Our Lady of Guadalupe...

Having spent the first 30-some years of my life in Wisconsin, I still can't get used to the idea of roses blooming in December. However, here we are on December 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and her namesake rose still has blooms. This charming rose, which we've had for three or four years now, has bloomed repeatedly since last spring, but it is nothing short of miraculous to see the flowers at this time of year.

(Sorry the image is somewhat out of focus -- I was crouched over in the rain trying to get this picture.)

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Eye-candy Thursday

This climbing rose is known as Jacob's Coat. I think the folks who named it are a little shy on their Biblical scholarship -- I'm pretty sure it should be Joseph's Coat. In any case, it fits the description of a "coat of many colors" -- starting out with lemon yellow flowers that turn deep rose with exposure to the sun. You can see that the buds are intensely red on the outside, but that color is not visible once the rose is open. A few hours after I took these photos today, the roses were mostly rosy with only the deepest part of each petal remaining yellow.


I don't usually publish my photos, but I've decided that in this case anyone who wishes to use these photos (or part of them) is welcome to borrow the images. I simply ask that you credit me with the source photo if you do paint from them.