Hybrid Tea rose "Double Delight"

While reading other blogs I've noticed this is an exceptional good year for roses everywhere, everybody talks about amazing growth and profuse flowering!
I'm taking care of the roses on the property here and I'm very happy with how they look as well!

These three are in 'our' section and I tried to find their names but could only identify the Double Delight for sure. It's unique colors make it quite a stunner!

After a hiatus of 2 months the Gallery Theater in Mcminnville started it's 2023/24 season with a performance of Pride and Prejudice.
We'd already secured our tickets earlier in the year and so we set off for our usual choice of a Sunday matinee this week.

As it said on the theaters website 'This isn’t your grandmother’s Austen!' and it sure enough wasn't! 
Kate Hamill’s version of this classic 19th century story centers of course on the underprivileged Bennet family, whose four daughters are in desperate need of an advantageous marriage, while their militant mother is scaring off every notable suitor.



But the script is unique in the comedic way in which it’s written, the rules of manners were pushed nearly over the edge throughout the play, and the way the casting choices are made. There’s a lot of doubling, and it really shows the versatility of the cast members and the talent in the way they play multiple characters.
It freely swaps identities and genders, not just for comedic effect but to make a statement about gender and class norms.
Bennett daughter Mary and Mister Collins were both played by men.

At the right in the picture below, you see 'Mary' aka Sean being fitted for a dress. I guess he had to shave his beard as well:



And this is how he/she appeared on stage, sporting quite the 'Goth'-look I would say:

He/she/they absolutely stole the show with their hilarious sudden intervening into the conversations during which they often scared everybody to death!

But despite this modern take on the play empire waists and lavish Regency-era attire were still abound and the show stayed true to the main themes and plot of the novel.
I of course had read the book but it was all new to James. I think it being a very funny rendition was a good first encounter for him with a more serious (well, normally) play like this.
Anyways .. we had a great time, as usual. This theater never disappoints!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this was the, very dusty, scene in the rye-grass field on Monday:

Apparently it was dry enough to harvest and somewhere late in the afternoon they came in with a whole army of tractors and machines.
In a matter of only several hours they managed to turn, rake and bale the whole field!

We were having happy hour in the back of the yard but fortunately the wind was away from us for most of the time because the dust was flying everywhere!
Like I said, it was all done lickity split (I looked it up and it is actually 'lickity spit' but nobody uses this) and in the setting sun everything looked as peaceful as if nothing had happened, some tall haystacks the only proof it actually did ...

Talking about dust .. we made some of our own!
On Wednesday James and Dan worked on digging the trenches for all the utilities. A 'trencher' was hired which made work a whole lot easier.

Again, dust was flying everywhere! Halfway through James had the brilliant idea to set up a fan alongside the ditch which helped a lot blowing the dust away from the RV.
Still .. there's dust everywhere .. sigh.

         

Unfortunately, a big Maple tree's roots were smack in the way of the water/electric trench and so, in order to save the tree, parts had to be dug out by hand:

             

Which was not an easy, or fast, feat considering the soil which is a rock-hard, bone-dry, compacted clay!

                                               

When all trenches were done the trencher was returned quickly ($50 hourly rate!) and swapped for a concrete-saw. A BIG concrete saw!
It turned out that the septic pipes had to go to the other site of the RV pad, and to not have to stumble over an exposed pipe all the time the solution was to cut through some concrete slabs that had formed the foundation for the mobile home that used to be there, and lay the pipes underground.

   
James had thought his saw could do the job but the concrete turned out to be much thicker than he could handle, hence the renting of a bigger one.

Which did a great job. 'Like a knife through butter' .. well, almost.

By the end of the day everything was done.
It's up to James now to lay all the pipes which will not happen for a couple of days since he has a golf-tournament going on this weekend and, Murphy's Law, after weeks of very little being offered, the phone has been ringing with job offers!
Oh well, I guess we can wait another week ... can we?

                                                    

Even after all that work James is eager to pick blackberries whenever he can. Here you can see that he's really 'into' the job!
I guess it's my own fault for stating that yes, I would bake something with them, but he has to do the picking!

So, another Blackberry Crisp was created!

Slightly warmed with some ice-cream for James and whipped cream for me.
Yummmm!

♬ Summertime  .. and the corn, or in our case the rye-grass, is high ♫
Or was high I should say, since it's al cut and waiting to be dry enough to get bailed.

I guess we're in the middle of summer. The weather is pretty perfect, mornings are cool enough to go for walks, like tho one that leads me to the little lake behind us.
It's waters are so calm it's like a mirror ..



It's heating up in the afternoons, but 'our' backyard (soon now, really soon!) is nicely shaded by maple trees and I spend quite some time there reading or spinning or just lounging around and I might close my eyes for a little every now and than as well ..
Yes, 'the living is easy' ..

Summer in Newberg means it is time for the yearly 'Old Fashioned Festival':

              

Of course there was to be a parade, which only I had seen last year since James had to work, so we decided to go again ..



Prior and during the parade there's a pancake breakfast put on by the Rotary Club which our landlords are members off, and that they participate in by flapping the jacks and grilling the sausages.
They encouraged us to come over and gave us free tickets! Count us in!



This is not our landlord, by the time we arrived they were already done with their shift, but this is what they had been doing ..

                                                       

                                                   

Scrambled eggs, sausage and blueberry pancakes. They were very tasty, especially with the delicious Marionberry syrup that was offered.
Around 10 am people were lined up and ready for the parade to come by!

  Soon the first vehicle arrived: 

                  

Followed by the Yamhill County 'Sheriff's Posse' .. too funny, for me the image of a posse is from the Old West, of a group of armed cowboys on horses, in pursuit of an outlaw.
They are in fact a group of people who help the police force when necessary and that's sort of what they did back than as well ..

             



They were followed by the obligatory 'Royal Court' .. the Queen and her Ladies ..

And, for such a small town, a looooooong line-up of very interesting floats:

Also not to forget: Marching bands and cheerleaders:

              

This particular band 'The beat goes on" was made up of band members and cheerleaders of the past, many of them now in their 60s, 70s and even 80's!

They even performed  'on stage' at the end of the parade:

                                         

                               These 'grammie' cheerleaders still showed their moves!

And than of course there were the horses, always a favorite in any parade (at least for me):



Pretty much all of these were ridden by Mexicans, who make up a big part of Newberg's working force in the vineyards around here:

We have a lot of Mexican restaurants in town, La Sierra being of them ..

The Mariachi band was was accompanied by the Latino Stage Charreria Mexicana dance group in their colorful outfits:                                     

                                                

         

And 'that was all folks'!



Afterwards we took a little time walking by all the booths and vendors set up at the Memorial Park:

By this time it had started to get rather warm and after a short stop at the Newberg Habitat for Humanity Restore, where we scored 2 doors and a window for James' 'he-shed/office' he's going to build, we went back home. 

We spend the rest of the afternoon in our comfortably air-conditioned RV and had dinner under a shady tree in the backyard:



We'd heard the fireworks at the festival were something to see, as in they're really good, so we went back into town that night. Ten o'clock is kind of past our bedtime (god, we're getting old..) and I was doubtful we were going to make it, but we did!
We had to park quite a ways away, this really is a favorite event, but we arrived on time, set up our little chairs we had the foresight to bring, and enjoyed the show!

   

        

It really was pretty good, for such a small town, and we were glad we'd made the effort to go! So there you have it, another item crossed off our bucket list ..

“Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! (Dr Seuss)
Who knows what will be next?