What is the flower that blooms each year
In flowerless days,
Making a little blaze
On the bleak earth, giving my heart some cheer?
Harsh the sky and hard the ground
When the Christmas rose is found.
Look! its white star, low on earth,
Rays a vision of rebirth.
~ Cecil Day-Lewis
(The Christmas Rose)
Love this trio; title, painting, and poem, Barbara. It all came together so beautifully. Although I’ve never seen this winter flower, it is very pretty and wicked at the same time.
Over the weekend the depression lifted and anxiety lightened. This is the flow of the sea into the calm low tide for me. Wishing you a relaxing holiday week! 💙🎄
The sea teaches us a lot about the changing tides in our lives. ♡ I do miss being able to walk down to the beach. This morning someone posted pictures of my old beach covered in a blanket of snow. It tugged at my heart because if hadn’t snowed on the shoreline for several years before we left.
I’m glad you loved this combo. I think a Christmas rose is one of the hellebores, kind of like a Lenten rose. Apparently it’s not a real rose, but a member of the buttercup family.
WOW I’ve never seen snow on a beach. Although it snowed twice since I have lived here, I never thought about going to the beach!
To have snow sticking to the ground on our beach was a very rare occurrence. When it happens, it is truly magical!
Wonderful painting and poem. We’re just a tad too cold for Christmas roses… they try to bloom, then get frozen. The spring species does much better in my garden. 💙
Thanks, Eliza. My guess is that Monet’s garden in Giverny, France has a much milder winter than New England does. We get Lenten roses in February down here. ♡
I’ve never heard of a Christmas rose, but what a splendid idea! To see something so typically warm-weather in all this cold must be a breath of fresh air indeed.
Me, either, until I read the poem. Doing a little research I think they are a kind of hellebore, similar to Lenten roses. Both like the cooler weather, but apparently not as cold as it is up north there!
Monet’s Christmas Roses are as beautiful as his Water Lilies. That’s a nice poem you’ve paired with the painting Barbara.
Thank you, Linda. I admire artists who can paint flowers so well and Monet is one of my favorites. I was surprised to find flowers that bloom in December in his climate.
I liked Monet too. He was lucky to have such a diverse selection of flowers to paint from.
🌸
So interesting to bump into this as I am reading Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit. A little more difficult for me to read the tiny print. Nearly ready to give up. So many good signposts in it. Viewing your post as a wink, nudge to keep going.
I had not heard of Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit before – it sounds pretty interesting, ‘the intertwined politics of nature and power.’ I will have to put it on my reading list and then try to decide if I’d rather listen to the audiobook or read the paperback. I hope you don’t give up!