Flowers in my garden

These roses are a standard (a rose bush that is a ball of roses on top of a stalk) beside my deck. I love that it is a standard because the kids and I are never prickled when we are playing on the grass, and also because the ball of blooms is at the perfect height to been seen from the deck

This rose bush is beside the garage. I've tried to get rid of it many many times, but no matter how often I hack it off at ground level it just keeps coming back. I like that in a plant :) And yes t is beautiful, but it is one that the kids often impale themselves on when biking madly around the garden (if I don't keep it seriously pruned back, and would you with roses like that???)

This of course is not a rose bush, it is a black (yer, whatever.... I wanted dark red and that is what I got) rhodendron. We planted it on New Years 3 years ago and it is finally startng to show some life! Megane and I regularly pull out the ground cover (so it doesn't totally suffocate) and I think we ever fertalized it a couple of times so it is very gratifying to see it start having more than one flower. There are many other lovely plants in my garden, but these are the 3 I am in love with this week. Sigh, I wish I loved veggie gardening.

Anyway, I don't often sit down but I did this weekend... I sat outside and ate dinner (I was the only one at home, how sweet is that?!) and looked at my flowers and listened to the birds. I live in paradise, I really do.