Here Comes the Rain Again

It's July in Oregon, and this year, we've had horrible weather. Typically this is our driest season and yet it continues to be anything but dry around here.

Even though the weather has not been rosy, I trekked out anyway to visit Heirloom Roses in Saint Paul, OR with a friend of mine and one of the foster kids.

Despite the horrible rain, we all had a really good time learning about roses by shopping for the ones with the characteristics we wanted the most. I looked for miniatures and super fragrant old roses for crafts and my ever-so-lovely rosewater. I just cannot get enough of the stuff for my iced tea. Last year I even made rose petal beads too and it was much easier than I ever would have imagined.

Other than the nursery visit, I've been spending a lot of time indoors in my chair, working on my shop on etsy. I have been collecting tons of seeds in the garden too, and when I rest up at night, I flip through old gardening books to unwind.

This year my neighbor friend is letting me collect seeds at her house so I can add to my online inventory. Like me, she just lets things grow and it's all natural and I've had a great time collecting seeds from the plants I grew from seed a year or two ago. I kind of feel like a parent almost!

Bottlebrush Grass, Elymus hystrix.

It bothers me that there are still piles of completely neglected plants around our house, but I am finally getting back to them. Some of the plants have been sorted to sell on Craigslist, and others have been sorted to plant asap. Many of them are super lovely wildflowers from California and other Western places. So many of them are so breathtaking I feel awful about overdoing it to the extent I may have jeopardized their well being and perpetuity. I need to keep their seed strains alive, right? Somebody other than myself has to care about this. 

Elegant Clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata.

Lastly, I suppose I should explain the neglect since up until now I believe I've been pretty sheepish about my little incident. I am sad to have to show you my foot amongst all of the blooms but let this be a reminder to all of you gardeners out there with weak ankles. I fell twice before I hit the jackpot with my last big tumble and this ensuing swollen ankle has been with me now for a few weeks. With a husband working hard at the vineyard in California, and a swelling disease that worsens when an injury occurs, life has been really wonderful around here.

Continually re-injuring an ankle is not that uncommon and I should have prevented this by doing better aftercare after I stumbled over a bag of potting soil and fell and hit my face on a rock just after twisting my left ankle for the first time. Little more than one month later I fell again walking on some river rocks but that time I only gave myself whiplash after hurting the same ankle again. This past time I really did it.  Walking down concrete stairs in the dark and missing a step ended up with me being completely unable to walk on the foot for a week. 

Tomorrow I am off to see the doctor though and I am seriously hoping that I will be more comfortable for the upcoming Garden Bloggers Fling in Seattle next weekend. It should be a ton of fun, swollen ankle or not.