Kim, I have truck loads of well composted oak leaves...lol I am just happy to know I can dump some on the roses! We have blueberries growing here too, top dressing with an acid mulch is going to be rather common. I hear coffee grounds work well. Because of the soil in this bed, I plan on doing a lot of digging. I have shovel dug and amended at least 1/4 acre in the past years, is does get easier! Even if I am getting older. Jeri, There are several roses in the Sac Catalog that I would love to have, hopefully next year they will have some interesting or similar roses and Mom will be up for the drive. I am hoping once she can see better, I can take her to Descanso and Huntington. I would love to sign up for the San Juan Bautista tour, but no idea how things will go so better not sign up for anything. Besides, I have a bunch of new garden books to read while sitting with mom in the yard. Rosefolly, It is an old house, I think it was the caretakers house to the large mansion that used to be next door. We think the house was built about 1890 in a sort of Queen Anne Cheap style, the mansion not so cheap. It might have been deep gray, white and pink trim as we found evidence of those colors. As a kid, the mansion had fallen in disrepair and was a giant hippy house. By the end of the 70's, hippies in SB was not a popular thing, and there was no effort to save the mansion from the bulldozers. Today, it would have been a precious historical building instead of a bunch of over watered non descript townhouses. Progress.

Your pics are fabulous!!!! Yes it is an Oriole and you captured it perfectly.

I like to see oriole birds..their distinct color makes them attractive. @bob414 beautiful pic of oriole bird you have share here.

/Users/glorybea/Pictures/iPhoto Library_2/Originals/2004/Jan 24, 2004/PICT0119_2.JPG