned out to be a fruitful one. The last days of June is juicy ripe with cherries. Anywhere you drive around Switzerland, you can see ladders leaning onto tall ripening cherry tress. I'm cherrified by my own cherry trees. Day and night nibbling cherries, but they are only once a year. I love my own home grown cherries and I ate them like there's not tomorrow!

Strawberries are one of my favourite seasonal fruits. It can be grown in so many ways; in pots, hanging pots or on the ground. I grow mine in the pots because I don't have straw or hays. Farmers and commercial growers usually grow their strawberries on the ground, layered and support the berries using straw or hay, to avoid fouling, hence it is called strawberries.

Red Currants or Ribes Rubrum is a spring flowering shrub and the juicy red currants are ready for harvest around this time of year. They can be eaten fresh, or kept deep frozen for a long time for later use in fruit cake mixture. They can also be dried for adding into breakfast cereals or liquify and turned into jelly, marmalade or syrup.

Growing roses into the evergreen hedge

Apple Blossom - bought this rose because the name got stuck in my head after Taddy kept posting about her unidentified rose that may or maynot be Apple Blossom. In the end, hers turned out to be Dawson and I ended up with a vigourous multiflora Apple Blossom, growing more than 2 meters in 12 months that I had just planted another one to grow it up a tree because of its long lasting rain resistant blooms. Very pliable stems, beautiful foliage and so far disease free.
New Dawn - the most common rose in Switzerland, and can be seen all over the place scrambling over fences and one of those roses that are sold even by supermarket chains. I once went to shop for food but ended up coming home with a bread and 6 New Dawn. A row of 2 and a half metres wide arch tunnel was later brought in to the eastern side of the garden for New Dawn to greet the raising sun at the break of dawn. The New dawn arch tunnel area is quite narrow as it is a small terraced area which connect the lower ground floor guest room to the steps leading up to the middle kitchen patio terrace which is only one floor building difference. 6 New Dawn in that space proved to be too small for such a rampant grower like New Dawn, throwing canes in all directions with hooked thorns that I had to move them all to several areas. 3 is growing into the hedge and the other 3 scrambling up a tree. One out of the 3 that is growing up a tree is growing in dapple shade of the woodland with no direct sun at all and within a season, had grown in leaps and bounds. This one seem to be doing much better than the other 2 which receive full day sun on a south facing aspect.

Rambling Rector - imagine waking up on Sunday morning and sit underneath the pergola sipping wake up coffee while listenening to birds songs, inhaling the intense fragrance of this rose that's appeared in abundance of trusses?

It must be heavenly, but I didn't know how worthwhile this rose was when I first got it. I had it planted in the hedgerow to scramble the evergreen hedge at the far end of the garden.

A new 3 X3 metre open structure pavilion is now planted with a second rambling rector to ramble and scramble and hopefully it will cover the whole structure as soon as possible.

Thalia Remontant came to the garden by accident. It was a replacement rose after an order that went all confused. The blooms resemble the trusses of white fairy but the plant is huge in comparison. 3 meters tall while the white fairy is so much shorter and and more like a procumbent in character. Thalia is planted at the 90 degrees corner of the hedge to scramble around but that corner had gone a bit thick and very shady for most part of the day. Nevertheless, this rose seem fine with the surrounding green and the white blooms kind of brighten up the dark and boring corner pretty well. .

If my Treasure Trove is to grow straight up stiff like a tree, it can easily reach the height of 5 meters (15 feet) high, and to think that this rose is the offspring of Felipes Kiftsgate, Treasure Trove has the potential to get as enormous as its parent Felipes Kiftsgate. That is how wide this rose has reached weaving and rambling into the evergreen hedge. In wingspan direction the length it covered is double that. I had it cut back because it was in tangle with other roses. The flowers are scented and its trusses and colourings reminded me of trusses on Ghislaine de Feligonde but the leaves are much bigger and the canes are much stiffer than the weepy G.d.F

Next article growing roses up the trees

Every rose has a story

A good old friend of my mum, Aunt Mary, is an old hand at gardening. Only 1 out of her 5 children share her passion towards gardening especially with old garden roses. She's one of those people who appreciate my interest in gardening and understand my enthusiasm about collecting plants. Being in retirement, she and her husband travel frequently to visit their 5 children and grandchildren who live all over the place in europe. If 5 children and 7 grandchildren is not enough to keep her busy travelling and visiting, she also had unofficially adopted me as one of her kids. Your mum said, "if anything happen to me Mary, you will see to it that Rae is not lost by herself," that's what she always repeat to me whenever she saw I'm a little lost navigating my life.

