It's been busy here! My bins are nearly full. I get a very satisfying stretching of the back muscles when it's time to turn 'em lol. This past week has added the following: few large bags of Starbucks UCG kitchen scraps from work, home, and coworker's bird cage linings some baby mice found in the basement grass clippings, weeds, and garden trimmings ~8 gals. mixed UCG and fruit pieces from local coffee/smoothie shop shredded packing paper (which was very theraputic btw) fries of unknown age, various paper products, and old sodas from cleaning the cars TP rolls, PT rolls, and pizza boards all shredded to satisfaction leftover cherries, potatoes, apples, and celery not to mention the stripped bare bones from a Wing Ding (kinda like a Hot Wings cook-off w/o a winner but with plenty of beer) recycled beer from above Wing Ding lol Next week I'll be getting 2 truckloads of yard trimmings from a neighbor! Even after it's all shredded I think it might be time to start a new pile :)

I have no roses that I regret acquiring, but I do have roses that I regret putting where I did. Everything seems to grow larger than expected here, and it took me some time to learn that. I now have monster roses that really need to be relocated. Crepuscule finally got a haircut of about half her growth in January. I hope she doesn't get too pissy with me. She loves her location just a bit too much. Alberic Barbier has canes that end up about 15 feet beyond the plant on the ground UNDER THE FALLEN OAK LEAVES. Ouch !!! I do a fair amount of barefoot gardening. And finally, Silver Moon (aka The Kraken) is going to smother Ghislaine de Feligonde (not exactly a small rose herself). I just had to trim Ghislaine from a pathway. These monsters need to be shuffled around and I am not looking forward to it. The Kraken is staying put - I am not dealing with those fish hooks. It almost ate me when I tried to "scratch in" some fertilizer. Wow, she gets thrown some 10-10-10 from now on. It's funny, though. These are all great roses and have won their places in my garden. I just didn't leave them near enough room and now I have to try to move giant briar patches. Gardening is definitely about location.

TO: gunsiloveguns ..... be patient .... some nuts (acorns) germinate in 10 to 30 days .... most true nuts take much longer. A rule of thumb ... the harder and thicker the shell is ... the longer it will take to suck up moisture and for the "sprout" to emerge. It could take 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the conditions ... and every nut is different (unique) I have had red oak acorns lie in the ground for up to 4 years before they finally began to grow. (Don't know why the squirrels didn't find them) A word of advice that my DAD taught me .... "If you want to play Mother Nature, you have to be patient and do things in a big way! She puts billions of nuts and seeds out there, in hopes of growing just a few trees or plants. The more you plant, the more success stories you will have ... and the disappointments you will have, too. We all have a lot of time on our hands, and once you do your job, let Mother Nature take the reins!!" My Dad spent thousands of hours in the woods and planted tens of thousands of nuts ...EVERYWHERE ... he always had a pocket-ful of nuts with him .. whenever he went afield .... and his pockets were empty ... when he came home!!! I meet senior residents of our Town, every once in a while, that tell me about the tree, in their yard, that came about, because MY DAD planted a nut there 20, 30, or 40 years ago!!! ...And ... I am doing the same thing!!!!

I like the Cote de Texas blog. It's a lot like.... me : ). Let me explain that. My mom is French. I was born in the states but my first language was french. When I was 6 we moved to France for my Dad's job and lived there for about 3 years. We then moved to Austin, TX where I lived for 8 years until I went to Houston for college. I attended grad school in the TMC and met my husband in Houston. In all I lived in the Houston area for 19 years until DH and I moved with the kids to the Carolinas in 2008. I'm French and I'm a Texan (thus the username "southernfrenchie".) I get that Joni's style is not for everyone. It is definitely french with over the top TX flair. She definitely works with the upper crust. While I appreciate her blog I myself prefer a lot more color. Those photos are eye candy for me - a glimpse into how the other half lives. I can get an idea here or there - and will figure out how to implement it on my Home Goods budget : ).