First thing is stretch my plantar fascias, otherwise I can't walk (getting old sucks), then feed cats (second most important thing), then coffee. Once it's semi light out, I look outside. Sometimes I take a stroll in the back. Lately, on Sat/Mon/Wed, I set up the soaker hoses or sprinklers so my yard doesn't turn into the dust bowl.

Now that it's warm, DH and I can sit on the porch and sip our coffee. We have to get nice comfy rockers.

LOL Alida! It's not a problem, we're all in this together! :-)

First thing I do is grab a glass of sweet tea (without that I'm riding a turbo broom all day like the Wicked Witch of the W.) next comes feeding the two dogs and then like most of you... I head out to see what's blooming and soak it all in. Talk about luxury.

Then reality sets in and I scoop the poop and start the sprinklers. Funny how this was supposed to be DS's chore, but y'all know how that always turns out. ;-)

Nancy

First, the cats circle the toilet to get 'petties'.
Then, I call the cats to the kitchen- all 8 of them (# 9 eats outside, # 10 only comes at night and is currently missing :( ), feed them (some of them have to be fed separately because they are greedy) and sit down on my deck to have my bowl of cereal and look at my bulb garden. All too soon, it is time to go to work :(
On weekend days, I decide what to water first and set the soaker hose going, then work on weeding or planting or mulching... The days are too short to do all the work and it is too hot to do anything much of the day- in the 90's here the last several days. Brandy

Empty bladder, wash hands, brush teeth, pet kitties, wash hands again, put fresh water in their bowls, wash hands, flip coffee switch, turn on computer, load computer, wash hands, pour coffee, pet kitties again, open pet food, wash hands, walk outside with coffee and dog treats, sit down, rock dog while singing to him and trying to drink coffee providing dog does not spill it, and by 8 or so, I get to look at the garden. I look for work that needs to be done, make list of chores, wash hands, drink more coffee, empty bladder, wash hands again, then decide whether or not I want to make toast or buy breakfast. It's close to 10 now so I must get a shower, I smell from the garden, the cats, the dogs and the coffee spilled on me.

Patricia - LOL at your routine! We all love our furry babies, don't we! My routine lately includes patrolling the perimeter to see what the deer destroyed during the night - new roses don't have enough mint nearby to ward off the marauding hordes!

well, i feel alot better. i still feel guilty-at least some
of you take care of your pets first! thank you all!!
I really miss my garden when we go away too. I think about
it alot.
Perfect way to start the day, with all of those beautiful
sights and smells.
Cupshaped, i can understand what you are talking about. I
wonder if you hate winter as much as I do..?
alida

I get rather depressed in the winter, myself - our winters are very dank, gray and wet. I play video games then (WoW, mostly, lol!) when I'm not planning what I'll be doing next Spring. I go out to the greenhouse a lot and slobber over the roses under the grow lights - it helps with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and is a form of gardening. Mostly I just wait for Spring. I really don't like winter either.

We are slaves to our children and garden, whether those children have fur or not probably depends on the age and/or the perspective.

Patricia, you forgot one detail from your routine ... apply lotion from all that hand washing!
FYI, DW asked me what I was laughing about when I was reading your routine.

As for me, I grab a cup of coffee, and walk the garden early in the morning. Almost every morning, there is a dove in the bird feeder, on the house, or in the trees. We've lived here for 12 years, and since day one, there have been lots of doves in the yard. There is absolutely no more soothing sound than the sounds a dove makes. I check on all the plants along the way, and usually stop to pull a weed or two. The best mornings are the ones when there is a bloom on Reine des Violettes to sniff along the way. Coffee and biscotti is good, but nothing's better than coffee & RdV.

Randy

Stumble downstairs to the fridge and gulp down an ice-cold Diet Pepsi than wander back upstairs to sit in the bath for 15 minutes while I let the caffeine jolt me to life.

I see a connection...Pets and Gardens...we love them both.
Only my cats can 'talk' to me in the mornings' and receive a response with a smile...before coffee.
I also like to roam the yard with a huge cup of coffee just before daylight...before the neighbors are out and the traffic gets heavy...and, also sneak out my watering can to drench the dry ground since we have a watering ban here....Shhhhh.

