Flower Friday : : 'Strike it Rich'

These two roses came from the same bush. We have three of them which have survived frosts, record heat, fires and floods. They are definitely survivors and very beautiful. Although it shows the range of color, I don't think the collage does them justice, so I have put a couple in extras. It was something of an accomplishment to make it up the 30 or so steps to where they are planted and made me realize how long it's been since I've gone up there.

Talk at coffee this morning ranged from a brief discussion of various aches and pains but moved on quickly to books (Remarkably Bright Creatures, Spare), television ('Daisy and the Six) and gardens, with subplots of bees and pruning and the dilemmas of inviting people for drinks and then trying to figure out whether it will end in time to make dinner, or we should serve  appetizers that can double as dinner. No conclusion was reached. We also had quite a discussion involving alternatives to paper towels. I pointed out that the alternatives were made of fabric which is not recyclable, whereas we can put paper towels in our green bins and they are turned into compost. We agreed that when it comes to environmental decisions, they are complex and not necessarily as straightforward as we are sometimes led to believe. 

An article in the New Yorker magazine about Charles III was written before the coronation but read by me after it. New Yorker articles are notoriously long, but this one was quite fascinating and required a few days for me to finish it.*The point that fascinated me is the fact that in his position as heir to the throne, he has been left on his own to try and find a purpose in life while he waited.  Since he has had seventy years or so to do this, his interest in the the outdoors and the environment has grown into something of an occupation. Yet now that he is king, he can neither make policy nor veto laws that are presented to him by parliament. I thought he was just being solemn at his coronation, but I think he was assuming a job he had little wish to take on, despite, or perhaps because of, a lifetime of waiting.

We are expecting the neighbors for drinks at 5. I am making fairly substantial appetizers....

* I make no claim to understand the structure of the monarchy or its obligations. But it does seem to be increasingly irrelevant.