Grandmother's gift...

My mother's mother was Grandmother Kramar. Tiny, sweet, starched-apron clean, shiny silver hair smoothed into a bun, a lover of everything God made. A woman of prayer and gratefulness. A cheerful spirit.

She influences my life even today. When we spent vacations with her, she taught us how to "irrigate" her garden. And we learned the names of some of her favorite flowers and shrubs. Lemon Verbena, Pepper Trees, Weeping Willows, and Cecil Bruenner Roses.

I wanted to have a garden like hers. Bushes and trees, and flowers so close to each other that you have to be careful where you step. Crammed together so that you can't even see the earth. A shady bower just like hers.

Just a few hundred more plants, and I'll have it. Well, maybe.

For years I have wanted a Cecil Bruenner Rose... like Grandmother's. Hers was on the fence between her yard and the side street.

To have a climbing rose, you must have an arbor... which Janice designed with Dan two summers ago, and built for me the same day. On my birthday this year, John bought me the rose bush and planted it by the arbor.

So, in sweet memory of Grandmother Kramar, here's my Cecil Bruenner Rose.