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.
_______________________________________________________________________
Copyright © Rosesarerae All Rights Reserved
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.
....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.
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.
Rita said "zeit gehts schnell mit dir"
That very same day, I was a little bit disoriented and disorganised too. It was very early in the morning and I was in a hurry. When I arrived, parked the car, ran off to the changing room, I had forgotten to switch off the small tail lights. As usual, during ladies inter-club golf matches, there are dinner, prize giving, and by time I went to the car, with the freezing temperature and the lights which was left on for the whole day, had depleted the battery and it went flat dead. It was late then, freezing cold and since its ladies' golf event, there was not one knight in shining armour to save me. I almost dialled the AAM number when Rita came along with her jumper cables. It was great experience to see girls trying to connect the cables in pitch dark, lots of giggling until another girl started her car and put on the big lights so we could find the positive and negative end of the battery. Well, who need the AAM when Rita is around and I got home safely but from that evening onwards, everytime just after I put my golf ball on the tee, someone without fail will jokingly asked if I had switched off my headlights. That just ruined my concentration!
Those were the days when we all aspire to be the next Annika Sorenstam or Michelle Wee, but where on earth did I find the time to play 18 holes golf, at least twice a week and the whole season of golf tournaments? How did I do it then? How did I juggle the time? How come these days, I can't even find time to sit down and put my thoughts into words, let alone play golf! Have I grown old before my time? Did I slowed down so much that I am panting, huffing and puffing trying to chase time? 
Deep inside, I was a little panic imagining myself in my mother's shoes. Will I soon be like her and then wasting my time scouring the market for anti wrinkle, lift and firm creams and magic potions of whatever to slow down aging and relieve rheumatism and then moving back and forth in and out of hospital with hips and knee caps replacement surgeries, osteoporosis and endless clinical checkups? As if panic has its own mind and able to pushed the dial buttons on the phone, and that's how I ended up few evenings ago with my ex-team mates. With each round of drinks, new topic came into discussion. 
At the end of the evening, all my mind's wonderings found all the answers I was looking for. It is a relieve to know that I am not the only one who has been out of the loop. I am not the only one caught in a wave of change. I am not the only one going through the ups and downs in life, feeling sickly and rotten with drastic weather changes and the best part is that they think I haven't change one tiny bit. All my worries and uncertainties about this and that was really baseless. I also found out that good friends means you are closer to the heart than what meets the eyes. Another thing that became clear to me is that; time, priorities, choices and personal interest does influence an individual's lifestyle.
Someone told me long time ago, whenever you are confuse about something, talk with someone or read books related to whatever you're trying to find out. Most of the time, we have the answers to our own questions but it is very tricky to differentiate the jumble of things in our own head. No one can give us straight answers because every one of us are different. We may be eating the same food but individually our rate of digestion differs due to different metabolic rate. We may be educated in the same way but our perception and understanding towards life is different due to our cultural background and upbringing. An open discussions with others kind of help to dissect our thoughts and that's how one tend to see solutions or find the answers to whatever that's hovering over one's head.
Today, of course I have hunged up my golf set and I did undertook some other projects which are nonetheless time consuming and requires a lot of detailed attention. That doesn't mean I am totally off from doing sports or golfing or I've quit being competitive. I just needed a change in my lifestyle and wish to do something different for a while. Maybe one day I will go back to this sport, and back to serious competition again, but for the time being, I'm very happy to trade the light titanium driver for the spades, which is a little bit heavier but its enough to keep the major muscles group well toned without having to pay for gym subscription to use their dumb bells.
Afterall, my garden is not all that flat. Working out in the garden means I'm doing aerobic activities. I have to hike up and down 200 metres of steep slope to get from one terraced part of the garden to the next one before stopping for a while to sniff the roses. I am still very goal oriented and sometimes always in a hurry, which is actually not good. I'm still learning to pace myself, though occasionally I still get a bit carried away with whatever I'm doing and forgotten to stop for a minute to enjoy the garden, but the roses will snagged me with their thorns as I pass by as if telling me, " hey! stop for a minute! Take a sniff on my blooms"
Gardening is definitely very therapeutic activity, at least for me. It soothes my nerves, calms me down, helped switched my mind off from too much thinking and it feels great to end the day seeing how the plants flourish happily and rewarding me with beautiful blooms. This is hundred times far better than twice or 3 times a week of nerve rattling four hours of mental game on the golf course, not forgetting to mention the numerous speeding tickets I had collected because I'm always rushing and not missed my tee-off.
Proliferation is not really a pretty sight but there is really no cure for it because this is what happened when the climate and temperatures rise and drop unpredictablably. Some roses are just too sensitive to such changes. You don't see such malformations on commercially sold roses from your local florist. This is because those florist roses are cultivated in a controlled green house environment to achieve the "cookie cutter" perfection uniform buds and flower formation.
This is probably because her bareroots are still not strong enough to support all the blooms she's making. By right I should remove all the flowers so the plant can concentrate on establishing roots first, but I am so curious to see how the flowers look like and which colour group it fall into before I decide her permanent position in the garden. This is not the fault of the rose but only me and myself to be blamed.
Souvenir de la Malmaison is definitely the number one rose that prefers hot sunny days instead of wet weather. It hasn't look so good like this for a long time because rain followed by sunny spells spoils the petals and make the plant look nightmarishly ugly with mumified balled up blooms. The extreme difference between warm and cool temperature since spring started had also made this rose very confused during buds formation. Actually there are so many roses in the garden looking a bit chaotic in their petals arrangements due to the weather phenomena.
