Good things only #3 / sevenling (roses)

Finally the teaching-year is done for me, with just graduation to go next week.   So I’m hoping to find more time for reading and writing now.

It’s been a challenging year, and the last few months in particular have been difficult. So here is a floral pick-me-up, for myself and anyone else who needs to stop and smell the roses.

1.  The lilies are just starting to bloom! First the Asiatics, but soon the Orientals and trumpets will be blooming too!

2. Hearts-ease – also known as Johnny-jump-ups or violas – are in bloom in all sorts of unexpected places. These first snuck into my garden ten years ago as stow-aways in a pot of something else, and they’ve spread to come up year after year in pots and bathtubs and garden beds.

…and there were lilies: VI Belladonna

The last in the “and there were lilies series” – the epilogue to last year’s “jubilate lilium“.
I’ve never had much luck with the classic pink “naked lady” lily, but the white one could be a bridal bouquet all on it’s own.

 

Summer’s parting gift –
a bouquet tossed over her
shoulder as she leaves.

…and there were lilies: V. Christmas

A haibun this time (prose + haiku), but no photo because I don’t grow this type of lily. They’re a formosan lily or Taiwan lily, but we’ve always just called them Christmas lilies because they bloom around Christmas all along the coastal roads of NSW. 

…and there were lilies: IV. choir

A choir of colour,
they raise their heads and open
their mouths to shout out
a hallelujah chorus
of silent, deafening joy.

…and there were lilies: III. Lady Alice

Lady Alice has recurved or reflexed petals, like the tigers. But is too refined to be in the same tub, and would never admit to being closely related to them. 

Lady Alice bobs
a curtsey to the breeze, and
turns her petals up –
a reflex she cannot help
when embarrassed by the bees.

This series of “…and there were lilies” poems is an epilogue to “jubilate lilium (let there be lilies”). 

…and there were lilies: II. Anastacia

In the same bathtub as the tigers, are some oriental lilies, including Anastacia. Anastacia has a lovely scent, very sweet, and beautiful pink blush and freckles. But she seemed a bit over-awed by the tigers, so I brought her inside for safety. 

So pretty in pink,
Anastacia cowers from
the grinning tigers,
orange against jungle green,
recurving talons readied.

…and there were lilies: I. tigers

Last year I put in lots of lily bulbs, and offered up a prayer on planting them. They have flowered spectacularly, and the possums have not found them (although the pig ate a few). Beginning at the end with my favourites, the tigers:

 

Burning tigers smile
and nod their heads, approving
of the summer rain.

Jubilate lilium

Let there be lilies