"First thing"? First thing for me is like 8 a.m. or later...Is the sun actually out at 6 a.m.? LOL.--just kidding, I do love it when I *happen* to wake up early, but it's not a regular thing.

I'm not a morning person, so I put on a kettle for hot water, make some vanilla chai spice tea, turn on the computer, click on Favorites, Click on Rose Forums, and here I am.
:)

I love all your responses, we are all similar in ways, huh?

I am a late late night worker getting to bed every night around 3am. so, first thing I reach in my nightstand for a NO-Doze pill and chew it up....after the caffeine allows my eyelids to move, I pull the curtain so I can look out from bed and see the roses. I put roses outside every window, so when my feet hit the floor I run to every window so I can see what has bloomed over night (I feed and water and scoop poop at 3am, so the pets can wait till I see roses)....it's way toooooo hot for me go outside and see them. I envy you guys who have temps that allow you sip coffee outside....I would burst into flames if I did that here (hot flashes or not).

michelle

Coffee seesm to be a very common denominator in these threads followed by diet pepsi/coke and vanilla chai.
Now that school is out I get up first, start the COFFEE, attempt to wake up wife (teacher's aides don't have to get up during the summer), et dressed and have my coffee on my covered back patio while looking at my Roses and sometimes enjoying the scents being sent by Lavender and Rosemary. I ponder calling in sick and playing in the garden but someone has to bring home a check, cost a lot to support a wife, three daughters( one of them is in College), three cats, four Cornsnakes( snakes belong to my College student-furute zoologist)
When I get home around 6 pm I repeat the ritual- Coffee on the patio
And sometimes again around 10 pm

Make coffee. Take dogs out, feed them. Drink coffee and go to computer. Check out garden.

Carla

caffeine, kids, pets, garden. A pattern here.

Robin ~ Can I come and hang out with you under your grow lights this winter? In about January I think I'll be needing them. I agree how winters here can be L-O-N-G, wet and gray. It's the price we pay for living in such a beautiful place. We usually escape to Phoenix during ski week to visit family and get a much needed blast by the sun.
Now if only I could talk my husband into a greenhouse with grow lights........

Of course you can come hang out in the greenhouse... I may put you to work though. ;-)

January is probably the worse month for me too - the Xmas scurry is over with, it's the quietest month in terms of my business, and it's dank and depressing outside. The company would be welcome - at least I could talk about roses, lol!

Wake up, take pills while The Pack tell me who won't play with whom or jump on me while they all play Wakey Wakey Fun Time...

Get kissies while I'm trying to swallow said pills with a protein drink [I drink too much coffee if I make it at home].

Go to bathroom and have kitty time... yep, on the toilet too, lol!

Sit back down to check work stuff on the PC while my head clears and pain meds kick in. Check the Forums. Do quick work stuff, or urgent things...

Go out to see the garden, play with doggies, take 1 or 2 to a Coffee Shop for breakfast or at least COFFEE!! On good days, I'll go back to the garden and pets with coffee in hand for quite a while...

I get up at 4:45. Do my back stretching exercises, make the bed, shower, get dressed, feed fish, yell at cat for tripping me, water plants, get paper and hit the road by 5:30. I drive one hour to work at which time I begin to think. Hit DD for large coffee at 6:30. Enter office, log in, read emails and check GW.

Harry...get up at 4:45....on purpose? I would DIE!!

I am not a morning person and can easily stay up until 2am...but because of kids and work I do manage to rumble up and out by 6:30. I love summers because the kids don't have school. This means I have a bit of time to feed the KOI and smell the roses.....nothing is like morning in the garden.

Ronda

Coffee first, feed cats who are milling around making starving noises, put the dog into the dog yard (sometimes when I call he just looks at me unwilling to get out of bed - he jumped up onto the bed the minute I vacated). Check that there is water in the bird baths, clean or top up, on every 3rd day clean and refill hummingbird feeders, water house plants, water pot ghetto, shower, get dressed, make a quick run through the garden - usually I'm late to work during the growing season.

