The Bane of My Existence and Another New Rose!

If the redbuds, dogwoods, and azaleas weren't enough to announce Spring's arrival, these little winged spawn of Hell would be:


Yes, it's carpenter bee season!
Carpenter bees are destructive pests that resemble fat, shiny bumblebees. The males can't sting, and the females rarely do. But, the females do chew perfectly round holes (without actually eating the wood) into and through wood in order to nest. For the past few years, I have waged my annual battle to prevent them from boring tunnels as big around as my thumb into the fascia boards around the roof of The Cottage. Or, at least some of the fascia boards. Carpenter bees seem to prefer some boards over others, and they also seem to like a southern exposure. Some of the boards they haven't touched at all. Not even an entomologist or exterminator can explain why. People will tell you that carpenter bees don't like painted wood. Don't believe it. They like it just fine.

The holes pictured are actually doorways leading to very long tunnels that extend far into the inside of the board. These bees are pure evil.


I have tried various non-toxic as well as toxic methods of eradicating them. I stapled strips of wire mesh window screening over the entire length of another of their favorite boards by the workshop door. That worked well, but it looks a bit unsightly in the more visible areas under the eaves.
I have also spent hours sitting out on the porch armed with a spray bottle of pesticide, with the nozzle set on the high-power, long-distance death setting, and picked them off one by one. Although very satisfying, that just took up a lot of my time, and didn't seem to make a big dent in their population.
Now, normally, I wouldn't kill a bee, since they are pollinators, they make honey, blah, blah, blah.
I make a very big and unapologetic exception in the case of carpenter bees, to which I say: Die, Carpenter Bees, DIE!!

My latest weapon of apian destruction is Delta Dust, a dry powder insecticide that is applied directly into their bore holes using a bellows sprayer. Puff, puff...die, die. Very simple, very effective.

Since it is early Spring, and I planted some new roses last year, I have been anxiously awaiting any signs of blooming from my newest rose, Madame Alfred Carriere. I planted Madame Alfred Carriere last Spring, out by the back deck, so that she could climb up on the pergola, if I ever finish building the pergola.
Madame Alfred Carriere is also a noisette rose, and a climber with buds that open palest pink after which the flowers fade to purest white. They are known for being repeat bloomers, and for being very fragrant.
My Madame grew exactly one tiny bud this Spring, and I watched the single bud grow in size until it just started to open. Then, I somehow missed it at its peak! But, I did get a couple of photos while the first flower was still in bloom on a very cool and windy day:

Since these photos were taken, I pruned the plant back a bit, and now there are several new buds coming out, along with a new flush of growth!

Beautiful day for cycling, the venue for our Big Day, and another rose in the garden.

On this beautiful October Sunday, Andrew and I woke up early so we could go for a bike ride with our friend, Barb. We drove to Andrew's house (or, as we call it, "the vacation home"), which is right next to the ride's starting point. We rode the Rush 55 (one of the routes offered during our local cycling club's annual fund-raising cycling event). The Rush 55 is one of my favorite rides, for a couple of reasons. For one, it's only 55 miles (57, actually), so we can ride it and be home early enough to do other things. But, mostly I love this ride because it takes us through some of the most scenic rural areas within an easy bike ride, including Evinston and Micanopy, FL.

The weather was great today, starting out cool and overcast, and ending up breezy and sunny by ride's end. Andrew and I have never ridden through Micanopy without stopping for ice cream. The 3 of us didn't hesitate today, either.

The Rush 55 happens to go right by The Herlong Mansion located on Micanopy's main street, Cholokka Boulevard. And, since The Herlong Mansion is where we will be married in May 2009, we pointed it out to Barb, who gave it her approval. The roses were all in bloom, and the grounds looked impeccable, as always. It's a gorgeous house, isn't it?

Andrew and I toured the Mansion (which is now a bed & breakfast) in August, and here are photos of one of its many guest rooms and an especially nice vintage bathroom.

You wouldn't think someone could get excited about really old bathroom tile, but this room has original subway tile with a double line of pale green pencil trim that is crazed with age, and it's just beautiful!
Here's a view of the brick walkway leading to the front porch, as seen from the upstairs veranda:

Speaking of roses, I was able to find the Rose Lady at the Farmer's Market, and have now planted the newest addition to the rose garden: Marie van Houtte. She is already putting out several new pale yellow buds tinged with pink.

Busy weekend, more kitchen remodel progress, and a new kitchen table.

