Dead Sticks in the Middle of the Yard

I do not feel like cleaning house, so here I am...this seems like MUCH more fun.  Besides...it was a hard week and I am incredibly tired.  Tiredness is always amazing to me.  I used to be so full of energy.  I wake up tired now.

I have been really enjoying the way the roses have been growing.  When I got them, they were just a bunch of sticks with bare roots.  Now they are thriving with leaves galore.  Well....all except for one of them.  In my defense (since I AM known as the "Great Plant Killer"  - That would be my indian name), I planted them all in exactly the same way following the instructions on how to plant bare root roses to the letter.  This one just never came to life.

With the brown mulch, it was so hard to see the dead plant, I thought I would help by pointing out the location of a couple of the 'dead sticks'. 

Now, I'm not bragging or anything (right...) but here are some lovely pictures of a few of the ones that are really growing nicely.  I have 13 out of 14 that are now not only growing leaves, but also have ROSE BUDS on them.  Don't know if you can see the rosebuds in the pictures below but let me tell you...I am VERY excited.  8-)  I promise these are all different plants, not just different views of the same plant to fool you.  (ROTFL)

The rose below is the replacement rose for the dead stick one.  I'll get it planted sometime this weekend.  It will be interesting to see the difference in the way the bare root roses do as opposed to the one that came in a container. 

We finally got the rest of the stones to finish the bench.  No, I never intended to leave the castle wall stones on the top of it.  A funeral pyre is not my idea of a look for an outdoor bench but it was fun to put it in the blog anyway.  We had a good laugh over it.  The uniqueness of the bench below is growing on us and now we won't have to take back the 76 stones that it took to build it.  8-)

This is just a more distant view of the bench to give some perspective in comparison to the Gazebo.





Here is some Max for today...

"We’re God’s Idea

By Max Lucado

‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139:14”

We’re God’s idea. His face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are him!

Look deeply into the face of every human being on earth and you’ll see his likeness. Though some appear to be distant relatives, they’re not. God has no cousins, only children. 

You aren’t an accident or an incident; you’re a gift to the world. A divine work of art—signed by God.

One of the best gifts I ever received is a football jersey signed by thirty former professional quarterbacks. For all I know it was bought at a discount sports store. What makes it unique are the signatures.

The same is true with us. What makes us special is not our body, but the signature of God on our lives. We’re his works of art, created in his image.

Significant, not because of what we do, but because of whose we are!"

By Grace Alone -

Teresa