Vestigia

 Canada's 150th on July 1st , 2017.  I found a poet I have never heard of.
 This is "Vestigia"  written by Canadian Poet Bliss Carman ( 1861-1929)
 winner of  the Robert Frost Medal. This poem was written in 1919, after a rejuvenating walk in nature . He sought God in the world around him, and was rewarded for his search.  This poem is printed in my favourite book, the 1948 Chicago  "1000 Beautiful Things" ( Best rummage sale find  ever)

 I took a day to search for God, and found Him not. 

 But as I trod by rocky ledge, through woods untamed,

 I saw His footprint in the sod.

 Then suddenly, all unaware, far off in the deep shadows, where a solitary hermit thrush sang through the holy twilight hush......

 I heard His voice upon the air.

 And even as I marvelled how God gives us Heaven here and now,
In a stir of wind that hardly shook the poplar leaves beside the brook....

 His Hand was light upon my brow.

  At last with evening as I turned Homeward, and thought what I had learned
And all that there was still to probe...

 I caught the Glory of His robe where the last fires of Sunset burned.

Back to the world with quickening start I looked and longed for any part 

 In making saving Beauty be.

 And from that kindling ecstasy..

I knew God dwelt within my Heart.

Photographs 2017    "Vestigia" by Bliss Carman (1861-1929) from "1000 Beautiful Things" 1948

New Roses. Old Roses.

"But friendship is the breathing rose,
                  with sweets in every fold." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

 The roses have gone crazy.  I replaced about 9 rose bushes and planted about 15 ( I think) Can't quite remember. Just kept planting . And wondering what would take. They're all blooming. They're all surviving.  Woo Hoo!

 "Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World! 
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled. 
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring 
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing "      .

                                                            -William Butler Yeats
 Biggest thing I changed was I actually fertilized all of the roses. Need to do it again about now, but so far they've been good. I'm not wild about fussing over roses.  So I kept it simple.

" Won't you come into the garden? 
 I would like my roses to see you."      Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  This is a new rose: Oklahoma. Dark Dark red. Big petals. 

 This is also new. Rainbow Sorbet.

 This is not a rose. This is Spencer. He sits and admires, when he visits. From his couch. Or his Pot. Or his chair. Notice, I said "his".....We have to share.He sits and watches me fiddle with the flowers.

 

"I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall".

- Eleanor Roosevelt.

New Black Bacarra this year. Other one was bashed by ice. I broke off a piece  that survived , stuck it back in the earth, and it came back. I'm so surprised!

 Climbing roses. Basically thornless. Make great bouquets. 

 To keep it simple I use water soluable fertilizer, Spray with Bobexx ( non toxic deer repellent) and Safer's Soap

 "A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring" -William Carlos Williams

   Another Kristin Rose    ( new)                                               Mr. Lincoln Rose (new)

                                                             Olahoma (new)
Peace Rose

     "When Love first came to Earth, the Spring spread rose-beds to receive Him" -Thomas Campbell

What a world we live in.....

 NATURE by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity, so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

 Nothing is cheap a coarse, neither dewdrops nor snowflakes. What a world we live in, where myriads of these little disks.....

 so beautiful to the most prying eyes, 

 are whirled down on every traveler's coat, 

 the observant  and the unobservant,

 on the restless squirrel's fur, on the far stretching fields and forest,

 the wooded dells  and mountaintops.

 Far, far away from the haunts of men, they roll down some slope,

 fall over and come to their bearings, 

 and melt or lose their beauty in the mass,

 ready anon to swell some little rill.....

 with their contribution and so,

 at last, the universal ocean from which they came.....

 2017. "Nature" an essay from H. D. Thoreau. (From 1000 Beautiful things. 1948)