Joy: The Last Rose of Winter


Last week was winter in Redlands, CA (which is 1-3 hours east of LA, depending on traffic). Gray, cold and RAINY! Although we were lucky to have no danger of mudslides, etc. it was no fun!. When I moved here 5 and a half years ago, I laughed at those people who complained about it being freezing cold – hah! What do THEY know of cold? Now…I still feel this way, and love cool weather, because so much of the year is so HOT here…but, last dreary week was cold and dreary! Saturday morning it cleared up, though, and I was able to grab my camera and snap a picture or two of the last rose of winter:

Last-rose-of-summer-2

Here in Redlands, our roses never really die back. Although my rose garden doesn’t look like this right now, they have plenty of leafy green growth. There are other roses still on the bush, but this one was the most awesome one. Left to their own accord, the roses would keep growing and growing – so they need to be pruned. Hubby will cut them all back in the next week or 2 until they’re just a bunch of sticks. The roses put out all sorts of new growth and in 2 months, we’ll have new roses.

It’s been a long couple of weeks, getting back in the groove of work/school. That week of rain was an extra strain on the day to day getting out of the house, so it was great to see the sky again this weekend. I stepped out in the middle of my street between cars and snapped a couple of pix of the mountains, all covered in snow:

Last-rose-of-summer-3Although it doesn’t look like much, on this picture, as I drive around town everyday, I’m surrounded by beautiful mountains (WHEN I can see them). I just need to remember to LOOK at them when I SEE them.

Don’t look now folks, but I’ve just reinvented the phrase “to stop and smell the roses”…what’s part of YOUR day you need a reminder to LOOK at?

Last-rose-of-summer

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5 Responses

  1. Gorgeous! I have been lucky today to be passing by the windows just in time to see the electric blue of an Eastern Bluebird out the front and a doe in her winter grey colors eating from the corn feeder in the back. Neither stayed long enough to capture a picture but it made me smile to see the wildlife. It is a good reminder to “stop and smell the roses” Thanks 🙂

  2. We are surrounded by water (the Narragansett Bay) and I often forget about its beauty. It is so easy to take our surroundings for granted. Today, the sun came out and it was gorgeous which made noticing a lot easier.

    The rose is beautiful (love the yellow inside the red). We certainly do not have that coloring right now on the East Coast. Thank you for for sharing your rose with us. I can “virtually” smell it!