COOL DAYS AND WILD ROSES

Morning at Gilbert, Idaho, looking south over rapeseed fields to Little Canyon

It’s been rather cool here at the homestead this past week. Oh, it’s pleasant enough in the afternoon sun, but the evenings are cool and the mornings are downright chilly! I guess we’re lucky, considering the record-breaking highs in Utah and Arizona, for instance.

From bramble behind house

When I was a child taking morning swim lessons, the first session in June was always chilly. Standing wet at the edge of the pool and waiting for instructions, our teeth would chatter. And in those days – the mid-‘50s – mornings and evenings were always cool here at the farm. Yes, over the last 20-30 years, it has become much warmer here -- and dry. I guess this year is a throwback. And it’s okay. The garden and transplants have had a better start, I think.

Wild rose bramble north of house

Same bramble, north

The spring blooms are mostly past, but I just can’t let the season go without mentioning the wild roses. Wherever they pop up – and every year there are more bushes – they tend to take over. It doesn’t matter much here if wild roses want to grow in those grassy areas between the fields, but road departments everywhere fight them. I concede that the wild rose bramble is certainly a problem in some places, but the roses are lovely. I only know of one spot here where the proclivity to take over troubles me, and that’s at Plank’s driveway where a wild rose has overcome a lilac bush. I’d rather have the lilac, but it’s not our property – and not my problem.

Rose bramble at Plank's

Rose bramble east near June's

The wild roses range in shade from pale pink (nearly white) to deep pink, and I know of an unusual red bush at Neighbor Pete’s. He gave me permission to take a slip, but I have yet to do it. Pete told me that a neighbor lady sent her husband to plant that rose in his mother’s yard because of its unusual color. It wasn’t easy to plant, he said. The wild roses are very “stickery.”

Whitetail buck

A few days ago, as I walked along the road, I heard a rustle in the field below and spied a buck looking at me. I stopped dead in my tracks, wondering what would happen next. Generally, I’m not afraid of the deer, but my impression was that I didn’t have the upper hand. He was not wary of me, and I could tell he thought I was the intruder. I managed to take a picture before he disappeared. I didn’t see where he went.

"King of the Hill"

And here’s a picture of our resident pheasant rooster, an escapee from someplace. He doesn’t have a mate, and Mike was afraid he would die of loneliness, but that didn’t happen. He looks nice and plump and enjoys sitting on the dirt hill in the grove. Mike dubbed him “King of the Hill.” KW

TO A WILD ROSE

Grandma Ina loved the wild roses that grow here and there at Gilbert and in many rural settings. I remember once when we were at the farm – probably not long after Ina's passing – my dad stopped the car and cut a wild rose blossom from a roadside bush. We then took it to her grave. Actually, I think the wild roses are a recognized problem now – growing so prolifically as to be a nuisance. We have a wild rose bramble bush behind the house at the farm – so overgrown that it really doesn't bloom well, but it's so thorny that we don't want to prune it. The hummingbirds frequent the small blossoms for nectar and the bush harbors the occasional bunny and who knows what else.

At first I didn't pay too much attention to the odds and ends of dishes leftover from Ina's housekeeping days. They seemed like old things, broken sets, perhaps antiques that shouldn't be used. But as I began to separate the dishes and ponder the patterns, I appreciated them more. There are creamy white plates with gold edges, several different styles of plates with shocks of wheat across them, and then the wild rose pattern with the name of the Homer Laughlin Company on the back. Writing to my dad after Christmas 1936, Ina says, "Shirley gave us a set of pretty plates in wild rose design and Shirley Jean gave us a sugar and creamer to match. I already had cups and saucers, platter and bowls in that design so feel pretty well fixed now for dishes."

My research indicates that the Homer Laughlin Company produced several sets of dishes called "Wild Rose." One was a blue design on white, of all things, and was produced as a cereal box "prize" or premium, probably for Quaker Oats. Plates, cups, saucers came with the oatmeal while extra pieces could be ordered by saving points coupons off the label. This is not Ina's pattern. Another pattern is called "Virginia Wild Rose," and is altogether quite dressy – very nice, I think. But this is not Ina's pattern either.

Ina's pattern, pictured above, was developed by the company in the 1930s. Though I did not inventory the pieces, the platter and an oval vegetable bowl are there, maybe four plates and one cup and saucer. I have thought of hanging the plates on the wall in the kitchen, but I guess I'm undecided about that. I've even thought that I might make it my quest to seek out the occasional piece at antique stores or maybe online. It's fun to have a quest.

[The placesetting shown is from Ina's "Wild Rose" collection by Homer Laughlin. The second photo is a blossom on the bramble bush behind the farmhouse. And the final photo I took at our neighbor's house. This rose is a deeper shade than ours. As you can see, the blooms are fading on both bushes.]

We came back to town this morning. It's hot -- perhaps the hottest day of the season so far -- 99 degrees as I write this. Mike will devote the next few days to getting ready for Jack's visit. We will pick him up at the airport in Spokane on Tuesday; on Wednesday Jack and Grandpa Mike will go camping on the St. Joe. KW