Flowers From Our Yard: Radiant Perfume Rose

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Radiant Perfume is a rose that we've had for several years. As you can see, it is a very vibrant yellow rose. What the picture can't convey is its delightful fragrance, which is a fairly strong citrus scent.

Memorial Day

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As you enjoy this Memorial Day holiday, I hope you'll take a moment to remember the men and women whose sacrifice made it possible for us to celebrate this day.

Flowers From Our Yard: About Face Rose

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About Face is one of our favorite roses. It is prolific and the color is beautiful. The most interesting thing about this rose -- the reason for its name -- is that the darker color is on the outer side of the petal while the lighter color is on the inner side. Most roses are the opposite.

Drawing from a Photo: Cumberland Mountain State Park

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I'm still experimenting with the conversion of photographs into line drawings. Most of the time I prefer the photo, but I do find the drawings interesting. I guess that goes back to my complete lack of drawing talent.

When Betsy's youngest son came up for the day earlier this month, we took him to Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville for dinner. The seven arch bridge over the dam forming Lake Byrd is a distinguishing feature of this park. I like both the picture above and and the drawing made from it.



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Our Big Rose Bed

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We have three rose beds in our yard, plus roses in containers. This picture -- which was taken a couple of years ago -- shows the largest and oldest rose bed. Our roses are putting on a pretty good display this year as well, but I just haven't gotten a picture of the entire bed.

Issaqueena Falls

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Issaqueena Falls is near Walhalla, South Carolina. It is named after an Indian princess, Issaqueena, who, according to legend fell in love with an English trader. Issaqueena learned of a planned attack on the English settlement of Ninety Six, and set out to warn the Englishmen. She was pursued by the Indians, but disappeared from sight at the waterfall that now bears her name.

One version of the legend says that she leaped over the edge of the falls to her death in order to avoid capture. Another version says that she waited on a ledge under the falls for the Indians to leave and that she continued her journey and warned the settlement.

Flowers From Our Yard: Halloween Halo Iris

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Halloween Halo is another of our re-blooming iris. Although it does bloom in the fall, I'm glad we didn't have to wait until Halloween to enjoy this beauty.