Thursday, February 08, 2007

Dr. Leda Prunes Her Roses















I had only gone out into the nursery to stand all the potted plants back up that had fallen over in the Big Wind and my two twelve foot tall long stemmed roses said, "Prune Me!"

Okay I will cut off some of your branches that are leaning from their own weight and the effects of the wind.

Snip snip.

No I said, "Prune Me and I mean Prune me Good!"

Fine I will prune the Red Rose, it is smaller and won't take long. Snip snip snip the Red Rose is done. No gloves, no shirt, no shoes, I am done. I have to make sure all the potted plants are standing up.

"Prune Me Too Damn it!"

Ok Fine. I will cut off some of your yellow flowering lower branches. I am not wearing a shirt. I don't use gloves. I am in my slippas and the skeeters are biting me. That is enough for now.

"Finish It!"

But I was saving you for Dr. Leda to prune when she gets better and comes to Maui.

"Prune me now!"















So I pruned both of my roses hard and thought of Elizabeth aka Lymphopo aka Dr. Leda Horticulture waiting for the results of her scans post chemo therapy, still not able to venture into her own garden to prune her roses, thinking good thoughts for her.















Dr. Leda didn't need my roses. Today she got to go outside in her own garden and work till she was tired from pruning her own roses. She kicked cancer's butt. Now she can go back outside and play in the dirt and get stabbed by thorny roses and not worry about the germs and a compromised immune system from chemo.

She got to love doing today what I am pretty much totally over and take entirely for granted. There is not a single day of the year when there is not some ding, some dent, some wound on my flesh from jungle maintaining. My sole precaution for my beleaguered skin is Dial anti-bacterial soap. Yea like that really helps. I was blessed with the genetics of the survivors of pestilence and plague. It works for me.
















I just pruned two roses and still have thousands of plants to unload in the next four months. There are sure to be many more dings and dents to my skin in the near future. I hear people wear more clothes up north.

2 comments:

christin m p in massachusetts said...

Don't worry -- you'll still have the opportunity to do your gardening half naked for at least three months out of the year -- sometimes even four months.

Annie in Austin said...

Christopher, you might feel at home if you saw what many folks wear to prune shrubs in Illinois. Just be there in summer, not now!
But if I'm using the saw and loppers, I'll be in long pants and long sleeves even in hot weather.

The Dr Leda news was really great.

Annie