Alexandria in May

Last year at this time I was just starting my month in Key West. I loved that month. I loved it so much, I'm probably going to retire in Key West. I would retire there now if I could, but it seems the universe has many, many, many more years of work ahead of me.

I missed a few things while I was away last year. One of them was my rose bush. It only blooms once a year and that's during the first week of May. That trailing rose amazes me each year because it grows in the shade. Almost complete shade. Zephirin Drouhin is it's name. It has some wonderful features, the most important being that it grows in the shade, another being that it's thornless, and yet another is that it is amazingly fragrant. The downsides are that it blooms only once and gets horrible black spot (that could be because of all the shade that I have it in).

I miss Key West, but I love watching my rose bloom. Here's a little edited picture of one of the early blooms. By next week it should be covered in blooms.