No Bed of Rosas

Kind of a trying week. On one hand, I finally got around to putting on the tennis shoes and started walking since I found a route in the neighborhood not plagued by traffic. It´s an odd little park just up the road from the huge Almudena cemetary and it takes me about 40 minutes all told to get there and get home. Next week I´ll start doing 2 circuits. I go early, to avoid the baking heat that´s been plaguing us all week.

I have no idea why they built this park in this particular spot, since there are no close residential buildings, mostly just a highway entrance ramp, a recycling/trash disposal place, a gas station, and some kind of cell tower.

But what it does have is roses - lots and lots of incredible roses. None of them labelled (of course) and I took these just past their peak, so by now they´re mangey and will be for a while before blooming again. But spectacular in their first flush.

The two toned blush roses were especially beautiful.

But the big drifts were certainly impressive.

And a couple from the terrace. We´re having another plaque of aphids and subsequently ants, along with the couple of plants that seem to be downey mildew magnets. Trying a diluted dishsoap spray for the aphids which isn´t discouraging them as much as I´d hoped. Going to try a diluted milk spray for the mildew.

And on the other hand, I spent several mornings trying to move funds around which meant opening and closing accounts and signing rafts of paperwork. And frankly, it feels exactly like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

And to top it off, my mother took a nasty fall and spent several days in the hospital, though thankfully she´s back home now. The theory is that she fainted in her kitchen, hitting her head quite hard - her pain medication seems the likely culprit. We´re all relieved it wasn´t worse, but the measures that can be taken to try to make sure it doesn´t happen again are extremely limited.

But I suppose for situations that have no solutions, all we can do is take time to stop and smell the flowers.