Arriving home after two weeks spent working on the cabin

we found the garden had gone on without us. I have as you may

guess a thing for roses. I was raised in Windsor ON sometimes

called the City of Roses and my father raised them. I now

have between 25-30 depending on the winter and various sales.

I have a few delicate roses David Austins, Gallicas

( they rarely bloom) and a couple Hybrid teas. Mostly

now I raise Parkland and Explorer roses that are hardy

to our area.

Morden Blush

Morden Blush (detail)

To the right William Baffin and Morden Snowbeauty

William Baffin and Morden Snowbeauty (detail)

"Attar of Nishapur gazed on a rose,

addressing it in words which had no sound,

as one who thinks rather than one who prays:

‘Your fragile globe is in my hand; and time

is bending both of us, both unaware,

this afternoon, in a forgotten garden.

Your brittle shape is humid in the air.

The steady, tidal fullness of your fragrance

rises up to my old, declining face.

But I know you far longer than that child

who glimpsed you in the layers of a dream

or here, in this garden, once upon a morning."

                            The Unending Rose

                          To Susan Bombal

                                                          Jorge Luis Borges