I'm SO MAD!

A few weeks ago I took all these pictures of our beautiful roses! After breaking down and paying to get some landscaping done on our yard this spring, we had some rose bush trees put along our newly "paved" walkway. They were so small when they arrived, that I was skeptical that the price we purchased them for would ever be seen in their beauty. We are not short on sunshine here, and with a new sprinkler system put in, water was not in short supply either. They blossomed..literally, and we enjoyed roses most of the summer. However, I did not know that it would continue on in the fall. With the warm fall (being much cooler then the summer sun) the rose trees went nuts, I think they appreciated the cooler sunshine and still the water!!
The orangish-yellow rose below was my favorite bush and color...and thus the reason for my recent anger.
After the majority of our landscaping was finished late spring, our landscaper got extremely busy, so the loose ends never got tied up, that is, until two days ago. He came!!! IT was a good day. Around Halloween we had a good wind storm and it snapped one of the stakes that held up our rose tree. I went on the hunt to find a newer sturdier stake, which you would think would be fairly simple, but after two stores (not much more variety than that around here) and speaking with the head gardeners at both-we stole a stake from some 'other' plants and rang it up. I proudly came home and told Dan about my find, and left it up to him to stake it again. Well, with hunting season and holidays and anniversary-he has not been home much on the weekends (the time he typically gets yard work done-b/c it is too dark by the time he gets home most days). So the bush has stayed stake-less.

Well, when the landscaper arrived he went above and beyond the loose ends (I think to make up for being so slow). He fixed some of his pavers, leaking water, a broken water pipe, placed in more lights, and circled the trees with metal trimming so that I would not mow the drip line heads off (he replaced the one I had mowed off!-oops!), He also re-staked the rose bush for us (w/out the need for my stake!) I was happy- Then the rain came and the wind blew. Our warm fall turned into a cold winter almost overnight (it was so bad they cancelled the towns x-mas parade). The rains saturated the ground which loosened the stakes (especially since the bushes had grown so much). I looked out the window the second day when it was so windy and saw all the rose bushes really blowing low to the ground. Dan called me from work and I told him they looked like they would break, which he reassured me they would be fine. So lo and behold-the next time I looked out my window MY FAVORITE ROSE BUSH had snapped in HALF!! AAAAAH!

I wanted to blame someone and everyone all at the same time. I called the landscaper who told me he had seen the broken stake and had tied it back to the broken piece (not replaced it with a new stake) and that a new bush is a nice $65. I was mad b/c he guarantees his plants and I felt justified in thinking that includes our human mistakes. I was also mad because he had given the 'appearance' of it being fixed-so I rest assured it was tied to something.

Then I was mad b/c Dan's boss had called a last minute conference/training for work this weekend. So he was working on a Saturday when he is usually at home working-and would have seen the bushes bending as I had, and probably done something about it. I was mad at Dan for being gone so much that the problem was not fixed when it originally had happened, and for giving me a false sense of security about the plants sturdiness when I did tell him what was happening.

Then I was mad at myself for not just doing it myself like I had planned and told myself to do on so many occasions (especially when I looked out the window)- self reliance girl. Then I was mad because I felt like so much responsibility has been placed on my shoulders for the care of the home and our children-and that I rarely find time to also take on the outside. However, with my LOVE of gardening and being outdoors I have electively taken on most the mowing and some other work on the yard. So when this happened I felt some responsibility for it happening, and then anger for being so overwhelmed trying to do it all-inside, outside and children!

I know it is only a small thing and should not cause so much turmoil. I just think it was the thing that broke the camels back. I know we will be able to replace it eventually...but will have to sacrifice something else, AFTER we already had a beautiful tree. Then I worry about it not being the right size and color to match the other ones.

Anyways-even if my anger is justified, it's happened and there is no use crying over spilled milk. I just have to let it go-So there it goes!!! Now that I got in on paper-ThaNks!