Sunday, April 17, 2011


I can remember that first night in our new home on Athlone Street back in 1986. I propped my head up and looked out from one our bedroom windows (the right one in the picture below) which overlooked on to the  boulevard (the bed has not been moved) I looked outside into the boulevard and I could not believe that thanks to Rosemary’s forward thinking we were now living in a beautiful house in a beautiful neighbourhood.



The house itself, that night was pretty free of the furniture, bookshelves and thousands of books we have now. But there were two items I had purchased even before we moved that were specifically for the house. One was an antique French mantle clock for the mantle of what was then called my smoking room. It was and is a beautifully wood paneled room in which we now watch our occasional television.

The mantle clock



In the dining room there was a nook and I found a large credenza with a marble top at an antique store in Maple Ridge. Rosemary could not understand that I would buy such a piece of furniture as I had not measured the nook. The fact is that when it arrived it fit just right.

The clock served us well for all these years chiming on the hour and the half hour to the point we stopped hearing it because we became so accustomed. But now it does not work. Its winding mechanism is stripped and I will have to find someone in town to repair it.

I look at the exterior paint job of our house and I can see the cracks. Yesterday I sprayed certain parts of the roof, the gazebo roof and the one of our garage with moss killer. Moss collects and on the roof it is not a pretty sight.

In our garden there are plants that have been with us for many years. Some have not returned. A few perennials can be freshened up with division but others simply have lifespans just as humans have.

Many of the trees we planted as saplings are now mature and cast shade. The garden is shadier and plants want light. In the picture above the shaped conifer on the left died of root rot some years ago and the birch died of disease and was removed by the city.

The credenza, behind

Rosemary and I have been working in the garden these days. Pumping up the moss killer device has left my right elbow in pain. The index finger of my right hand is swollen because of the pressure on the secateurs. I have been using the secateurs not only to prune my roses but to prune bushes that are much too large for their spot. The body aches.

There is no division that will freshen up our bodies. The mantle clock can be fixed but the moss will come back.

The prospect of smelling my roses in late May keeps me going. I am sure that Rosemary looks forward to some sunny day in that late May to sit down on our garden bench to reflect that time has passed us by but we can still smell the roses and enjoy the garden. We will be sharing the enjoyment with our two cats. It has taken Rosemary's new cat, Casi a year to adapt to the garden. He loves it now and he accompanies Rosemary whenever she is around.