Flowers, Dachshunds, and Art

First up -- a rose!  All of my roses but one began blooming in May, some profusely -- like this lovely floribunda, my favorite rose whose name I have sadly misplaced -- it blooms all summer long:

One rose waited until just this week to bloom -- it's a climber called Dublin Bay, which I planted in Spring 2015.  It had no blooms last year, so I was very excited to see what it looked like -- and I was not disappointed:

It will be even more exciting as it grows and twines around the arbor and has mass blooms, probably in another year or three.  Gardening is all about patience!

Meanwhile, in dog news, it has been HOT here of late -- we hit 92 on Sunday, and it's been in the 80s for quite a few days.  Truman is a lucky hound, for he has figured out how to keep cool by hopping into his pool.

Yesterday his buddy Winston was over for a visit, but Winston is not as keen on the pool, and fails to understand its attractions.

Chloe also came to visit us -- Truman likes her a lot.

All three dachshunds are digging around in the grass here, half hidden behind the foxglove and snapdragons.

Finally, for art projects of late, since it's been too hot to go out on sketching adventures, I did two pictures from my photos.  I prefer to draw and paint from the real thing rather than photos, but it's still good practice.

The first effort was of the Dublin Bay rose, in watercolor:

The second effort was from my recent southeastern Washington trip -- this is the waterfowl-viewing blind at McNary National Wildlife Refuge in Burbank, done in ink and watercolor.

Today it will still top out around 80 degrees, so Truman and I will get out and about this morning, but probably not for all that long.  Tomorrow things are supposed to return to more normal temps of low 70s/high 60s for a good week or more -- hurrah!