rose –

Pink

August 2, 2019 by Melodye Shore

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.–Audrey Hepburn

Today’s theme for #AugustBreak2019 is PINK. Susannah Conway founded this event several years ago; and while I’ve always enjoyed the artistic challenge, I love best that when I scroll through my social media feeds, I’m meeting up with creatives who, like me, are exploring ideas and techniques that move them past their comfort zones. Not to mention, it’s so much fun to peer through their windows on the world!

Here’s the deets…wanna join us? Just create a photographic image that somehow illustrates the theme of the day, and then share it on your favorite social media networks. Easy-peasy. No need to use a high-end camera–a cell phone snap is totally fine! Simple or abstract, fancy or straightforward…you get to translate the daily prompt however you want. It’s group play, but even better, because you get to make up your own rules!

Nevertheless, she persisted

January 16, 2019 by Melodye Shore

I’ve coddled two climbing roses for almost 5 years, now, and have been rewarded with about as many blooms. I almost gave up on them, truth be told, because they don’t didn’t seem all that happy in my backyard. But they’re finally taking off: arching outward and growing taller. We’re growing on each other, you might say. Behold the Zephirine Drouhin–a bright spot of color in the pelting rain.

Pruning back roses and putting down roots

January 9, 2018 by Melodye Shore

I pruned my rose bushes this weekend, and stripped them bare. They look so vulnerable now, and I’m remembering with wistfulness their fragrant beauty.

It’s an act of faith, this paring back. But it promotes deeper roots, and encourages branching.

It also speaks to me of possibilities. And you know what that means: a trip to the garden nursery!

Meet Oprah’s Legend, the newest resident of Chez Shore. For now, she’s a just a rootball with a few thorny canes…

Bareroot rose in soil

fresh from a leisurely soak in epsom salts, bare roots exposed.

Bareroot rose, soaking in epsom salts

Over the next few months, she’ll plant herself deep in the earth. In due time, she’ll become a leafy beauty. When she reaches her full potential, she’ll be a sweet-fragranced, “ruffled whopper of a show-stopper” according to the grower, with epic 8″ blooms and “petals as big as a child’s palm.” That’s not just catalog hyperbole, mind you. A trustworthy gardener confirmed it for me.

Courtesy of Weeks Growers

Hurry up, spring! This, I’ve gotta see.

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