Dear Reader:

I enjoyed the rainy Monday to catch up on some reading…and once I did I started skimming through the Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul book. I enjoy the short stories about so many different flowers, plants, and vegetables with a life lesson attached to each.

I had the news on when I got to one story…so I put the book down to listen. It was a report on the terrorism in Paris and how the French police are now trying to track down many of their own citizens who have sided with the terrorists.

A French father was interviewed who kept breaking down saying that his son refused to go to school…he was too scared of what might happen. The father went on to say that the worst part was that he felt he could no longer reassure his son that nothing would happen. He thought he would never see this day in Paris.

Like everyone watching…the story broke my heart. It is like a terrible disease that some ‘lost individuals’ are purposefully ‘catching’ it in order to belong to something. For many countries now…( including the United States) it feels like we are all looking into a giant mirror and like Pogo quoted: “We have met the enemy and it is us.”

When the news moved on to another topic….I picked the book back up and started on a story called “Of War and Roses” by Carol McAdoo Rehme.

This true story begins with a famous French rose breeder, Monsieur Francis Meilland,  frantically searching rows of roses to find the exact rose …the plant which produced the “most breathtakingly beautiful blooms…the masterpiece” of his life’s work.

Time was running out. The year was 1939 and war was on the horizon. The Nazis were destroying small French villages, one by one, spreading defeat and disaster.

Now pressed for time Monsieur Meilland took cuttings from his favorite rose, still untested and unnamed. He began shipping the cuttings to rose breeders around the world. He could only hope and pray that the cuttings would make it and somehow survive.

On the last plane out, before the Nazis took control of the Paris airport…he placed the final rose cuttings in a diplomatic pouch and sent them to the United States.

The war continued for four more long years with shellings and death a part of daily life. Then it happened. A letter arrived from a rose grower in Pennsylvania praising the beauty of the rose Meilland had sent those long years before…the description from the rose grower included adjectives like ruffled, delicate, petals of cameo ivory and palest cream, tipped with a tinge of pink. 

Joy engulfed him…it had survived!

A God’s Wink of some magnitude occurred on the very day that Berlin fell to the Allies….rose growers in California, unknowingly, had gathered at a ceremony to christen Meilland’s amazing rose. White doves were set free to wing their way across the bluest of skies.

And now finally, the fragile rose with no name, which had survived against all odds…received one… on this most important day in the war.

“Peace.”

As I read the description of the rose again and pulled some samples on the internet (not to be used of course)…. an artificial rose that I had placed in Eva Cate’s “B&B” guest bedroom rose in my memory.

I grabbed my camera and hurried over to the bedroom. I stared at the flower…going over the description, from the story, again…and this artificial rose appears to meet every specification.

So until tomorrow…Father, please help us in this latest endeavor..to overcome evil from within…and help us build a better world, a peaceful world…for our children and grandchildren.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* I got back in my “grandmother saddle” yesterday and kept Eva Cate for John to get back to work….and loved every minute of it…manicures and playing hair salon…a real girl day!

When Mandy, John, and Jakie got home I had to stay and play with my youngest grandchild since I haven’t seen him since Christmas with my “forever bronchitis/laryngitis” ….he has discovered his tongue and loves showing it off. The cutest “baldie” baby around in Boo Boo’s opinion!

While babysitting… Doodle called and we got caught up a little…Doodle had given me the most exquisite tea cup/saucer for Christmas. I fell in love with it and used it constantly while keeping hot drinks down my sore throat after Christmas.

But what I had not seen (without my reading glasses) was the information on the bottom of the saucer… it was Royal Albert china…with the name: Dingle Dell! Gotta love it even more!

Gin-g….Murphy’s Law…Been home for five days and no one has dropped in…leave to keep Eva Cate and I miss you and your delicious yummies … then Tim drops by with more fire logs…go figure! But thank both of you so much for your kindness and generosity…I will chew the yummies by the roaring fire…life is good!

* Anne Peterson has been more than up to the “Five Day Challenge” to share three pieces of artwork each day for five days. I love this scene from Bohicket at John’s Island. Anne…your talents amaze me my friend!