While I am never short of thoughtful people who cared about my well being, aunt Mary is also a big contributor to my garden. Everywhere she go, without fail, there's always something she brought home for my garden, a bag of bulbs from Holland, or cuttings of all sorts from Cyprus or Germany or anywhere she saw plants, she saw me in her head. Over the years, my garden had turned into a zoo of plants, some are still alive and some are dead because I don't know the identity of the plants making it real tricky to provide proper care especially during the freezing cold winter months.

One day she went to visit her daughter in Holland and brought home a tiny 2 inches soft wood cuttings. Over the phone, she said she had taken cuttings from Paul Himalayan Musk, a rose which I wanted to grow into tall trees. She took one cutting for herself and another one is for me but she couldn't manage to take it out of the moist wrappings because immediately when she got home, her ailing husband was admitted to the hospital. She asked me to take care of the 2 cuttings while she gathered her family together to deal with her situation.

I met her half way while she was on the way to the hospital and took the container containing the 2 rose cuttings, brought home, placed it in a small hole mixed with sand and soil mixture at the edge of a shady retaining wall. That was in September 2007.

Few months later, the cuttings took root and survived the winter. Aunt Mary was very happy that I managed to root her cuttings and she was very sure that she had taken the cuttings from Paul Himalayan Musk, which can grow to enoumous height and size. By spring 2008, the 2 inch cuttings had grown 3 feet tall and producing little buds. On the 16th of May 2008, the first bloom opened up and it was the same day we attended the funeral of aunt Mary's husband.

I cut the first bloom and brought it to the graveyard along with the florist wreath which represented our family in mourning to her loss. It was a cold drizzling windy grey spring day to bury a great man but it was a day worth remembering.

Dressed in all black, her silver grey hair made her skin looked pale and transparent like a wax. She looked peaceful but drained of emotions and I could read every single lines on her face as we hugged and whispered words of comfort. When I handed her the single bloom from the 2 inches rose cuttings she had entrusted into my care, her face suddenly lighted up with a smile of of awe. She took the rose from my hand and brought the bloom to her nose. Her eyes closed shut as she inhaled the fragrance. When she opened her eyes, she was back to her own jolly self, with a twinkle in her eyes, she said, "we must go to the nursery soon and get Little White Pet to plant on the grave". So much a rose can do to a person.

Today, she agreed that she probably had taken a cutting from a runner or suckering rootstock instead of the real mother plant. We did went to the nursery and bought the real Paul Himalayan Musk for my garden and Little White Pet for her husband's grave. We are still not sure what kind of root stock she had the 2 inches cuttings taken from, but the blooms are very similar Innermis Morletti.

The guessing game continues because there are also similarities to another damask rose cutting she had given me long time ago taken from Cyprus.


The fun of collecting old roses continues....

Say NO to plastic bags

Sometimes I suffer from what is known here as "fernweh". Directly translated into english that would mean "missing the faraway" or "a yearning for faraway places". I have always enjoyed learning about other cultures, traditions and history of places around the world. I've been to India several times and it is a fascinating land with all its colourful traditions and diversities. Its a big country to explore in just a few weeks, so my trip there was always like enjoying a slice of pizza with spicy curry flavour. One bite at a time. Some days I feel like taking another piece of my pizza over India because there are still half of India which I would like to experience, but these days, circumstances plays an important influence over my last minute decisions "where to go for holidays?"

To dull my "fernweh" towards India, I followed Mukund in India
I always had a good laugh reading the things he wrote about himself, his country India and he kind of refresh my memories over my short visits to his country.

From his blog, I learned about Small Footprint, a blog about environmental and recently Small Footprint started a Green Challenge Change The World Wednesdays
My gardening friends should check out some tips from Small Footprint regarding slug, snails and deers that always munch out the garden.

