My Texas Rose Garden

      Very first home, and the first opportunity to grow my own plants! And I chose roses! Red being one of my favorite colors, I was naturally inclined to red roses. Before I knew, flower beds in my little home was full of red rose bushes, some climbers. Hubby & I moved plants around as it matured, and added other colors over time.

     Most of my roses were purchased from Oregon based Heirloomroses. They sell own root roses that arrived very healthy and grew vigorously with a bit of Mill's Rose Magic every year :)

Alec's Red, very fragrant!

Prairie Squire

Alec's Red in its first year

Don Juan, the climber

Alec's Red from living room

Last autumn at Humble home

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Norway - The First Impressions

 It wasn't so long before I stumbled across another hiking destination, hut-hut hiking in Sweden's Kungsleden trail. This Arctic trail takes you through 443 km (275 miles) of absolute wilderness in the Swedish Lapland covering amazing forests, hidden glaciers, everything a nature lover could dream of. However, I wasn't quite sure about such a long hike; it would probably take us a month to complete. But the idea of a Scandinavian adventure kept beckoning like a honey pot calling out to a wandering bee! As I started contemplating the possibilities, a friend who lived in Finland mentioned Norway. I was still gauging my tolerance to multi-day hikes, and looking up Norway showed some amazing trails with breathtaking beauty and a good level of solitude I was looking for. Norway's rugged and dramatic terrain soon became a challenge we had to undertake and must overcome!

Before we knew, we were in Oslo, all geared up for a 15+ hours long road trip to the Arctic circle, and then a 3 hour ferry ride to one of the most beautiful archipelago in the world - the Lofoten Islands. The whole trip was planned around a few handpicked hiking trails we thought to accommodate within the two week vacation.

Ferry from Bodø to Moskenes

Difficulty in finding reasonably priced accommodations that was worth the cost in this expensive country, and freedom to camp anywhere without fearing any predators as long as you kept sufficient distance from private properties, both further encouraged the idea of combining hotel accommodations with camping during our trip.

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