Still looks good in a picture with a cat.

 

Okay, enough about cats.  Do I hear a collective sigh of relief?

I’ve been working on Rose Garden.  I was working on the first version while tired and sick, and it came out awful. Put it away to look at later, maybe it would look better.  No, after time, it still looks awful.

So, I’ve started a new one.  I like it better than the first one, but it surprises me how it’s coming out.  How can that happen?  After all, I’m the one drawing it.

Drawing roses makes me start thinking about roses.  Some flowers are beautiful, but have no scent.  Some flowers, like honeysuckle, smell divine, but look like scraggly little waifs.

No so the rose.  It’s both gorgeous to the eyes, and the olfactory organs.

Its strength amazes me.  It grows and spreads easily, often crowding out other plants around it.  Its thorns protect it.

They start blooming in the early summer and keep going through fall.  In one case, on a fairly warm December 1, I found one blooming as if it were June.

So, though I love other flowers as well…….

Just give me a rose, dammit!  Give me a rose.