Small Footprint's challenge last Wednesday was about plastic bags which shoppers always take for granted during shopping trips and it is becoming an environmental issue how these plastic shopping bags are being disposed later.

I am taking Small Footprint's challenge and help spread the word even further.

For a long time, the Swiss are used to carrying around foldable shopping bags in their bags, or there are always several folded neatly in their car. Of course there are still some shops that will automatically award shoppers with their plastic bags that are prettily designed with their labels printed on it and this of course is understandable as they need to market their brand name using "you" as a walking billboard.

Lately, there are some changes in the trend towards paperbags and biodegradable plastics. This is of course much better than non biodegradable plastics but generally most shops will ask the shoppers if they would like a bag for their newly purchased stuffs. This is where the shoppers are given a choice to say yes or no. If you have your own foldable shopping bags in your bag, then you can simply say, no thank you. If you say yes, some establishments charge an additional 30 Swiss rappen (about 0.30 USD)for the plastic bag.

If having to pay for a plastic bag to bring home your shopping goods is not enough to remind you about the cost of producing these plastics bags, wait till you are ready to dispose your garbage which includes the one you just paid for 30 swiss rappen with a compulsory disposable garbage bags issued by the local council. Nothing is free here. It even cost money to dispose rubbish, but that certainly helped me think twice before buying anything because it takes a lot more effort and costs to discard unwanted household products for garbage collection before the final dumping.

I happen to live in a district with a council that is in full gear about environmental friendly and awareness by supporting the public with excellent recycling and waste sorting facilities. It is actually a good practice when the garbage management begin from individual's home. Their effort successfully eliminated the ugly roadside rubbish pilling up. There are permanent bins in every housing area for disposing glass, recyclable plastic bottles and aluminium cans. Every third Saturday of the month, my neighbourhood packed their vehicles with their unwanted recycleable things and drive up to the compound of the council garbage sorting area and we deposit our big pieces of recyclable waste such as old mattresses, hardwares such as aluminium, steel, old batteries, etc into separate containers for the undertakers to take them to the specific recycling centre. Again, disposing all these old materials cost a few francs, but that helped increase the efficiency of waste management in a responsible way.

Every Friday, when the council collect the garbage around the housings, they will also collect big pieces of recycleable refuse but only when those items are marked with a special stickers which can be bought from the council.

The good thing about going shopping with my own reusable shopping bag is that, when its full and I can't stuff anymore things in it, then I just knew it that I had spent enough money for the day, and its time to go home, empty the shopping bag, earn more money before going shopping again.

Jude the Obscure

Have you ever come across a situation, when you are in a group of people, talking and discussing about things, everyone looking very calm and relax and the people seemed comfortable being themselves with bits of laughter in between and at some moments a short silence as if pondering and musing over certain points, and then Jude the Obscure walked through the door, joined in the conversation and suddenly, you noticed that the mood amongst those present mellowed as Jude topped the conversation with his opinions. The happy tone from the earlier conversation suddenly diffused and thinned out. There is a sense of discomfort in the air and you felt it and sensed that the others are not feeling at ease since Jude's arrival.

You can see that Jude is knowledgeable like a walking encyclopedia. Talk like an encyclopedia and argue like an encyclopedia. You try to follow his thoughts closely and you found that you can't quite figure out what he's trying to say or prove.

That's the situation I was in today. As I watched one by one of the men and the ladies excused themselves and left, I found myself not paying much attention anymore to the discussion but my head was also busy trying to find reasons so I can leave too. How do you get out of such a situation without appearing rude or dismissive?

...and the phone beeped ever so gently, but to me at that point it sounded as if its the bell from the church tower on Sunday morning. Bong! I jumped out of my seat, excused myself and thank God for creating mobile phones!!

So I got home later in the evening, but my mind is still preoccupied by Jude's behaviour and how people reacted to his presence. I grabbed my camera and headed towards the garden and took some photos of the Austin's rose Jude the Obscure. These names are not coincidence. I have the tendency to buy plants and roses with names of people that circle around my life. As far as I remember Jude the person, used to be likeable, very humble and pleasant to talk with. I have no idea what happened to Jude and why suddenly people are avoiding him. Dare I tell him what I think? No. I dare not. The truth is always very hurtful. Besides, I've learnt to keep my advice to myself unless someone asked for it. Even then I am very careful about giving advice.