Saturday we went to the local farmer's market to find a rose bush I wanted (Marie van Houtte, with pretty two-toned yellow/pink fragrant blooms), but the Rose Lady was not there! Next we went to the Native Plant Sale, a twice-yearly event where local nurserymen sell only plants that are native to Florida. The idea is to promote growing that which belongs here, and promote the avoidance of invasive exotics. We bought several plants, including two native blueberry bushes, a Jaguar agave, hearts-a-bursting (I killed the last one; I made an exception to my plant-growing philosophy on this one, and I'm giving it a second chance), blue-eyed grass (one of my all-time favorite plants), and a dwarf variety of St. John's wort. If we're lucky, we may have fresh blueberries on our cereal next summer...mmmmm! The Rose Lady was at the plant sale, too, but sans roses, since they are not native, so I'll be looking for her at the Farmer's Market for a Marie van Houtte next week.
After all the shopping, we visited the Festival at Thornebrook, a local outdoor art show where I had been hoping to find the Furniture Guy (Scott) who last year sold me a beautiful hand-crafted wooden bench that we use as a coffee table. It's made of solid cherry inlaid with tupelo, a lovely blond wood with very interesting deep charcoal-gray grain patterns. The bench is so nice, I wanted to ask Scott whether he would custom-make a new kitchen table for us, also of cherry and tupelo. We found Scott's stall among the many vendors, and he remembered that I had bought the cherry/tupelo bench. As it turned out, Scott had recently been commissioned by a customer to make a 30x30" card table, but the customer had never picked up the finished table, which happened to be made of cherry and tupelo! We arranged to meet him again today and purchased our gorgeous new bistro-size kitchen table, perfect for the limited dining space in our eat-in kitchen.

Isn't it gorgeous? Turns out that Scott has known Andrew's family for years and used to fish out of their marina...very cool, and he is a very talented guy!

We weeded the garden,

made homemade bean and vegetable soup, and went to Home Depot to price a replacement window for the kitchen. (The current window is too big, and will need to be replaced with a shorter window to make room for the sink and cabinets below it).
We decided to omit over-the-range cabinets from our cabinet layout and forego the standard under-cabinet microwave/range hood combo. Instead, we will install a wall-mounted chimney-type range hood, to break up the monotonous "wall of cabinets."

I found a suitable range hood on Ebay, cheap, so now that's on order, too. I'm still waiting to hear whether the kitchen floor tile that I ordered and paid for has been shipped from Texas. I was told they have it in stock.

Here's a photo of the new floor tile (Daltile,Cotto Antico, Aranciato) and the natural-finish red oak cabinet finish we have selected. The cabinet doors will be beadboard, with plain slab drawers. My photo doesn't really do either justice.

Here is a better image of the tile, installed, with gray grout. I LOVE this look!

I'm currently in a bidding war with an Alabama gas range dealer who has the range that I want, but not at the price I want. The gap is narrowing, and I'm hoping he will let it go at something close to my price.
Finally, we haven't yet received the blue countertop tile samples from the tile supplier in California, so we can't make a decision there, either. Time's getting short. The tear-out is scheduled to begin on Oct. 20th. Somehow, Dixie doesn't seem worried about it.

Our newest rose bed.

This front corner of our yard is very sunny and was full of weeds of types that grow nowhere else in the yard (which makes me think the soil is especially BAD in this particular spot).

But, it has now been transformed into a rose and herb garden (mainly a rose garden, but we needed a place for the basil), after much digging and cutting out tree roots (sorry, maple tree).

The concrete chunk flower bed border is my own design. I have similar beds elsewhere in our yard, mainly because for some inexplicable reason, our grass-covered driveway percolates up (belches? vomits?) chunks of concrete, from where I have no idea. But, they just keep coming. It's sort of a reverse sinkhole. I admit it was kind of unnerving at first, having blobs of concrete push up from beneath the grass, but now I wait until a few appear, then pry them out and stack them in a pile until they are needed.

The chunks are, oddly, nearly all triangular or trapezoidal in shape. Maybe someone who knows more about the physical properties of concrete can explain this. Maybe you can also explain the apparent anti-gravity property of concrete, too, while you're at it.

Nevertheless, most of the pieces are small enough to pick up and move easily. They work wonderfully as edging stones, seem to last forever, and, best of all: they are FREE!

Although I love to garden, I never tried to grow roses (standard hybrid roses, that is) until about 2 years ago, because the heat, humidity, fungus, and insects here in Florida make rose cultivation a high-maintenance, costly, and potentially toxic endeavor. Growing roses just never sounded, in my opinion, fun or relaxing. And, besides, my philosophy about plants has always been: plant it; if it lives, keep it. If it dies, don't buy one of those again. So, I always avoided roses, until....

I saw a tremendous wall of deep crimson roses in my next-door neighbor's yard, the neighbor whose yard is left "natural." The neighbor who doesn't own a lawnmower, doesn't water or use pesticides or store-bought fertilizer, yet somehow has amazing roses, and seemingly does NOTHING to them. Her secret? Old garden roses, which are not grafted and therefore grow from their own roots, unlike most nursery and mail-order roses. Own-root, antique roses are known to be hardy, even here in Florida. In fact, I have since become a collector of own-root Southern roses, and have several varieties that thrive here, including

Louis Philippe (my neighbor's crimson beauties), known locally as "Cracker roses." And, yes, that is where the Cottage got its name!

The photo above is of one of our just-planted Blush Noisettes, one of 3 in our various flower beds. Isn't she lovely? And blooming like mad after only being in the ground for one week!