The extra warm weather has inspired the rose bushes to explode with color.
It's a frenzy of blooming madness.
Time to collect them, dry them, make rose water and...
Tie them up in bundles to use later.
I have squeezed 3 blog posts worth of photos here to share today.
So many pics, here we go...
Rose season brings the crazy rose lady out in me.
Mostly because I can't stand to see any go to waste.
I love to hang them to dry because they are so pretty under bell jars and in curio cabinets year round.
Our garden has been such a haven whilst we have both been sick.
And the warmth, oh such nice warmth.
When it gets very warm, you have to move fast so the roses are not so spent that they will fall apart when they dry.
But you also want a chance to enjoy them.
Luckily, pruning is your friend, and will only yield a boat load more.
Right before I got really sick, I went around the garden and collected a large tin of all colors of roses.
They were breathtaking.
I am convinced that roses are the best thing for my garden.
After years of trying every sort of plant, I have come to believe that the rose bushes are the most forgiving, and withstand the most.
The lavender ones are incredibly fragrant.
Breezes and petals...
I racked my brain trying to think if there was anyone I could deliver these too.
As I felt rather greedy keeping them all for myself.
I did enjoy them so.
And there are still oodles more today.
The days have been so beautiful and healing.
With that magical spring light in the late afternoon covering everything in a dusty romantic haze.
Feels almost like a dreamy mirage.
I realized I didn't have it in me to do all the pruning because of my cold, so I got some help from Mister Lovee when the neon coral roses exploded...
Yesterday afternoon felt quite like the secret garden...
I was snapping photos, when all of a sudden, a little fur turned up :)
Anyone up for a game of try to take the bear away from me?
I love the shady afternoons in our front garden.
Such a nice place to be at 6 p.m.
The pups come back to life after sleeping the warm day away...
Hanging around in their garden.
Mister Lovee was a great help...
Pruning and hauling away.
Taking a break...
Being patient as I collected almost all the flowers he was pruning off the bush so tall.
Bundling.
These neon coral roses turn the most beautiful berry pink to red when they dry.
I collected ever so many...
Then I picked that huge bunch up in my arms, as Mister Lovee laughed at my antics.
With the fake Miss America wave :)
We stood under the arbor, and I tossed petals up in the air around us.
I reminded him how, the first time I ever came here 12 years ago, happened to be around this time.
Late April.
I was bewitched by these very roses, which he let me collect in a bug bucket.
I then made paths of petals everywhere.
I thought this was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been.
Secluded, birds chirping madly, beautiful, simple, humble, lovely.
I remember feeling so very young and free and quite fairy like.
My heart full.
Then we both coughed and coughed (sicklings), and teared up over the memories.
I never left.
Who would have thought?
That this would be my sanctuary for good?
Mister Lovee would always say, you belong here.
You belong here.
I did.
I do.
It was a feeling.
A knowing.
I had never felt more at home anywhere in my whole life.
This little void I carried around with me for as long as I could remember being alive, filled up when I found my way here.
To Mister Lovee and this place.
Over the years, I have added dozens more rose bushes.
And loved every minute of my time at this little pad of earth in the desert mountains.
Collecting and drying roses...
Season after season after seaon...
With many more to come.
I hope.
:)
We are in the lasts of our colds, yay!
Happy Happy Spring!
Is it warming up where you are?