So, here's to Jude. Maybe one day he'll find this blog and read this post. Maybe not. How many guys really google for roses to read on the blog? The evening light had brought a bit of bluish tone to the soft yellow of these blooms.

This rose is very fragrant, one of the best fragrant roses from David Austin, but this rose is not really that suitable for my rainy weather garden. For several years, the blooms balled very badly. I had moved it several times trying to find the right spot. There are less rain this year since spring begun, with the month of May being the hottest and driest ever recorded in years. The first flush from Jude right now look so much better. Maybe this is the most suitable area for it under the canopy of the taller trees which filter half of the rain drops and the sudden drying sunshine after the rain.
Jude is seen here invading the space of Pegasus, also a D.A english rose.


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The stinking socks in the sharp suit

How many of us are concerned about body odour?

This is a trivial matter for some, but body odour can be a turn off for some people especially during summer months when we sweat a lot and stuck in an office with little air circulation, or cramped in a tram or train during rush hours. It is a very tricky situation to inform someone that they have a strong body odour. In my office, everyone had an understanding and agreement that every now and then, someone shall send out general circulars to remind everybody that summer months is here, so please take extra effort to put on at least a deodorant first thing in the morning before hitting the door and head to work.

Can you imagine, there you are applying for a tender or contract and the discussion is distracted by strong unpleasant odour and the discussion had to be cut short because the interviewer is about to faint from lack of oxygen.

I recently had this close discussion with a candidate, and his body odour is so potent that it almost knock me off unconcious. You may think I am exaggerating but I am not. It was very difficult to stay focus during the discussion because I can't breathe. This person certainly gave a whole new meaning to the saying "took my breathe away" Of course he doesn't notice I'm turning blue because I ran off and jumped out of the window before I could even spell out the word d-e-o s-t-i-c-k!

On all fairness, I managed to cut the discussion short and made a new arrangement for further discussion on a different date and really hope this good looking guy comes back for the meeting, care enough to take a shower in the morning, change his socks and apply something under his armpit.

There are people who get very nervous during interview that they sweat in sprays. I fully understand what nervous is all about, and I also understand the hectic of running about trying to catch a plane and then running after the taxi and all those rushing about are stressful and such situations exerbate the sweat glands even more but how much is the cost of a deo stick?

It also make no sense looking all sharp in a suit and knotted nicely on the neck but lost a job opportunity due to unchanged socks?

Alchemist

This is one rose whose name is spelt in so many different ways in so many publication and reference book; Alchemist, Alchymist, Alchymiste, alchemyst, Alchemyste, alchimiste and probably a few more I had missed out. As fascinating as the multi-tone colours that appears on the blooms, I am short of words to describe its psychedelic dizzying beauty.

This is one of my favourite climbing rose, not because of its lanky, tall and stiff growth but because the flowers are so special.

I could stare at it for hours and not get tired of taking hundreds of photo of it as if I don't want to miss a second while the blooms are still around.

This is a once blooming rose with a good fragrance. It can grow up to 4 meters tall support and excellent for specimens on pillars or arch tunnel. I tried to use it in infront of the evergreen hedge but the leaves told me that they need a good air circulation or otherwise black spotty begin as early as early summer.

The Twelve days of Summer Holidays

I really must decide where I want to go for summer holidays this year. After putting aside 2 weeks for Christmas to New Year's and skiing holidays, there are 2 weeks left. Minus 2 days for any contingencies, what can I do with 12 days? Or rather, what would I like to do during that 12 days? Should I opt for a beach holidays, sailing somewhere? Jack Lord, Hawaii Five O and surfing the big waves?
Since we are on the Hawaii topic, I have been looking for the climbing rose Aloha for a long time. I found it last year and planted it in the garden. When the bloom opened up, the colour is not in the colour scheme as planned. I found out that there are several other Aloha bred by different breeders from different years. The Aloha Hawaii above was created by Kordes and a new rose. Still, it is a pretty rose, so it get to stay but I do have to move it to the sunshine memorial garden. The Aloha which I really wanted was actually the pink one that was bred by Gene Boerner 1949. This one is not available in Switzerland, probably due to licensing but I found it in Italy's La Campanella nursery and brought it into the garden as a bareroots in the midst of winter last January. It has grown up to a little ove a metre tall(3 1/2 feet) and blooming in the garden at the moment. Bliss.
Now I wonder if these Aloha roses are very commonly grown in Hawaii? I would feel at home if everywhere I turn on the islands, there are aloha blooms all over the place.

