“The RoseBouquet”

Last week one evening, after doing dishes, I came back in from tossing the compost on the garden (we let it freeze and disintegrate in the spring, and then Dad rotor tills it into the soil). and I said to Dad, who was sitting in his recliner, “You know, next summer I’m going to persist in bringing up and whining for a yard light at the back of the house to shine into the garden. Do you think it will help?”

Dad didn’t say a word.

Monday noon, when I had lunch on the table, I went looking to call Dad. Here he was, up on a ladder, attaching an electric cable and a light socket up above the sunroom window. Ah-ha! So hinting works!

I know he’s a self-taught electrician and has wired various things but this was a lovely surprise.

The first bulb he put in, wasn’t very bright. With my poor eyesight I could hardly make out the garden path that evening. So the next day he found and put in a really bright one. Now I can see clear up to the back alley!

The colder weather keeps Dad in more now. He caught up with his reading, so last week he also took up knitting again. He announced that his socks were getting thin, and he figured as he ought to make a new pair.

So he got out his needles and began knitting circles until he reached a point on the first sock that he saw he would need more yarn, and more needles. When I’d checked through all mom’s needles and couldn’t come up with the particular size he wanted, I phoned the thrift store in Rosthern, and they had some. Dad drove off to get them.

When he ran out of yarn, Dad went downstairs to his workshop, set up his spinning wheel and he spun more yarn to finish his socks.

Yep, Dad is a handy man.