Weekends are glorious, cause I can sit on the deck and watch the birds while I drink my coffee - get another cup and do the garden tour with Baxter the Black shadowing me.

Another typical answer is probably not needed... but I enjoy reading how many people are doing the same thing I do every morning! And Cupshapedroses, I know exactly how you feel. Maybe this garden thing is the key to happiness in life. You learn so many lessons of appreciation. Just this morning I was remarking to my oldest daughter (as we took our first-thing-in-the-morning garden walk) how amazing it is that we find ourselves loving some scentless modern roses now. We used to have a rule that everything must be edible, then it went to edible or fragrant. Now incresasingly, the merely beautiful are finding themselves welcomed in our garden. No, gardens. I'm gonna start saying that - thx to rivercat. I just love that. Isn't that sort of the British garden ideal? To go about creating gardens all over the place? It is amazing how the more plants we cram into our property, the bigger it seems to get.

My routine: jump out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, call the (non-furry) kids downstairs, announce, "Gardenwalk," to my oldest daughter, go out for a brief survey, calling out to each other to "come see the Aloha - it's full of buds" or "look, the baby's rose is struggling - pull some of that mint." We note all the changes, make brief plans, and come back inside with a few blooms or herbs for the day. In the interim, usually a few other kids escape to join us, and run around picking flowers or herbs (in the summer, tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc.), sneaking a quick ride on their bikes, and generally running amok. By the time I come back in, DH is usually out of the shower and ready to sit down to talk over coffee. He doesn't really want to hear our garden news, but we tell him as much as he'll humor.

This is just our preliminary gardenwalk. Later on we take our morning, midday, afternoon, and late afternoon gardenwalks, with various kids, dogs, and visitors accompanying. Somewhere in between, we squeeze in our outside work and play time. Inside the house we actually have to do drudgery, so we try not to be inside too much.

I was beginning to be afraid that I was the only "not a morning person". Thanks to some of you for joining me later in the morning.
Now dusk, that's my time of the day. Sunsets are wonderful, breezes are light and caressing, cats are fed and purrful rather than demanding. Dusk is dry to the feet and slacks. Mornings used to be heavily dewed and nothing like wet squishy feet to greet the day.
I salute those of you who arise early, and wish you joy. I've been up that early and it's ok, but I can make it through the day with a lot less caffeine when I wake up later.

If you've seen Bill Murray's "Groundhog's Day," it's deja vu all over again every a.m. here, between 5-6 a.m. Lower the Corgi off the bed, out the bedroom door, to be greeted by assorted cats. Open the back door for the cats, go back in thru the house to let the Corgi out the front door. Turn off porch lights, slit open blinds, unlock door, and turn doorknob in one motion. Corgi bounds out, is handed a dog treat from jar on porch, as well as one for neighbor's pit bull over the fence. Pick up newspaper off driveway. Back through the house to feed cats on back porch. Now coffee can be made. Now the garden, either luxurious stroll or frenzied patrol, depending on work schedule. Immediately lose coffee cup in garden but find yesterday's cup, etc. If working at home, at precisely 9 a.m., a DC-3 coming back from the supply run to Catalina flies low overhead every day, clockwork, someone mutters "great silver bird," and we drop what we're doing to admire it. Kinda peculiar habits to keep, but there it is.

I am enjoying this thread so much! "Immediately lose coffee cup in garden but find yesterday's cup, etc"... so funny and true.

"Cats who are milling around making starving noises" and "[kids] sneaking a quick ride on their bikes, and generally running amok"... all so familiar [albeit for me my neighbor's kids who are dear to me].

Ann :) " Mornings used to be heavily dewed and nothing like wet squishy feet to greet the day...." Pas d'accord - the smell of dew-grass is a nostalgic, irreproducible
scent, only existing in the misty morn. 'Course you've also never seen my neighbor's white horse in the mist as a background for lawns and gardens... mmmm, you'd be sold on early mornings here, squishiness and all.

