Nature Friday

This week, after a much-needed pruning to cut away shoots that were not blooming, the 100-year-old rambling rose bush bloomed.

Taking care of the rose bush is a year-round occupation, which might seem a lot for a plant that is only in bloom for two weeks, but for gardeners, it is labor worth a brief result.

For those who don’t know, the 100-year-old rambling rose bush began as my Dad’s grandad's dream while in the trenches in World War I. He said if God allowed him to go home someday he would do nothing but take care of rose bushes his entire life.

When he got home he pulled a shoot out of the only place he knew the Krauts wouldn’t find it, his ass.

Wait…that’s not the right story.

When he got home he bought the rose bush, and his two children took shoots from it and planted them i their yards, and the grandkids did the same, and now the rose bush grows in several locations across Massachusetts.

Daddy was watering it today when Dirty Cat, who was born under the house a couple of years ago, and never strays too far from its birth home showed up and asked if the kitchen was open. “I will gladly give you a mouse on Tuesday for some kibble today,” he said.

Daddy got a handful of cat food he kept to feed the feral and tossed it towards Dirty Cat. 

Daddy went back to watering the gardens when he saw a black and white cat, Jimmy the Gent, sneaking up. Daddy doesn’t believe in interfering with nature, but he was considering squirting Jimmy the Gent when Dirty Cat lifted his tail and let out a sharp cry of warning.

Jimmy the Gent slinked away.

Whether it is a dream of a rose bush that lasts a hundred years, or a tiny cat living off scraps scaring off a foe, nature has a way of protecting the underdog allowing them to thrive.