Frozen Roses

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. 

The weather has been unusually warm for November, with temperatures in the high sixties and low seventies.  It tricked the flowers into thinking spring was arriving early and they put on a late fall show for us.  The roses bloomed.  The honeysuckle bloomed.  Those dark green bushes with the upright leaves put out spears of tiny white daisy-shaped flowers. 

Nobody was fooling the wisteria, though.  It turned its leaves a brilliant yellow-gold and dropped them, right on schedule.  Smart stuff, wisteria.  Rose of Sharon was right there with it, leafless now and proud of itself.  It's a tough little weed, related to hibiscus, but with the street smarts to survive an icy winter.  Roses, though, are probably just a little slow -- the dumb blondes of the flower world.  They were tricked into blooming.  Oh, look, it's a pretty day.  Let's all go to the beach!  Things were going really well and they were showing off like crazy when the bottom fell out and the temperatures hit the floor.  And there were the roses, wearing bright-colored bikinis with everything exposed. 

It did't snow, but it may as well have.  It looked as if it had.  The neighbor's rooves were covered with white.  The ground was covered with white.   The cars were caked with the stuff.  Laura had to chip out the windshield of the Hyundai before going off to her physical therapy appointment at 7:30. 

And the roses were frozen solid.  Sad little colorful icicles that once were flowers.

I'm going to go put on a sweater.

photo credit: MAJ