". . . in the spring becomes the rose."

Most folks know that Amanda McBroome wrote this song (The Rose), and as the month of April begins, struggling to bring spring — while conflict and strife seem to reign throughout the world — I pray her song provides the hope and promise that McBroome intended as she wrote The Rose.  And no, she is not upset that Bette Midler gets most of the "credit" for the song, instead she says, "I would not have written this song if it had not been for Bette Midler." 


Meanwhile, since my garden (including my rose), still sleeps in its burlap wrapped* state (which I described in a previous post), and since it appears to have endured having had mountains of snow fall on it all winter while I continue to struggle with personal "setbacks," (as perhaps you do as well, dear reader), today I will share McBroome's consolation: "just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose.

In the spring, becomes the geranium....

When I am in my garden on a cold January day and notice few geraniums who are poking their heads through the mulch (as that flower type is doing in the photo directly above) that was put there to protect them during a cold winter days, I think of some lines from a The Rose, a song written by Amanda McBroome. 

Her song was made popular by Bette Midler and the lyrics I'm thinking of go like this, "...just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose."

In this instance, my geraniums weren't lying beneath the bitter snow (although they were doing that last month), they are lying beneath layers of mulch put in their container when iI did my annual garden winterizing ritual.

Oh, the weather outside's been frightful! (BUT....)

The image atop this entry was taken by Juan V when he was here eleven days ago on May 9th, on his third visit for the 2017 growing season. I featured it in an entry on TLLG's FB page at that time; and I discussed certain attributes of the H.F. Young Clematis vine. This particular vine climbs up a pole which in the northwest corner of my rooftop garden. It produces strikingly beautiful purple flowers which can be seen in Juan's image. Moreover, I have a number of close-ups of this vine's blooms within my May 9th entry here on Blogger. Unfortunately, only four days after Juan worked with me in my garden, and after my publishing posts re the flowers of my H.F. Young clematis, a Nor'Easter struck NYC and surrounding areas.

Last Saturday, May 13th 2016, "a moisture-packed coastal storm that hit the New Jersey region on Saturday dumped almost a month's worth of rain in just one day in parts of the area." I've been try to find out how much rain fell in the NYC area.