Rosa rugosa

Oy, such a week I've had.

The garbage disposal finally died after a long and helpful life and had to be replaced.

The hot water heater exploded like a fountain gloriously cascading water like a geyser from the top out onto the furnace destroying the circuit board that allowed it to work and filling up the basement with water about five inches deep which destroyed old carpets, cardboard boxes and their contents, etc. The water heater and the circuit board both had to be replaced and many valuable 'things' had to be hauled up and put out to the curb.

Marisa and Diedrich included me in the celebration of their marriage vows. The vows were exchanged in the Butterfly House at the world famous Detroit Zoo and the evening finished with a sumptuous reception, dinner and dance at the elegant and prestigious old Detroit Athletic Club where the ambiance is marvelous and the art is superb in downtown Detroit.

Then the decades old microwave oven died after long and useful service as well so that was replaced along with the electric stove which had stopped working as an oven but still worked OK as counter-top burners. Both were replaced by a great crew working out of Home Depot. (I couldn't believe that the team leader was a very nice man named Terry Haliburton, no relation he assured me to the infamous Haliburtons.)

Bear, Bersi av Isheim, did well on his first AKC experience after arriving here in the US from his native Norway (and Sweden) and now has been awarded his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) award.

Also this week my dentist, James Hoste, informed me after my routine check-up that I have a suspicious spot on my tongue that needs the help of a surgeon. When it rains, it pours.

Today about one short week later and much poorer, cash-wise, but richer in personal experiences and necessary appliances, I am ready to start a glorious autumn - my favorite time of the year.

I'm more than half-way through a wonderful book called Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Dr.Mortenson is committed to bringing schools to the far from ordinary people of Central Asia. The book is helping me to put things into a reasonable and fair perspective.

All of which brings me to roses - the subject of the above photos. Point de roses sans epines. To fully appreciate roses you have to 'understand' the thorns. Rugosa roses have a wonderful, heady, old-fashioned fragrance and are lovely to look at but their stems are replete with thorns. Such is life. Seems to me an equitable and fair trade off, eh?

After the muggy heat of Michigan summers comes its fantastic falls. Likewise after the seemingly endless ice and snow-filled gloomy gray winters come Michigan springs.