Roses aside, I still don't know where to go for a short summer break. I'm just not the type sitting on the beach for 12 days, stuck behind a book and turning red like an over cooked lobster under the sun. Should I go wandering and trekking in the mountains? Wildlife and nature safari in South Africa? 12 days of adventures in the Latin Americas ala Indiana Jones? ....but its winter time in the southern hemisphere right now. The wildlife probably migrated somewhere else. I'm not a big fan of snakes.

I'm off to watch discovery channel. Maybe I get some ideas for something interesting to do for 12 days.

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How is your summer so far?

I'm still posting something trivial to see if the scraper is still up to his tricks. I hope you all bear with me until some things get sorted.

Last weekend, my garden recorded almost 16 hours of sunshine. With so much daylight hours, the vegetative growth are unstoppable, especially the weeds. Weather has been a bit rainy in the last 2 weeks, cloudy with sunshine in between, very typical of my climate. All the newly opened big petals on my Mme Gregoire Staechelin got knocked off by the rain. Some of my inherited moss roses balled up very badly due to the intermittent rain and sunshine. Albertine is looking great at the moment. This is a salmon pink rose with a very strong fragrant. I could sit for hours under this climbing rose, inhaling deep the wonderful fragrance. If only its a repeat bloomer.


I am enjoying the summer temperatures at the moment. Its within my comfort zone, between 20 to 28 degrees celcius, that means I am more in the garden than I am in the house.
Bindweed is such a successful plant. I measured this particular bindweed in the picture. It grew 10 inches within 24 hours. That is growth at the speed of light.


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Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved

Améthyste

Its mid June. What's blooming in and around the garden? Well, all the once bloomer roses are beginning to bloom at this time of year. Actually I am overwhelmed by the amount of blooms at the moment, I don't know where to start.

Amethyst or Améthyste, is a ramblering rose that can be weaved into the evergreen hedges for a few weeks of flowering interest and some colours in early summer or allow to ramble wild amongst the evergreen shrubs. It can reach 3 and a half metres tall and wide (12 feet) and can tolerate some shade.

Blogging and Advertisement

Since I started blogging a few months ago, I'm becoming very tired of all the scrapers and sploggers who are consistently abusing this blog. Ever since my second post until last month, I have spent too much time fighting these third parties who continuously take whatever they like from this blog to advertise their websites and their products which 99% of it does not reflect my style, ideas, philosophy and life principals. The things they are linking me to are very off-putting, distasteful in manner and not even related to the nature of this blog.

I would like to add more weighty contents to this blog but until all these scraping, splogging, stealing and abusing activities stop, this blog will remain shallow and nothing more than just a diluted feeble effort. This is indeed very sad because I think I have so much to share with my dear friends and followers of this blog.

Right now, it feels like I'm continously bailing water out of a leaked boat. No matter how much time spent carefully choosing the words for the contents in this blog, the scrapers doesn't care and simply take whatever they like even unrelated to their cause, and used it for their websites. Their end products made me look real bad on the net.

Readers, please be informed that my blog is not yet related to any commercial websites or products of any types. I am only building up my blog and not ready for commercialising. If and when I decide to endorse or advertise anything, I personally will announce it right here and will write and rave about the products in this blog with advertisement logos and links etc etc. As long as you see this blog is ad-free and no annoying pop-ups, that means I haven't authorise anybody to use this blog for advertising. If you find any websites using my blog as part of their advertisement or appearing to be a companion blog to their products, please let me know so I can deal with them appropriately.

Until people learn to respect other people's work and copyright materials, the internet will not be a good source of solid information and knowledge. People whom I've been discussing these matters within the last months shared the same sentiments about the quality of the information on the internet regarding the endless trend of website abuse and contents scraping. When you come across informations that are word by word repeatedly published from one website to the other, you just knew it that the scrapers' been very busy copying and victimising the original writers without giving any credit reference to the person who spend hours working and researching the article. They are making money on your time and your effort diluted in the drain.


