Aurelia C. Scott
|
WRITING
A few of Clarence's roses
I met an Ohio surgeon who persuades tight blossoms to open by warming them with his wife’s hair dryer. An Arizona lawyer who chastizes floribundas with a sharp shovel. A Minnesota potter who buries tender hybrid teas in deep pits during the winter. And Clarence Rhodes, who kept his wife from leaving by planting her a rose garden. His roses were the beginning... ORDERING INFORMATION: We encourage you to support your local independent bookseller. To find your nearest bookseller, visit Booksense. CLARENCE'S CONTAINERS
CLARENCE Rhodes’ front door is blocked by the copper blossoms of ‘Playtime.’ The path leading up to the door is barricaded by peach ‘Marilyn Monroe’ and mauve ‘Cologne.’ His short two-car driveway is so narrowed by apricot, pink and scarlet blooms that his Chevy Astro van barely fits between the flowering walls. And the garage? For six months of the year, it’s full of gardening paraphernalia. For the rest of the year, it’s full of roses... TALKING WITH JOHN LITHGOW
SUCH is John Lithgow’s belief in the power of the spoken word that when his elderly father was ill and in despair, Lithgow offered to read to him. His father chose a story by P.G. Wodehouse, and as Lithgow read, the miracle happened – his father began to laugh... HOW TO GROW ROSES WHERE IT'S WAY TOO COLD
IT may be a slight exaggeration, but I would crawl for five miles over broken glass in the desert to see a rose bush that interested me... HOW TO CATCH A VARMINT
HAVE you ever been bitten? Not too often and not too badly. What’s the problem with squirrels? They fall down people’s chimneys and get stuck... MY MOTHER'S BRAIN
MY mother’s brain went to John’s Hopkins University last month... VIRTUAL PRIVACY, REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC GARDENING
WHILE watering her pink cleome one summer, my friend Susan heard her name mentioned on the neighbor’s side of a six foot fence that divides their backyards... THE FALL
MY husband fell down last night in the bathroom. More asleep than awake in the 2:00 A.M. dark he landed on the brick floor instead of the bed that he thought was near... WELL CHARTED TERRITORY, REFLECTIONS ON THE VALUE OF LOSING ONE'S WAY
THE truth is that I may never again need the map of Los Angeles County that I used for three days in 1982... WHEN NOWHERE IS THE PLACE TO BE, REFLECTIONS ON FAMILY TOGETHERNESS
UNPREPOSSESSING would be putting it mildly, although the intermittent drizzle through which we first saw the house may have dampened our spirits unfairly... LOW COUNTRY CRUISING IN EAST ANGLIA
IT'S easy,'' the young man said, demonstrating the combination throttle and gear shift in our rented 12-foot electric boat. ''Forward, reverse, stop.''... |
