The Old Yellow Rose

There is a beautiful bushy yellow rose that grows here on the Palouse.  I'd noticed it around the area the first few years I was here.  One of my neighbors has one growing along his fence.  It gets 5-6 feet tall and just as wide.  There is another one growing across the river from us on an old home site.  The house long ago burned down but some of the flowers are still there.  

My neighbor told me he thought it was called a Harison's rose.  I did a little research and found that it is indeed that rose and that it's origin is quite old.   "The original plant was discovered in the garden of amateur hybridist George F. Harison in Manhattan in 1830.  Suckers of it traveled west with the pioneers.  'Harison's Yellow' rose runs under a few different names including: ' Hogg's Yellow', 'Yellow Rose of Texas', 'Harisonii', the 'Oregon Trail Rose' and 'Pioneer rose'."
      
About three years ago I decided I wanted to try to start one of these roses.  I drove over to the old home site and dug up a couple of suckers and transplanted them along our fence by the road.  Unfortunately, this was the same year of the Vole Wars and those little buggers tunneled right under those starts and they died.  Sigh...


So last spring I headed back to the home site and dug up a few more suckers.  Luckily no one lives around there who cares.  These starts went into the same spot along our old fence and have done quite well.   I was quite excited a few weeks ago when I discovered buds on the bush.  And now it is blooming!  The blossoms aren't large but they smell really sweet.  There is something lovely about continuing the spread of this old rose around the countryside. 

Sew Much Love

Paul, my husband, practices a martial art called aikido.  He's been doing it for 20 years and has a black belt in the art.  As you can guess, it is a big part of his life and very important to him.  Practitioners of aikido wear special clothing on the mat.  One piece of this clothing is called a hakama.  It looks like a pair of very pleated culottes.

So, imagine his chagrin when he needed a new hakama and found that the company he had previously purchased them from had gone out of business.  

Now in my life I have done quite a bit of seamstress work.  I used to make many of my clothes and have done sewing for other folks, too.  I've made everything from tea towels to wedding dresses.  It seemed like making a hakama should be within my realm of skills so I went hunting for a pattern and the proper fabric.  
 

A hakama turns out to be a very complicated garment.  
It has a number of pleats both in the back and the front.  Here is a picture of one so you can get the idea...and that's just the front.  

Once we found the pattern and the right fabric, I set to work.  
Oh, my!  I had no idea how difficult this was going to be.  It got to the point where I would work on it for a while and then have to give my brain a break before I could go back to it.  

 






But I persevered and finally finished it.  Paul is very pleased and a little bit proud, I think, that I made it for him.  

Here he is in his new hakama...





 



and breaking it in getting thrown 
by his sensei. 

Thankfully, a hakama will last for a long time.


The things we do for the ones we love!  And it's totally worth it.