LOL@"I've been up early and it's okay"

You know the next question I should ask is
'how often do you check your garden during the day'
robin-'this is just our preliminary walk'
I hate doing housework when i could be outside..

alida

Immediately lose coffee cup in garden but find yesterday's cup, etc"
LOL

I DO THAT ALL THE TIME!!!!

On weekdays, rise at 5:45, take nice walk with Freddy, water the pots, wander the garden, upstairs to shower, downstairs to make coffee, leave for work at
7:30. On weekends, rise at 8, with DH, take Freddy to the lake for a swim, get coffee on the way, return and sit on the patio with coffee and look and listen and wander around the garden. It's Freddy, coffee garden in that order. DH and DS take care of themselves!
Kath-

triple_b -- of course you can come live at my house. Come put your feet up, watch the river and gather your reserves for a brand new baby. . .
Robiniaquest -- OMG -- I swear I didn't mean to sound pretentious -- I'm so sorry guys. It's just that there are several areas. Calling them gardens at this stage is probably more hopeful than pretentious :-). There's the veggie plot, and a sort of woodland area, an area that's sort of oriental by the koi pond, the orchard/berry space, kind of a rambling space for ornamentals and then the greenhouse. And then the totally overgrown areas I haven't even started to tackle yet. I tend to separate them in my mind as I add to the constantly growing "Should Have Been Done Forever Ago" list. . . We're starting to get it tamed but not yet taking any bets on who's going to win :-).

Cat

Cat, LOL... I for one don't think you sounded pretentious! 'Gardens' is just true.

Hey it takes over 3 hrs to ride-mow my yard - I'm calling them lawns and gardens darnit ;) And my wee house is 'a country cottage'... yes COTTAGE ;) :)

This has been a fun thread, all kinds of furry babies, roses and drinks, most of which contain caffeine, whoda thunk it?

mereditih -- Three hours??? Yikes! Have you considered sheep? Supposed to be the original lawn mowers. . . :-)

My grandmother loved grass, what can I say? They mentioned it in her eulogy! I daydream while mowing so it's cool.

I desparately want goats, actually. I think I'm a goat kind of gal. But I am a step away from running a zoo already and goats are hard to keep in. My neighbors had to rescue my Grandmother from a big billy once, she with her broom swinging, protecting her gardens, LOL!

So it would be... brush teeth, grab cup of coffee, see who the goats are terrorizing before the cops are called...

LOL, Meredith. Robert has goats. Perhaps he could give you some insight into their usefulness and maybe, just maybe, he has learned how to keep the goats away from his roses after his episode last year of goats having roses for lunch. :)

No kids, no pets to wake me up, but luckily my husband will have made coffee or I wouldn't want to get up at all. Sunrise was at 3.27 today so when I get up at 6 I open the window fully to let the sun in and wake me up some more. I am sorry to say I only look at the garden from inside in the morning and read the two dailies we take in before catching the bus for work at 7.45. I only have time to take a brief look at the front garden and can't wait for my summer vacation in July when I will have all the time in the world to have breakfast outside, to saunter in my bathrobe among the roses. Now my garden life is all in the evening, from 6 to 11 at night. I never go to bed before I have seen the first bat appear after sundown, usually at 10.30. The sun sets at 10.10 today.

Marianne in Sweden

didn't Charlie Brown say that the secret to happiness is to have a convertible and a lake?? That way, if it is raining, it is good weather for the lake; and if the sun is out, it is good weather for a ride in the convertible. I think the secret to happiness is a garden - if it is raining, it is good for watering the garden, and if the sun is shining, it is good for the garden...

I think that having a garden that you love is one of the best things in life, rain or shine. Life is good. :-)

Patricia, I don't remember them eating his roses, lol! I do love hearing about Robert's gardens and projects. He's doing things I wish I had help with here, but in time :)

brandyray,
Almost the same routine here...Wake up, before the husband, check for vomit/hairballs, feed the hungry cats. 8 inside...2 outside, and will not eat next to each other. Run to clean the toilet, as fluffy Pixel is sitting waiting - she will not use the dirty kitty toilet and will be the first to go once it is clean...

