Roses to the Rescue

I had one of those busy mornings from the time I got up until we left to

go into town to run errands. Town in this case is over an hour from home when there’s no traffic or roadwork stoppages. But by then I was really exhausted from having to wash out some kitchen cupboards inhabited by mice that my darling felines bring in and then suddenly release to torment the poor creatures slowly. But these country mice are pretty resourceful and our farm cottage offers many attractive escapes and resting places and lots of bottles with labels to gnaw on. So they often elude the vicious predators that catch them, once they bring them in for the grand finale.

Innocently, I opened one of the cupboard doors this morning to grab something I wanted to put in my tea.  Horrified, I shut the door immediately then cracked it open a tiny bit to see the dreaded mouse poo droppings on shelves that I keep rather tidy. Braving the worst outcome possible I opened a few more doors of the lower cabinets and confirmed that these were traveling mice, vagabonds on a kitchen adventure to save themselves and eating their way through paper while nesting in bowls of every description or pots and pans, also cozy places for bedding down.

While I took every single item out of my cabinets and washed each piece after vacuuming and sterilizing the shelves with disinfectant, my beloved was using his new tool delivered today to put on new brake pads on the car he just bought for a hobby. It is our fourth vehicle and we needed it like we needed to have mice living in our house. He tried to use it the other morning when he had a very early appointment in the city but the battery was dead. Hmm….it’s a good hobby because he’ll be working on it a lot it seems. He’s only had it for a few weeks. We drove in it once together for a few minutes but being a small car it is entirely impractical for regular use since we live far from the shops and need plenty of room in the trunk for the goods we buy. So it’s more of a toy car for him. Some toy. And with an engine that’s pretty powerful he admitted that it took off on the gravel road we live on. Hmm.

So between the two of us we were stressed out for the first part of the day. John thought he broke something on the piston, which he tried to explain to me. He might as well have been talking in tongues for as much as I understood. But eventually we flew out the door and I saw the roses over the brick pathway as I approached the car, our third Citroen, the dark blue one. Hmm. Gotta have a picture of those. They are exquisite and are beckoning to me. It seems like a bower of roses, or a bough of roses welcoming the weary resident who is either coming or going. Actually I was so tired I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Then with my trusty camera at the ready I took a few shots but it was the first sunny day in weeks and it was too bright for the best photos that would capture how pretty these delicate branches were that seemed to form a natural arch over my head.

Hours passed and we ventured into consumer heaven, leaving no stone unturned. As we drove back we seemed to be glued to our seats and although I got all chatty I was exhausted, to say the least. We arrived as the day was finally darkening but there was still enough light to take a few more photographs. So without going into the house I put my purse down on another random hood of another car and approached the floral display carefully, so as not to disturb the beauty there. Smiling as I snapped a few choice photos, I felt redeemed again, renewed and rewarded with those glorious blooms.

Every day there is something I notice around the place that inspires me and reconfirms just how lovely this garden is that we’ve helped to develop over the years. It is still a work in progress and so are we, but it adds so much sweetness to our lives in so many ways.