So Many Roses!

There are lots of roses in this photo.  Can you find them all?

Spring Is Coming!

Spring Has Sprung!

My sunny courtyard . . 

To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses by Keats

As late I rambled in the happy fields,

What time the skylark shakes the tremulous dew

From his lush clover covert;--when anew

Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields:

I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields,

A fresh-blown musk-rose; 'twas the first that threw

Its sweets upon the summer; graceful it grew

As is the wand that Queen Titania wields.

And, as I feasted on its fragrancy,

I thought the garden rose it far excelled:

But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me

My sense with their deliciousness was spelled:

Soft voices had they, that with tender plea

Whispered of peace, and truth and friendliness

unquelled.

John Keats

New Dawn Climbing Rose

The New Dawn climber is one of my favorites and well worth the work and the wait (as it blooms really only once a year). 

French Pots de Creme--lovely!

So Dreaming of Spring . . .

I can't wait until it is time to set up the outdoor bed and snooze among the roses.

Roses and Caterpillars

A rose, as fair as ever saw the north,

Grew in a little garden all alone;

A sweeter flower did nature ne'er put forth,

Nor fairer garden yet was never known.

The maidens danced about it morn and noon,

And learned bards of it their ditties made;

The nimble fairies by the pale-faced moon

Watered the root and kissed her pretty shade.

But well-a-day!--the gardener careless grew;

The maids and fairies both were kept away,

And in a drought the caterpillars threw

Themselves upon the bud and every spray.

God shield the stock! If Heaven send no supplies,

The fairest blossom of the garden dies.

William Browne

Fight the Winter Blues with Beautiful Pink Floral Fabrics

Once fall arrives, I put away all the pink and rose filled fabrics until it's time to put away the Christmas decorations.  Then I bring out all of these luscious fabrics again and it helps to chase away the winter blues.

Life is a Piece of Cake

At least it is, when it looks this scrumptious!  (This is super healthy, by virtue of being fake!)

Roses With A Meaning

Read in these roses the sad story

Of my hard fate and your own glory.

In the white you may discover

The paleness of a fainting lover;

In the red the flames still feeding

On my heart, with fresh wounds bleeding,

The white will tell you how I languish,

And the red express my anguish;

The white my innocence displaying,

The red my martyrdom betraying,

The frowns that on your brow resided

Have those roses thus divided.

Oh! let your smiles but clear the weather,

And they they both shall grow together.

Thomas Carew