Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on my work. Still waiting on the sink install to get completed so I can get back to making. Rocky showed up at the back door yesterday afternoon bleeding and anxious. One of his daughters-in-law was stranded on the side of the road with her three girls and he needed to go deal with that. Not sure how he cut his finger but I forced some hydrogen peroxide and a bandaid on him before he took off.
I mentioned a while back that our annual open house with fellow glass and craft artists is canceled this year because of the virus and the other art show that goes on one of the same weekends is also not doing an in person show but has decided to go virtual this year. The organizers of the Heights Artisan Market have worked hard to create a website to showcase the work of some of the artists and we were invited to participate. Here's a link to the Heights Artisan Market website and I invite all my readers to check it out and hopefully support some of the artists who have basically lost a whole year's income since all their shows and venues have been canceled through the year.
I went and did my time at SHARE yesterday morning. Not too busy, only had 7 or 8 clients coming to pick up food so I finished up early and then went to vote timing it just right.
There was one couple ahead of me, I waited maybe 5 minutes, voted straight Democratic except for the 5 or 6 uncontested Republicans for whatever they were running for. I would have skipped them altogether but our new voting machines won't let you do that. You get an error message if you try so I don't care for that but I do like that these new machines produce a paper ballot that has your choices printed on that you then take to another machine that you insert it into. And why do they even put uncontested candidates on the ballot? They're gonna get the job no matter how many people vote or don't vote for them.
Well, I've done all I can do by voting but over in my sister's old neighborhood there a battle of the yard signs going on. First one house set out 3 Biden yard signs, then the Trump supporters across the street put out a Trump yard sign, then the Biden house put up two long narrow banners on either side of their front door, then the Trump house put out an American flag and a Trump flag, then the Biden house put up a huge poster on the side of their house and that's where it sits now.
Waiting to see if the Trump house escalates. And speaking of battles, Biden looked and sounded very presidential at his Town Hall meeting while Trump looked and sounded like everybody's crazy uncle and Trump got slaughtered in the ratings. So now of course today he's demanding Biden's arrest.
Later my sister and I went to an estate sale in West Columbia, about 40 minutes from here and once in the town but before we reached our destination, one of Google's street view camera cars passed us on the right. I would have tried to get a picture but we were using my device for the GPS.
My confederate rose started blooming this week but the deformity that eventually attacks all my confederate rose bushes has appeared on both and affects the leaves and the buds. On one the flowers open pale pink, are smaller than normal and sparse in petals.
On the other bush they are opening half white and half pink and are so dense they can't really open fully.
I have no idea what it is that is affecting them, takes about 3 - 4 years to show up on a new plant. The leaves get deformed, small and curled and just plain look weird (you can see the healthy normal leaves in the back),
the buds are not full and oval but skinny and elongated. Usually it just affects the leaves and buds but on one bush one of the stems is all gnarly.
I have tried for years to find out what is causing this and no one, not amateurs or experts alike, can tell me so if anybody out there knows, fill me in.
The neighborhood down the street from us is 55+, and I think they're largely republican. However one house is flying a large Biden flag, so good for them. We don't put anything on the vehicles because people are crazy around here flying flags from their trucks.
ReplyDeleteThank you for voting!
ReplyDeleteGlad you voted. I wonder about that thing attacking the plant. Maybe one of those mysterious blights, like the ones we had here that wiped out tomatoes and a different one wiped out impatiens. Now it's gone, and you can grow them again. It's odd that it takes a while to show up on that plant, though. Wondering about the hybridizing, if it weakened something in the dna.
ReplyDeleteYAY, Voted yesterday by mail of course, and voted correctly of course...Your rose looks fine to me, interesting, kind of wabi sabi. Love the signs, yay Biden people!
ReplyDeleteI've decided to wait until election day. There are only three or four hundred registered voters in the township. They may all vote, but not all at once.
ReplyDeleteWe voted by mail last week. Straight blue, of course. The requested ballots came in the mail one day; they were in the outgoing mail the next day. Here in Dallas County, there were several uncontested Democrats. I don't remember seeing any Republicans in uncontested races. I am glad you chose to show us only one side of the yard sign saga!
ReplyDeleteAs to the roses. We had four Mr. Lincoln rosebushes in our yard for maybe 15 years. Beautiful long-stemmed huge red blooms that could perfume a room. Then, one year, one bush came with a problem. Deformed leaves, many more thorns than usual, smaller, fewer flowers. The people at the nursery told me it was a disease. We took out the first bush. Ended up losing all of them. I tried in vain to replace them, but finding that particular variety was difficult. Never up to par. The last one I bought from Sam's came with PINK flowers! I gave up.
Your talent as an artist have always been amazing to me. And, I've told you before, I sure like how you think!!! It's nice being among kindred spirits.
the confederate rose is not a rose but a mallow, same family as hibiscus. I've never had much luck with actual roses. this house had 6 knockout roses in front, now there are only four and they're supposed to be unkillable.
DeleteThe Wizard of Oz is America's subtweet
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like your confederate rose is trying to become one of its cousins, the okra. Weird. I've never seen anything like it.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the link to Artisan Market. Ms. Magisano's jewelry is my cup of tea for sure. I will look more carefully at everything later on.
I can't wait to have my voting behind me. I plan to go early next week after our early voting begins. I want to get it done!
your confederate rose is trying to become one of its cousins, the okra
DeleteCan you blame it? Who would want to be called a "Confederate" anything?
Thanks for voting! I will vote this week in person and I cannot wait to VOTE BLUE! I know nothing about roses so can't help you there. Have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeletenot an actual rose but a mallow like hibiscus. the flowers last only one day.
DeleteWaiting to see if the Trump house escalates
ReplyDeleteMaybe they'll put in a peeing-Russian-hooker fountain.
So now of course today he's demanding Biden's arrest
Of course. How did we sink so low that this kind of thing became normal and expected?
Thank you for voting! We voted too at a legitimate (listed in the county election booklet) drop box. It felt anti-climactic, but I was so glad to cast my vote.
ReplyDeleteThat's so weird about your Confederate Rose. I'm definitely no help in that arena.
ReplyDeleteI filled out my absentee ballot - just need to drop it off. There were several uncontested Republicans on there, but I just didn't fill in the little bubble by their names. I hope it doesn't disqualify my ballot!
We cannot grow Confederate Roses/hibiscus here with much success, our climate etc. but my guess is that your plant has a virus. We have had a similar experience with the plumeria this year, lots of flowers but no scent and similar curling and deformities.
ReplyDeleteThis has happened before to some of the smaller, more exotic fruit trees and we actually got someone to come out and look at it and it was him who named some virus from "abroad" - and I cannot recall the name. We got rid of the trees and the soil they grew in and had hoped it was all good. The plumeria, we have four plants, will get a second chance next year.
I was thinking perhaps Aphids or some other hitchhiking insect, but you would have obviously already thought of that one. Can't help, but please post if you do find the reason for the deformities. Our absentee ballots arrived in the mail and we promptly filled them out and put them in the mail. I signed up to have my ballot tracked, so know it's being counted.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed looking through the work of the various artists on the site you linked. It's not a perfect way to do it, but it's pretty good. As for that Confederate Rose, I have one reader up in Montgomery County who's grown them for years and years. I'll send her a link to this post, and see if she has any ideas.
ReplyDeleteMy hibiscus curled like that and it was aphids.
ReplyDeletethanks. not aphids though, never seen aphids on these plants. I will however go check again.
Delete