The house in the roses

We were away travelling this past week.  The entire week I attended meetings, met new people and ate at some awesome restaurants, always yearning secretly for my favorite place in the entire world—home.  Then, the following morning after we came back, the first thing I did was to go out into the garden.  And what a breathtaking view, and what surprise waiting for me there... for the entire garden was in bloom!  

Every rose bush had come into flower; so many roses as I had never seen since we moved back, as if some angel had decided to come by and worked his magic all around just to amaze me.  How beautiful, and how plentiful had Nature rewarded me!

I made a huge bouquet with the Chicago Peace...

And brought it in!

On Monday, I removed the final lilies from the garden; droopy as they were, and unable to put forth a single flower throughout the summer, and which had become sort of an eyesore to me, and on Tuesday it was the Mexican Petunias around one of the fountains in the rose beds along the bedroom wall.  I love these little flowers, but they had become too rowdy and overgrown and had stopped blooming.  I also wanted to free up some space in that area and just let the roses be the focal point.  So that’s done.  

On Tuesday, I decided it was time to work on the roses that have become wild and, finally, mustering enough courage and the strength necessary to accomplish the job, I removed the first one.  This 13 year old rose was something else to dig, with roots almost with the width of a man’s neck—not exaggerating.  Roots had to be severed from the midsection, which means that part of it still remains in the grown and most probably the Dr. Huey part of it will resurface again.    

Our mornings and evenings are cold and swift, with beautiful sunny midafternoons. There is a magical type of a harmony everywhere I look, and the sky has a different luster to it.  Trees, in the distance against the greyish background of the mountains have acquired the colors of coriander, turmeric, pumpkins and crisp apples, and I almost bought the sweetest little kitten the other day.  Tillie was her name.