Monday Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: Roses!

Colorado -- at least our area, south of Denver -- is going through its brief "monsoon" period: rain nearly every day for the past week. The ground squishes a bit when you walk on it, and everything is an incredible heartshaking green. 
     One of the bonuses this time every year are our roses. The shrub types do best right now, including my Harison rose, which wasn't sure whether it wanted to live or not. Apparently it made up its mind -- now in its third year, it's doing its best to spread in several different directions at once. The bright yellow blooms show well against the stickery branches.
    (The Harison - yes, that's the spelling - is the traditional Yellow Rose of Texas.) 

Voila...plus weeds and sticks. (They should be cleaned out this week.)

      Another yellow rose, a Persian with origins from centuries back, is full of fat buds. Hopefully it will hold off flowering until the Harison is finished. Tea roses, plus a few climbers, are growing , but generally do their thing later. All the roses are healthy -- thank God for chicken manure. 

      We have other roses, but they're not from us -- God planted these lovely pink wild blooms. They've gradually spread along the side fence, and are pushing up by the chicken coop. I have no idea how the coop clump got there -- they just sort of appeared. I've tried to transplant the wildlings, with no luck. They remind me of a big hedge of pink roses that grew by the road by the Michigan farm where I grew up up. 
      Their fragrance is exquisite.

I will miss these so much when we move.

The Brick, keeping a nosegay of wild roses company

Are Christians the most persecuted religion? Facts say... YES.   (From IJR)

"No one owes you anything."  A letter from Dad to his nine-year-old daughter.  (From the Simple Dollar)

 Lessons learned from Bill Gates.  And oldie but goodie from yours truly, via Midlife Finance.

Mr. Biggles: an adoption memo for a cat that isn't exactly sunshine.

Art out of a tennis racquet.   (From Life After Money)

Renovation of a mustard jar -- a reminder that, like Mr. Biggles, good things can turn up in odd places!  (From Jenny and John in Brittany)

The Prince of Wales, an old war hero friend, William Gordon-Cumming...and a huge scandal that badly damaged Queen Victoria's monarchy. See more about the Great Baccharat Scandal here.

Mark Zuckerberg calls for a 'universal basic income' during his Harvard commencement speech...so people can be free to try new things. That's great...is he going to pay for it? What about the people who don't feel like working, and want to smoke weed all day? (Mark, I'd be happy to get a check -- make it out to me personally, ok?)

Ten smoothies that are formulated to help you lose weight. We'll see... (From Prevention)

A bear chases a mountain biker -- yikes!

Millionaire spending habits.  (From Budgets Are Sexy) Hey, talk to Mark Z. about this.

Using passive income to help yourself to financial independence.  Granted, there are a lot of steps between 'there' and his 'here'...but at least it inspires thinking about possibilities.  (From Financial Samurai)


And in honor of Gregg Allman, who died this past weekend:

Have a productive week...stop and smell a rose or two!