Month: February 2015

Winter Rose

/ jeanmjames

I’m not a very effective gardener. Last season both my carrot and lettuce crops failed to thrive, but a series of interesting and exotic weed did very well.

Although we do not have the typical seasonal weather the east coast and mid west do where I live, we do have some seasonal changes. One gardening rule is that you are supposed to prune roses in January and February while the buses are dormant.

I have three rosebushes; one humongous, one medium and one mini rosebush. After pruning the two large bushes, raking up the dried sycamore leaves and pulling out the two dead cherry tomato plants, I decided not to prune the smallest bush. It really had very few branches and the leaves were still green. When I finished cleaning, the rosebush, one green vine and two succulents were the only green plants still standing in a very stark landscape.

A week later, the rosebush produced one bright red perfect rose. It was, and is, the only point of color in the garden.

Seeing the rose lifted my spirits. It reminds me that there is hope, beauty and joy in the world, not just sadness and loss.

Peace

P1000257                                                               Winter Rose

You can eat an elephant – just take one bite at a time.

/ jeanmjames

Before my husband passed away, we had plans for his office – replace the old carpet with wood flooring, get a new, smaller desk, and provide comfortable seating. As my husband said, in its current state, it just wasn’t set up for the way we work. So, when he passed away, I decided to go ahead with our plans.

Here are some things I’ve learned during this project:

1) Before you put new flooring in a room, you have to clear the room – of everything. When you move everything to other rooms in the house, those rooms will become less usable until the project is done and the “things” can be returned. Also, not everything will fit in the other rooms, so you need the garage.

2) If you plan to store the extra things in the garage, you must first clean the garage.

3) When you clean the garage, you need help.

4) If you fill the recycle container too full, it may fall into the garbage truck and disappear.

5) Once the new flooring has been installed, the new desk assembled and the new chair delivered, you still will have twenty-four boxes of books and memorabilia to move from the garage, unpack and place in the book shelves.

6) The now empty boxes have to be broken down and recycled. Be careful not to over-load the recycle container. The company will only provide you with one replacement container before they begin charging you a fee.

As I worked through this project, I sometimes had to reassure myself it was the right thing to do. I could have left the room just the way it was when my husband died, but it would have become a sad daily reminder of his absence, a very lonely place. I know he would like the new room.

DSCF1980                                          After                 P1000269

Before