There was several occasion I simply had enough of the scrappers and sploggers nonsense and found myself losing interest to sit down and create articles for this blog. I am now armed to the teeth with the publisher's legal backup, but weeding and taking them out one by one is so time consuming.

Right this moment, there is still one person who is still standing on my toes, hurting me along the way and preventing me from moving forward with this blog. This person is slippery like an eel with a lot of know how in website building but no real human conscience.

If there are anyone out there who are interested to use my blog, please kindly write, inform and explain to me how you would like to use my blog contents. If you find this blog useful and can help promote your business and mine, I don't see the reason why we can't link and work together. A little courtesy goes a long way.

The main point is, to make sure that this blog remain on the track for the reason it was created in the first place.

I am slowly thinking about going to move forward from now on, and start writing more specific subjects with a bit more improved qualities in the contents. Please don't simply connect and link me to whatever you think fits your purpose. Please stop this wasting your time and my time trying to clean up all the mess afterwards.

Better still, be original, be your creative self, produce your own work and earn a healthy living. You'll prosper better that way. When you stop hurting others, your own hurting will stop as well.

Real life cartoon characters in the garden

"Where have you been?"
"I've been around" was my answer.
"I hardly see you walking the dog these days" she pressed on.
"yes, we don't go for long walks at the moment. There are lots of things going on in our backyard,
....and the dog is having a great time enjoying the garden and chasing away those cats from hunting the birds that are nesting in there"
....that's just a bit of conversation that goes on between me and my neighbour while she was being dragged by her dog passing by the front of the house as I was dumping my trash bag into the garbage bin.

Dogs are man's best friend that requires long walk at least once a day, rain or shine. On the other hand, cats are wonderful pets because they are independent and don't require leash or long walk with their people. Actually they prefer to walk and roam freely on their own to satisfy their strong hunting instincts. Sometimes I wonder if these cats roam my garden hunting for vermins and bring home their catch to their people is actually an act of communication that they don't really enjoy the dry kibbles and canned food which their people hunted from the supermarket.
Kaboom is the nickname I gave to this cat. She has other name when she's back at her real home. Interestingly, when I call her "Kaboom", she came to me and nuzzles my ankle. Someone said to me once; you don't own a cat but the cat own you. In reality, I don't own any cats but all the cats in my neighbourhood seemed to own me! On good days, there can be at least 3 to 5 different cats that roam about in my garden, and I've named them all ending with the word "boom". There is one I called Baddaboom! but I can't seem to find his picture at the moment. Will insert it here when I find it in the photobank.

All the cats you see in this blog belongs to someone in my neighbourhood. There are not feral cats in my area because the council is very efficient and strict with this sort of things. They have exact record and statistics who own cats or dogs in the neighbourhood. All dogs are micro-chipped, registered and my Micro Marco Polo must also pay dog tax once a year and attend dog socialising class from time to time. The dog obedient school is not compulsory but dog owners are encouraged to socialise their dogs because in Switzerland, dogs are welcome all over the place in public areas including public transport, restaurants and hotels accomodation. As long as your dog's travelling papers and vaccination are up to date, travelling with dogs in Switzerland can be a joy for dog owners. In some hotels and restaurant, while you are enjoying your meals, they even serve the dog some water and food in a different corner designated for dogs.
Birds nest on lower tree branches are very vulnerable to these cats that came to roam the garden but the dog is more than happy to chase away the cats, provided there's someone around to watch the dog too. On his own, I probably will not see my dog for a couple days. This is why he is named Marco Polo, because he likes to explore and forgotten to call home. The microchip is actually very useful.

The good thing about not using pesticide in the garden means there are plentiful of grubs and insects to support the wild birds dietary. Of course some of my blooms are half eaten by those catepillars and other pesty insects, but that is part of natural organic gardening, allowing nature to check and balance itself. My part is to encourage the bio diversity of the wild life in the garden environment and learn to live with some heart breaking chewed up and decapitated buds.

I saw this bird several times in the last few weeks.
She wouldn't allow me to get close but one day I saw her with a beak-ful of those caterpillars from the rose bush.