In Bloom: Roses

The rambling old yellow rose bush is flowering, so we made rosewater. It's a simple procedure- all you need to do is simmer the flowers in water and collect the distilled steam- which then smells lovely. All of these flowers only produced a half pint of rosewater- but it's pretty concentrated. I'm not exactly sure what I'll use  it for... stay tuned...

There is nothing more ephemeral than these yellow roses- they really only bloom for a day- and then start to wilt- it's impossible to cut them and bring them inside for more than a moment, though they are so sunshiny and bright that the temptation is hard to overcome. The longer we live here the more I look forward to these little 'bloom anniversaries', it's a nice way to mark the passage of time, sort of ordinary in that it's a little thing that happens every year, again and again, but also sort of special because it's so fleeting and spectacular.