La Rose et La Peinture

Isn't it amazing how things said (or written) in a foreign tongue sound so much better than in the language you normally use. I am lucky in that I have two languages at my disposal in which I'm completely fluent but I still love to use French or Italian in which I can made myself understood, just for the romance of it. They remain exotic to my ear.

Anyway, today was dedicated to more rose photography and also to painting 12 9 x 12" envelopes for yet another journal making class I couldn't resist. I haven't looked at all the videos yet and will show you pictures of the finished book in the future but one of the starting points is that the envelopes will become the signatures. As it's always much better not to start with a white page they had to be coloured and I used my Gelli plate to add paint to both sides. Here they are hanging to dry on the clothes line in that fabulous sunshine!

That gave me time to grab the camera and return to photographing the roses in our garden. Above Gardenia who is the Miss Havisham of the rose world. Just look at the tattered remains of her wedding dress! She's a very untidy girl but her scent is delicious and reminiscent, you guessed it, of gardenias! We have several bushes of her as she is very easy to propagate but thought we had lost the one near the pergola during the winter. Fortunately she has returned!

Zephirine Drouhin is a very reliable rose who despite suffering rust returns year after year with her sweet aroma and beautiful pink colour.

 Sally Holmes is a prolific flowerer with single petals. Today I loved the shadow on her white gown.

Masquerade was bought just because of her name. Who could resist a rose that starts off yellow, then turns to pink and finishes up dark red?

 Another quick glimpse of Mme Legras, just to prove she really is irresistible!

Paul's Himalayan Musk is a rambler who does what it says. He rambles over enormous distances and is mixed over our fence with the Rambling Rector, another great walker, so that they can keep each other company. Paul is pinkish while the Rector, as you would expect, is a virtuous white.

And this is VeilchenBlau, another rambler, this time over our pergola. It's the only almost blue rose, and I love the name. In all honesty German is not, at least to me, a romantic language but there are words that appeal and Veilchenblau is one of these. Usually translated as Blue Veil I feel it means more the blue of nuns' veils. Even I wouldn't mind being a nun (although not for long!) if I could wear a veil this colour. The flowers are quite small, about 1.1/2" across.

I've wandered around our entire garden and am back at the washing line where my envelopes are dry already. I'm going to wait for more inclement weather to watch the next videos of the class as it's a shame to waste any of this sunshine.

My mother is paying a visit, arriving on Tuesday, so if my commenting is a bit sparse over the coming week, I apologize in advance. Things to do etc.! Will keep blipping so you can always find my daily picture there but might not always post here.