And life carries on...

 

The end of an era.  Boxer and Princess Leia.  I found these Azaleas  while looking for roses for their graves.  The red one is for Boxer and the lavender double petal is for Leia.  They were perfect and will bloom in mid-spring, close to the time they died.  Sharing in the beauty of their lives forever.  

Rest in peace my loves.  

Wordless Wednesday-Brut and Silver...Rest in Peace

Brut Thursday-Growing Together: A special plant.

When we dug Brut's grave, we dug it about 5 feet deep.  At the very bottom was pure, untouched lake/river sand.  As probably many years ago there was water running through where our house now stands.  Hubby, Mark, grabbed a scoopful of this sand from Brut's grave and we have saved it.  Not really sure for what, just to have a part of the Earth where Brut lays.

Fast forward to November 2016 and the day we found out that Silver had a mammary gland tumor.  I took cuttings off of my Kalanchoe plant and placed them in water.  I wanted the hope and growth that plants bring, hoping Silver would get better.  When she passed away in January of this year, I almost forgot about the cuttings and their meaning.  I had a jar full of roots and stalks that needed planting.  I think it was the end of February when I finally got around to doing so.

There is nothing specific about the Kalanchoe plant that I felt was attached to Silver when I took the cuttings.  I needed to trim back the original plant in hopes of getting it to flower and I hate just throwing cuttings away, so I planned to grow the cuttings for Silver.

Kalanchoe plants are a succulent plant, meaning they needed a sandy, loose soil, much like cacti.  This is where Brut's sand came into play.  I took the cuttings for Silver and the sand from Brut and mixed it in the soil creating fertile ground those little plants to thrive.  And thrive it has as you can tell from the picture above.

A very special plant that combines tragedy and loss and brings them together for life and growth.

A wonderful gift that keeps giving, my Silver and Brut.



  

Sleep Tight Bruter Boy

I covered up Brut's roses today.   The gesture only took a couple of minutes, but it felt like it sucked the life out of me.  My heart dropped to my stomach and I haven't felt right since.  Another turn of the season without my Brut and another about to begin. I swear nothing will ever feel right again.

The Roses

We planted a reddish-hot pinkish rose bush in Brut's grave.  It spices up our little memorial garden as the other plants there have already bloomed.  Leave it to Brut to take center stage.  ☺

It was hubby's idea for the roses.  I hadn't a clue as to what to plant.  Roses fit much of Brut's characteristics.  Beautiful, fragrant and thorny.  A fitting flower for a King.

I bawled all day the day hubby picked up the roses, not knowing if I could go through putting the roses in his grave.  So final.  A completion.  But when the time came, I was OK.

We planted the rose bush on July 4, in the evening, about the time of Brut's burial.  It seemed fitting.

And the roses are beautiful.  Full of buds and as I said is the center of our memorial garden.  It adds so much color and vigor to an otherwise green background. The flowers are a loose petal rose that when they open the petals look like they are going every which way.  They are majestic as an opening bud and have a delicate sadness as the petals tend to weep when they are fully open.  It is like watching a subtle dance of Brut's life.

A while I'd rather have my Brut back then the roses, the roses represent Brut quite well.  I don't think hubby could have found a better match.

They are perfect.

    
(please forgive my lack of photography skills as there is a saturation of red that I don't know how to fix.)