Bursts of Beauty

We purchased our "town" house in Hot Springs a year after we lost our country home in the Alabaugh wildfire. It was in early September and the large lot, with several small gardens in the front and side, and a large one in the back yard, gave little indication of the flowers that lay dormant, waiting their turns to blossom the following spring. We could see the flowerless lilac and rose bushes, but we were clueless as to the rainbow of colors that awaited us.

In March the following spring the daffodils emerged and re-emerged through the snow, followed by a succession of flowers, one after another, with several blossoming simultaneously. Throughout May, June and July we were bombarded with a variety of blooms...purple, orange, red, yellow. They grew in the front and side yards, followed by the garden in the back. The roses bloomed in June, lasting through part of July. The yellow, then the pink and the white. The red in the back were barely holding their own when the tea roses outside the front window began to open. They crawled up the trellises and the wire fencing enclosure.

This year we had more spring rains than in the past five years. The roses have performed with the most showy display we have ever seen. As they were dwindling, our deep pink tea roses burst forth...so full that many, weighted down, hang over the fence. They are absolutely gorgeous. They take my breath away!

Each day Bob quietly places fresh flowers at our table. During each meal I enjoy the delicate samplings of  the beauty of the blossoms glowing outside.

For the past few weeks I spend more time than usual looking out of our front window. I try to immerse myself in the glory of the tea-rose spectacle. Each time I drive by our house I soak in their beauty, in an attempt to engrave their memory, knowing full well that they, too, in their time, will fade for the year, waiting for the rains and sun of next summer.