Smelling the Roses

   After a rather tough week at work, C and I were ready for some fun. We decided to spend the afternoon at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. We really should not have. The house is a mess. Laundry is piling up. We need to grocery shop and then prepare meals for the week. Our to-do lists are both pretty long.
   The housework can wait. The grocery shopping can be done later. Weather this good is not going to last. It was in the middle 60's cloudy and still. It was the perfect day to go to the Arboretum and get some fresh air. There are still plenty of plants in bloom. C packed his camera. Cloudy days are good for photography.
   We went to the farmer's market first. We needed some vegetables and C wanted to get some sweet corn. He is something of a connoisseur of corn. Now is the peak time for sweet corn in Minnesota. He has his favorite grower. We get a dozen ears every week. We eat some of it,give away some of it and cut the rest of it off the cob and freeze. It's really good for soups in the winter. Heavily laden with our purchases, we walked back to our car.
   The pan was to have breakfast,do a few things and then head out. Easier said than done. I had to follow up with two patients. I had trouble getting a hold of one of them because it kept trying to get me to set up a voicemail. Eventually we spoke and I answered his questions. The second one was a bit harder. I had been playing telephone tag with him for the past few days. I picked up the phone to call and got his wife. She took the number I was calling from and said she's have her husband call right away. I hung up the phone. What should I do next? I needed to get cleaned up, but I didn't want the man to call in the middle of that process.
   After waiting a few minutes I decided to get cleaned up. It didn't take me long. A few minutes after I had combed my hair and brushed my teeth the phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it was the man I wanted to talk to. I eagerly answered the phone. I did my follow up and told him I'd check back with him in the middle of the next week.
   Everything was done. We could head out. We got on the road. Our first stop was going to be to the Apple Barn for some fresh apples.  We were hoping to get a bag of the First Kiss apples. We had heard so much about them.
  When we got to the Apple Barn we learned that we had missed the First Kiss apples. Oh well.... There were plenty of others to choose from including a few that had not been named yet. We bought two bags. C  stowed them in the back of the car.
   The Arboretum was not far away.  We drove on the long driveway and over to the member's gate. C put the barcode of our membership card in the scanner and the gate swung open. We drove to the parking area and found a close spot.
   The art gallery inside the main building had farming pictures in it. I looked at a few while C was in the restroom. We went to the cafeteria and grabbed a bite of lunch. Our table was by the window so we could see outside. It was lovely. I couldn't wait to get outside.
   The gardens were lovely. The clouds made the multitude of blooming flowers seem brighter. The small stream bubbled cheerfully over the rocks.
   We finally made our way to the rose garden. There were flowers in almost every colour. Normally I would walk by them and admire them. This time I wanted to smell them. I went to each one taking a sniff being very careful to avoid the bees that were working hard to save up for the winter. Someting nice began to happen. Al the stress that I had been carrying throughout the day started to fade away. There were so many flowers to smell in all kinds of colours. I counted at least three lavender coloured roses. It was nice to see. Lavender is my favourite colour of rose. There used to be only one variety that colour. One of them had a wonderful scent.
   This was something we needed to do for a long time. We spent most of the summer running here and there without stopping. There was always something that needed to be done, now.  There was no time to stop and smell the roses.
   The moral of the story. There's never going to be time to stop and smell the roses, so we must make time to do so. It's well worth it.