The picture is of my arm after battling a rose bush.  If I had known how vicious the thing was, I would have put on those big, heavy gloves people use to throw wood in the wood stove.

This first blow caught me off guard, a big thorn deep in my arm (the biggest bruise).  That one had to be seen to, a good cleaning and Neosporin and a band-aid.  Then it was back to the battle.  I was going to get that sucker in the ground.

Last year it was in a pot in the backyard, but this year, after wintering in the garage, it was looking pretty ragged, so I decided it needed to go out front with the other two bushes.  Only it didn’t want to go.  Apparently it had become rather attached to its little pot and wanted to stay there.  Every time I moved I was getting jabbed with a thorn.  And not just jabbed, stabbed is more the word.  Stabbed with the blade left in my arm.  Hurt like the dickens!!  I had to pull them out.  Big, nasty thorns.

But… the bush is in the ground.  And alive.  For now.  I may have won the skirmish, but we’ll see if I win the war.  Hopefully, it lives.

And just for the heck of it, I took some pics of my flowers.  They are just so pretty right now.