Make tea/coffee, check my email...Run out, see the garden. Check if there are any giant lubber grasshoppers eating my plants - catch them if needed. Make moscovy ducks leave the pond...Water some orchids...

Then, try to make the hubby take lunch with him - he will ecsape without it if he can...make lunch for myself..and RUN to work

Repeat Mo- Fri

Olya

Pagan, I will take the garden. Our son's wife bought him a convertible for his middle-age crazy birthday. She wanted a house on the lake. They share a birthday so they bought a house on the lake front, with golf course backing it. Subsequently, they have sinus infections constantly. She says hers are related to all the ligustrium growing around the perimeter, and his are related to riding in the convertible with the wind blowing all the pollen in his face. I can get out of the garden. That's a lot to pay for a house on the lake and a convertible, only to stay sick all the time as a result. They are headed to Bermudas this week. I hope the salt water air will help. :)

Hmmmm-- our closest neighbors have goats but they no longer have gardens :-). Am trying to find Robert's adventures. They do seem to be useful for mowing the lawn and eating the blackberry brambles. We've actually made peace with the blackberries around here (well, sort of) and use them as a natural barrier on parts of the property. Eight feet high and three feet wide. The only way to control them at this point is with a chain saw and it still takes full body armour. Do know what you mean about lawns -- when I was growing up we had pastures and horses and the smell of the lawns was an integral part of summer. Does anybody else remember waking up to the sound of a push mower, a rain bird sprinkler in the distance and the scent of new mown grass?

Cat

Golly---with all the morning wanderings about the garden I DO hope most of you get dressed first!! (or at least have no near neighbors :)

Does a ratty bathrobe count as "dressed"? No? Oops, my bad.

Hows about ratty old sweats, then? I have a lot of those, thanks to the roses. :-)

I know alot of people who end up doing a bit of gardening
in their pajamas..usually it is something that needs to be
done immediatly-like deadheading or spraying for aphids..real garden emergencies.

alida

I am sure my garden probably needs my attention first thing in the morning but I get my coffee and go right back to bed to drink it. Then when I wake up I get back up. CAn't see straight until I've had my coffee.
Linda

Privacy fences, but yes in my collection of photographs, my DH does have a picture of me in gown pointing out to gardener where I want some roses planted.

Dressed. Now that I frequently have teenaged bonus children in residence (I married Drew and got his children as a bonus), I've learned the virtues of pajamas that actually cover you. So I'm covered.

Make my "turbo-hot" (STRONG coffee!) at 4:45-5 am.

Trip on kitties who are expecting me to share some half 'n half. Sing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" (remember Mr. Rogers?) to 2 of them, and tell them to go out and have themselves "an adventure." Feel guilty for not letting the 3rd out because a neighbor complains that she keeps peeing in her flowerbed near her front porch. She asked me to keep this kitty on a leash. :0( I DON'T THINK SO.

Turn on the computer and check out GW/Rose forum and IM our son who is stationed in Guam (Navy).
Throw on some shorts/jeans and t-shirt and go walk around the gardens.
I sell mixed bouquets locally, so I bring a big container and scissors/thorn stripper with me if I have orders for that day to bring to work with me. Then I arrange them and finish getting ready for a day at my school (I'm a Teaching Assistant all year long).

Wish I didn't have to do ANYTHING other than be in our gardens!

:0) Phyl

I throw up the cover on my grow lights on shelves by my bed and check on my seedlings. I can get my gardening fix even in winter.:-) It's between 10 am and noon because I'm a dyed-in-the-wool night owl and was up late that night, now that I can sleep in since all my kids have left home. Woohoo, no more 6 am stuff for me. I feed the cats before I go to bed so no morning kitty stuff either.=^v^= And I don't need caffeine because I got enough sleep. At some point after breakfast I finally go out to work in the garden. The vegetable garden gets first priority but I manage to pick a few roses for the table before I come in for lunch. My favorite time of the day is twilight, when the air is cool, golden, and refreshing, and I work out until the sky grows dark.

I think Robert gave his goats away.