April 11, 2016
Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers
Plucked in the garden, all the summer through ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
On April 11th, my husband and I celebrated 7 years of marriage and he brought me these beautiful flowers. I especially loved these two peonies which were so lush and beautiful.
Each day over the last week, I noticed that the flowers were slowly changing color. They were just as beautiful but each day they took on new dimensions. Day 3 below. These pictures are untouched and this is what the flowers really looked like. I have never experienced this before, a flower slowly changing color.
From deep red-pink to pink to peach.
As the days and went by, the colors faded and the petals took on a range of shades that gave even more depth to their beauty. Day 4 above and below.
As they became more pale and fragile, they became even more beautiful because the light was now able to shine through the petals. Day 6 below:
As the end of the week neared, the petals became a bit more ruffled giving the flower the appearance of turning inward. Day 7:
Just before it started to lose its petals, the second more full peony appeared to reach upward.
Even after its petals began to fall it was still beautiful, looking like one of the flower fairy illustrations from one of my children’s picture books.
I so enjoyed watching their evolution this week and will miss them. I think they taught me something about aging and beauty because they were no less beautiful at the end of the week than the beginning. Time revealed so many different aspects of their beauty that wasn’t apparent on day 1.
I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~Claude Monet
May we all embrace how beautiful we are becoming. Happy Anniversary Sweetie!
nursebeansews 