Into the Rose Garden

It's that time of year again. The Rose Garden is in full bloom. Just have a look at some of these beauties.

There was no pruning done this year before the rose bushes started to get going. So the bushes were allowed to grow at their whim and put out a wonderful display. Although this created a mess of branches and runners going every-which-way, it made the garden more natural and honestly, just a lovely riot of untamed colour. 

The bushes will be cut back once they have finished their initial blooming, which will most likely cause them to put forth another growth spurt and more blooms later in the summer. Which is not a bad thing. 
 

First up is our Peace Rose. It's a gorgeous salmon or peach colour that becomes more yellow in the center as it opens up. 

This one starts out dark and then fades to a more delicate pink as it fully opens. It has the most wonderful scent as well.

This is one of the yearly favourites, called "Rio Samba". It has been in the garden for a number of years and each year it puts forth a beautiful display. It doesn't have much of a scent, but it makes up for it in striking patterns and strong stems. And large thorns.

Here is the same "Rio Samba" once it has fully opened. 

This beautifully full rose is a David Austin variety. David Austin roses are known for their fullness, or "double rose" as they often have twice the petal count as other rose types. 

Another David Austin rose; this time in peach (and it the rain). 

This pink stipes-and-speckles rose has the sweetest, almost innocent scent. It has been in the garden for as long as I can remember (which is a fairly long time). We have dubbed it the Candy Cane rose because of it's stripes. It blooms twice; once in late May and then again towards the end of August. It has clusters of flowers that don't last as long as the other roses in the garden, but it makes up for in the number of blooms it puts forth. It's probably one of my favourites in the garden. 

This dark rose is a new addition to the Rose Garden this year. I took Dad to the garden center to pick out a Father's Day gift. He saw this and immediately put it in our shopping cart. It's called "Purple Tiger". It took to it's new home just fine and put out a beautiful display of blooms despite being replanted in mid-June.

This is just a small sample of the roses in bloom this year in the Rose Garden. The weather has been so warm the past week that most of time I am just focusing on staying cool and keeping hydrated. Hope you enjoyed this short trip into the Rose Garden.

A Year of Pretty - December 05, 2014

Today's Pretty Post is this montage of silver tones coffee table accessories, found on Pinterest via tumblr. 

I appreciate how the cable knit pattern on the throw pillow and blanket is reflected in the crocheted candle cozies on the silver platter, though I'm not sure if a wool candle cozy is the safest idea for something that's a lit flame. Maybe they just look like they are made from wool but are really resin or some other non-flammable material.

I really like coffee table vignettes like this that tell a little story. I have one going on my coffee table that I keep adding to. Mine is made up of little mementos from places I have travelled. There is the Eiffel Tower I got on my first trip to Paris, a Deft porcelain shoe from my first visit to The Netherlands, shells from a beach where I swam with dolphins in Portugal, and my most recent addition: an alabaster leaning tower from Pisa. 

And of course; candles. Lots and lots of candles.

Make Your Own Occasions

Today is Monday. I’m going to wear a dress.

In itself, this is not an earth shattering concept. But let me explain a bit about how it comes about.

The other night, I was having a deeply philosophical conversation (okay, a “three glasses of wine in” conversation) with my dear friend A. I was remarking on the number of Pinterest posts of dresses, shoes, jewelry etc. that posters had commented “Beautiful. Wish I had somewhere to wear this”, or “I’d never have an occasion to wear this.”

Two years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; both breasts. At the same time, she was on the very top of the kidney transplant waiting list (one is not supposed to know they are at the top, but the nurses who care for my mom? . . . . well, she’s a favourite of theirs). Transplants are not given to people with cancer because the anti-rejection drugs taken after the transplant will speed up the production of cancerous cells if cancerous cells are indeed in the person’s body. So this new diagnosis after already waiting eight years for a kidney was an extremely harsh blow. My mom would have to be taken off the transplant list, fight the cancer, win against cancer and then go back onto the transplant list.

My mother; a fortitude of strength, made an instantaneous decision. Double mastectomy.  She said “I’m in my 60’s. I’m not having any more kids. My husband loves me . . . what do I need them for? I just need to get on with it, with living.”

Out came the breasts. She started chemotherapy. Her hair started to come out. We shaved her head. We cried. We bought beautiful scarves and dressed them up with brooches. My mother can rock a turban like nobody’s business.

And we started using the good china. For breakfast.  For meatloaf on a Tuesday night. For any occasion we felt like it. Because we had come face to face with the reality that life can quickly change directions on you and that there could come a day when we would no longer have occasions to celebrate.

So we MADE the occasions. And this is life. It’s not entirely about the occasions that are presented to you. Often it is about the occasions you create for yourself.

Today, my mom is a Silver Fox. She has a beautiful head of silver hair. We have 14 more months of testing to make sure she is cancer-cell-free. Then she goes back to the top of the wait list. In the meantime, we enjoy life.

Today, on a Monday, I’m going to wear a dress. I’m going to do my hair and make-up and then get on the skytrain and go to work. I will undoubtedly be the most elegantly dressed person riding public transit. But it doesn’t matter. It’s not important that people wonder why I’m dressed up. Let them wonder. Let them think I have some special occasion that I’m off to. 

The truth is I’m off to the most important occasion in life: life itself.

A Pocket Full of Memories

Today I put on a coat that I hadn’t worn in awhile. Since January.  Thursday, January 13^th to be exact. How do I know this? The contents in the pockets.

Have you ever put on a coat or a jacket that you haven’t worn in quite awhile and discovered forgotten treasures in the pockets? Money maybe, a receipt from the dry cleaners, a candy from that restaurant you went to on your birthday.

The contents forgotten in a pocket often bring back sharp memories of how they got there. Take for example the items in my coat pocket.  A favorite hair clip that I had decided was gone forever. Did I remember that I had put it in my pocket back then? No. But today when I found it I remember clear as day that I wore it to the opera. Lucia di Lammermoor to be exact.

A lip balm. I’m always losing lip balms. And eventually, as is the case with today’s discovery . . . I find them again.

But the most poignant treasure was a little slip of paper with a name, a location time, and a number.  “So-and-so – Starbuck’s – 5:30 – 555-555-1234”. Written hastily in red and torn off a notepad.  And for a moment a hundred memories came rushing back. And it made me smile a little to myself.  The journey I have taken since that little piece of paper. The lessons I had to learn, what the heartache needed to teach me; the stronger person I am today.  Ah, if only I had known then what I know now.

I put the note back in the pocket. I may need to remind myself again one day.