Tag: rose

Inspiration

The valiant yellow rose on my daily walk. September 2025.

My daily walks haven’t been very “daily” since we returned from our Rhine River cruise. Today a familiar friend caught my eye. For the several years now when I’ve been walking regularly, a forlorn yellow rose has bloomed where it’s been planted next to a mailbox. Every year it shows little foliage, yet it always has one beautiful yellow blossom. I don’t recall ever seeing more than one at a time. I don’t know if someone strips the leaves purposefully, if deer or something else eat the leaves, or if this just represents the nature of this variety of rose. I do know, however, that it seems almost defiant to me to bloom that lustily when surrounded by bare, thorny stalks.

Even though we may be mostly thorns and difficult to handle, remember to blossom at least once today.

On this day…

One of the few things I miss about participating in the Facebook platform is On This Day, where the app would push up photos and posts you had ‘published’ in the past. The photos were a nice blast from the recent past. Unfortunately, they encouraged participants to repost much like the boorish cocktail party guest who wanders from group to group telling the same overly-extended anecdote which bores each group equally.

But y’all haven’t seen these, I think… (photos are from any June 4 through June 6)

The last of the roses. Choked out by invasives and my indifference, they haven’t appeared since. June 2021.
Some red lilies ready to bloom. Frustratingly, they disappeared only for one to appear a year or two later in the midst of a garden nightmare. I blame squirrels. June 2020.
These two white lilies bloomed for three or four years, through the date of this photo. After that they disappeared, but behind this location the RED lily suddenly appeared. Squirrel atonement? June 2020.
Houston, my second time to work at the same client. It’s a flat landscape. The sun sets and everything wallows in a beautiful light. Taken from my hotel window. June 2019.

And on and on they go… I cannot tarry or I will post all night. Each day brings a look at the past five years of retirement, the previous eight years of consultant work, and the mundane world of “home weekends/corporate trenches” that was my world before.