A rose is a rose is a rose

There’s a beautiful small vase sitting on my bedroom bureau. It holds three of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen. This wonderful much needed rain has done a service to all of our rose bushes and trees. The front and back yards are just amazing this year.

One of those three roses is from that silly bush we have that is supposed to contain just tiny red flowers. However, in the center each spring, three or four long stem faintly peach blossoms appear. These flowers are absolutely huge. Guess we got a two for one? That apple tree my son Doug tried so gallantly to keep, had to be removed last year. It had given up the ghost.

Instead of another tree, he planted another rose bush. It, too, is fighting to survive. Perhaps that tiny section of yard just won’t hold anything at all. We’ll know by September. It took about nine years for all of Doug’s work to finally take hold and show our landscaping promise. He has worked very hard to put in a beautiful yard in the back with lawn and sections filled with rock.

In our front yard it’s mostly trees, bushes and more of that same attractive rock that keeps the tumbleweeds away. I remember when we first moved in, how hard Doug worked putting in a huge sprinkler system with the help of the fine people at Louie’s Home Center. Doug went back and forth getting much needed and appreciated help in planning just how to do all that this entailed.

We have pictures, somewhere, of Doug pulling that “gismo” needed to dig the trenches. He needed to get them deep enough here so that in the winter they don’t freeze. My son’s work ethic always amazes me, and the results can be seen. He built a great system. Right now, however, he’s been watering everything by hand. Due to his knee surgery, he still can’t lean or bend in the appropriate way.

Doug told me yesterday that he’s going to try anyway, although the exercise he does watering by hand is good for him. He doesn’t want to continue that until fall, and he wants the yard to look “neat.” Inside our home we’re also what our family calls “neat freaks.” When I come into the house I hang up my coat on our coat tree or in the closet.

It’s always seemed silly to throw a coat on a chair and then have to pick it up later to put it away. That takes twice the effort. You won’t find anything dirty in our kitchen sink half an hour after a meal. When my son Don was here helping me during Doug’s illness, we had a nice steak dinner one night. I had rinsed the dishes off and had a couple of pans soaking.

When I started putting things in the dishwasher, Don asked me why I didn’t just leave them until morning? I told him I didn’t believe the “dish fairies” would come in the night and put them where they belonged. Dishes left like that take twice as long to clean, so why not just get it over with? But then you have to know Mr.”Mother you didn’t get this sink clean enough”

Last night there was Doug scrubbing everything a second time. I was sitting on the sofa doing my crewel design thing, Riley was barking, trying to get somebody to come play catch with him, and Molly was doing what Molly does best, she was staring at me. That little girl does that when she wants something to eat and after awhile you either put up with that or get her something.

I looked at her and over the sound of the barking and the television chatter, I said to Doug, “Molly is staring at me again!” Doug turned, looking through the partition that separates the living room and kitchen and said to me, “Skinny Hairy Me?” There was a prolonged moment of silence, and then we both burst out laughing hysterically. It was one of those laughing sessions when you almost cry and your sides hurt.

It’s so good to have Doug being Doug again. Mr. Neat is in the house and getting better every day. If he wants to scrub the kitchen sink a second time, he can do it. After all, it’ll help build up his arm strength. You can’t see me, but I’m smiling.

Edna Van Leuven is a Churchill County writer and columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com