One month ago the roses were pruned by my daughter.
By now their new branches are beginning to grow in the directions my daughter intended. At the very center of the picture (above) is a three-leaved new-born sprig, looking uncannily like the Baby Jesus.
Today other garden jobs get done, like feeding the lawn and replanting pots to be ready for the warmer weather when they will (or may) flower.
Some, however, are flowering already.
Myself, I particularly admire this cinnamon-colored pansy with yellow & magenta center.
And this fern truly tempts me to anthropomorphism. It looks to me like a racetrack spectator. My daughter bought the barricades at a discount when she worked at Restoration Hardware while going to grad school. She wrote a wonderful thesis on George Eliot. Somehow these Restoration Hardware plant barricades always make me think of George Eliot, not only because of my daughter's association with them, but because they resemble London railings. The title for the thesis was a hot topic at the time. There was a University rule that the title could be no more than 12 words long. I helped a little to frame the final title, which contained exactly 12 words: "Many disappointments between breakfast and dinner" : Why George Eliot Thwarts Her Heroines.
Feeding roses also, though in this one case it is tough to cultivate around the rose's roots because ambitious irises have spread themselves and naturalized around it. Those conspicuous thorns flaunted by the rose are (as it turns out) no protection at all. The irises are indifferent to the thorns.
I like this picture because it looks like a crude paper cut-out of a lily.