Sunny Days and Roses

Finally!  We have some truly warm, sunny days!  It seems to me that winter lingered longer than usual this year, with so many gray and rainy and cold days that I began to wonder if we would ever see the sun again!  Today had all the qualities of late spring/early summer:  heat, light breeze and lots of sunshine.  It made me want to think about potting plants, buying and placing lawn furniture on my patio, maybe buying a bird bath, hanging the bird feeders, etc.  I know that by August I will be fussing about the heat and wishing for some of those cooler days and maybe even for the rainy ones, but right now, I'll take the sunshine!

In addition to the summer-like weather, my roses are blooming.  The "knock out" roses are hanging full of red blooms, and will, hopefully, bloom until almost frost in the fall.  But the one I am excited about is the antique rose, rooted from the original plant that was at my grandmother's house.  My mother brought the cutting to me as a housewarming gift when I moved into this house.  I worried all winter that I would kill it, but it is full of  buds and bright pinkish red blooms.  How exciting to see a plant that goes back a couple of generations blooming again.  Just one more example of the circle of life, I guess!  I remember seeing that rose bush as a child (and I remember the vast number of thorns on it, too), and to see it blooming in my yard is truly special.  Grandma's house no longer exists, but her rose bush lives on! 

I was thinking with some disappointment again this spring of the tulips in the flower bed in Greenville (the bulbs were planted by my husband in the fall before he got sick) - those tulips bloomed every spring and always cheered me up.  It was almost like he was telling me "hi" every time I saw the colorful display.  I asked someone in Greenville the other day if they had noticed if they were blooming, but they had not seen any color so maybe they hadn't.  By now they should have been dug up, split, replanted, etc., so they may have suffered. 

So, in the absence of the tulips, it is a real joy to see Grandma's rose blooming in the glorious sunshine!