Awesome October Roses

American poet Walt Whitman wrote, "Keep your face always towards the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."  He could have been describing the flower spirit of this vibrantly coloured Campfire rose, the last of these roses to bloom on my balcony this year.  They bloomed in three flushes, which is another way of saying they bloomed three times from June to October. They've been a pleasure to photograph in the amber light of morning, the intense sunlight of the noon sun, the softer light of an overcast day, or early evening.  Campfire roses, named for Canadian painter, Tom Thomson's painting, Campfire were portrayed in Campfires and S'more Roses (see blog archives for July 2015).  

This truly has been an awesome October for photographing roses.  The colours are vibrant.  We've had a beautiful Indian Summer, something else that Whitman wrote about.  "It is only here in large portions of Canada that wondrous second wind, the Indian Summer, attains its amplitude and heavenly perfection - the temperatures;  the sunny haze;  the mellow, rich, delicate, almost flavoured air:  Enough to live - enough to merely be."

Perhaps he was being a gracious guest in our country, because anyone who's been to Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New York or any one of a dozen other North Eastern states in the Fall, knows that nature artfully uses her whole colour palette there too.

Sadly, none of my balcony roses has ever survived a Toronto Winter.  So, every June, I choose two or three new rose bushes (poor me, pass the Kleenex box).  I shop with photographs in mind. Roses which, like the Campfire roses, are multi-coloured, or roses which evolve through stages of colour, such as the Chicago Peace rose, are the most interesting to photograph over time.

There's perfection too, in a simple pink blossom.  This one (above) is on a park trellis, and returns year after year - surviving even the worst ice storms, and hurricanes.  The bridal white rose (below) was photographed in early October, although it is as dewy as a June rose blossom.  Even roses of a singular colour, will have rosebuds of another colour, making them even more photogenic.  

An anonymous writer once said, "Autumn is a season followed immediately by looking forward to Spring."  My sentiments exactly!

   

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.