Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I woke to the sound of distant rumblings of thunder and then the pitter-patter of rain softly falling on the deck. It was about 6:00 a.m. so I rolled back over to snooze awhile longer with a smile on my face. I know I am an “official” gardener when the sound of rain fills me with delight.

I didn’t realize I had forgotten to close the blinds on my french doors from my bedroom to the patio the night before but suddenly a beautiful pink light came streaking through the blinds. I lazily opened my eyes a little wider and saw the pink fractured light casting its glow all around me.

I jumped up and opened the door to the patio and there I saw the beautiful pink light of the sky being reflected in the puddles on the patio….breath-taking. (title photo)

I grabbed my Iphone and ‘old pinkie’ my bathrobe and ran outside to capture the beauty of the moment in photos.

Come with me and see what I saw yesterday in my own back yard.

The back yard was covered in this thin veil of mist surrounded by the pink streaks of the sky.

The recent thunderstorm had left everything fresh and sparkling in the garden.

My Confederate or Cotton Rose bush that I planted this past year has taken off…now towering over me. It normally blooms in the fall….not sure if it will do so this fall or if I will have to wait until next fall but I can hardly wait to see the beautiful blooms.

The blooms usually start out white and then throughout the day get darker….how cool! Can hardly wait to witness this. At the same time this rather strange occurrence has lent itself to a story….just imagine! (You knew we couldn’t get through a blog without one didn’t you?)

Being the old’ history teacher….let me take a moment in our “pinkalicious” tour to give you the Legend behind the Confederate Rose.

One story relates that the Confederate Rose was in bloom during a particularly bloody battle of the Civil War. A slain soldier fell beside a Confederate rose, and his blood spilled into the ground at the base of shrub. The flowers, which had started out white in the morning, absorbed the slain soldier’s blood throughout the day, so that by evening they had turned a deep, rosy red.

As attention-capturing as this legend is….it falls a little short of the truth, in the fact that the bush originated in China and is not really even a rose but is in the hibiscus family. From Daves’ Garden comes an article by Marie Harrison titled “Hibiscus Mutabius”- the Changeable Beauty. Here is an excerpt….

That sort of story makes for interesting reading, but the flowers do, indeed, live up the specific epithet, “mutabilis,” which means “variable or changeable.” All are large and showy and look somewhat like a large, delicate rose. Some are single, and many are double. On some specimens, the flowers that open early in the morning are snowy white, but by evening they have turned to deep rose.

On the second day, they wither and fall from the shrub. On other shrubs, the opening blossom may be pink, turning to white or even a darker pink as it ages. Either way, many buds are waiting for their day in the sun. At any time, as many as three different colors may show at one time as the flowers fade or darken to their various hues. On some single-flowered specimens, flowers are red and remain so for the duration of their bloom. Some are pink and gradually turn a darker shade of pink as they age.

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So until tomorrow thanks for hanging with me for a pinkalicious early morning tour of the back yard and garden. This rather strange pink lighting turned an ordinary morning into something quite magical. God is the master of sound and lighting effects in His Creation.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I stopped by to see Carrie, as she is getting settled in her new school, with her speech therapy. I had a God Wink at Tuesday Morning the other day….they had a wooden plaque with the same quote I had told Carrie about earlier…Follow Your Dreams…They will Lead the Way! Carrie did just that and this year her dream came true! Congratulations! So proud of you!