Tag Archives: roses

Roses on My Path – salmon, not misty

humor, music, nature, poetry

salmon pointy petal cropI was sitting on the couch this morning, my head laid back with hot compresses on my eyes. I do this once or twice a day as part of a regimen to treat dry eyes. I had just mentioned to Mr. Glad that I was going over to church soon to deadhead the roses.

That made him think to tell me that the Sonny Criss CD he is expecting in the mail any day, which he ordered just to get one song from it, includes a rendition of “Misty Roses.”

“You know the Tim Hardin song, he asked, that goes, ‘You look to me like misty roses…’?”

“Is that because he needs glasses?” I wondered aloud. “No, I don’t remember it.” Then my music man played it for me off the Internet, while I listened from the couch in the other room.

Though the lines were vague and odd, I listened silently and attentively, until the singer crooned, “Flowers often cry
But too late to find
That their beauty has been lost
With their peace of mind….”

And then I laughed uncontrollably for a long time. Here are the words of the whole song. Probably many of you know this song, and if you love it, forgive me. I am willing to attribute something like feelings to plants, but the ideas in these lyrics, well, they just don’t sound like the roses I know.

Misty Roses

You look to me like misty roses
Too soft to touch
But too lovely to leave alone
If I could be like misty roses
I’d love you much
You’re too lovely to leave alone
Flowers often cry
But too late to find
That their beauty has been lost
With their peace of mind
You look to me like love forever
Too good to last
But too lovely not to try
If I believe in love forever
I’d forget the past
You’re too lovely
Not to try

It’s surprising to me how many artists have sung these words over the years. If anyone sang them to me I would think he must be drunk. I guess I have a perspective on roses and a love for the English language that prevent me from appreciating these sentiments expressed in this way. But I do appreciate a good laugh early in the morning.

Here is a rose I encountered on my neighborhood walks. Look at those pointy petals….To my mind it has nothing to do with the song above. But it is lovely.

salmon pointy petal cluster

Roses on My Path – sunset colors

nature

orange to pink bush

I went out before dawn, and my rose tour was slightly extended by some wispy clouds that even after sunrise kept the light from being too bright.

My favorite of the morninorange to pink w spotsg’s finds might be this bush. The buds are orange, and the open flowers start out orange and fade to a lovely pink blend.

This one at left when fully open still kept a couple of darker splotches like smears of lipstick.

All these warm hues made for quite a glowing bush, as busy and bright as the sun.

orange to pink duo

Roses on My Path – single red bush x 2 +1

nature

red focal pt P1090839

Red isn’t high on my list of favorite rose colors, but I have to admire the way a single red rosebush makes these front yards very classy.

It didn’t matter that the flowers on the corner above were not in good shape, as I discovered when I came in for a closer shot. As seen from the street driving by, or walking on the other side, the total effect was quite cheering.

red focal pt P1090856crp

Before I got around to putting up my reds, Kate sent me a picture taken of the front door of her building. It’s cheating, I know, to include it, because this rose is growing in Washington DC, 3,000 miles and a cultural distance from my neighborhood, but it’s such a perfect example of how a red rose can be shown to its best advantage while beautifying its whole environment. If I encountered more settings like this red would move up closer to the top of my list.

Kate's roses May 2014

Roses on My Path – flaming white

art, nature, quotes, ,

I’ll let G.K. Chesterton’s comments accompany this rose
that was on my path through the neighborhood:

rose white floribunda em av 2

“White is a colour. It is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black. When, so to speak, your pencil grows red-hot, it draws roses; when it grows white-hot, it draws stars.

“And one of the two or three defiant verities of the best religious morality, of real Christianity, for example, is exactly this same thing; the chief assertion of religious morality is that white is a colour. Virtue is not the absence of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell. Mercy does not mean not being cruel or sparing people revenge or punishment; it means a plain and positive thing like the sun, which one has either seen or not seen. Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

“In a word, God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.”

-G.K. Chesterton, “A Piece of Chalk,” in Tremendous Trifles

rose white floribunda em av 1crp