Photographer's Log Photographer's Log

STANNARD’S ROSE

I always look forward to the season of flowers each year. There is just no getting enough of the scents, textures, shapes, and especially the colors, of all of the wild and cultivated blooms that splash every nook and cranny of our Valley from the beginning of Spring’s cowslips, tulips and daffodils, right through to the mums and asters of Autumn.

I found this particular bloom at Stannard’s Vegetable and Flower Market, just outside of Cambridge. Melissa and James Stannard took over the old Hayes Market and have wonderful veggies and flowers to offer the public. Last year their rose bushes were a riot of luscious colors presented to appreciative eyes. However, this particular common red rose caught my eye because of the crystal-like raindrops clinging to its velvety petals. The cool freshness and robust color were perfect to digitally turn into a painting-like shot. Gazing at this flower makes me think of a healthy, vital, intense human heart. So much so I can almost feel it’s pulse.

Unfortunately I had to miss most of the Spring awakening in our Valley due to sustaining a small injury that has kept me mostly house-bound for several weeks. I will soon be cruising the roadsides again in search of lovely blooms and can’t wait to see what I will find. Perhaps the flowers in your own garden will sing their siren’s song to me as I drive by. If so, I thank you now for sharing your love of flowers with me and all who view them; for helping to decorate our Valley with beauty.

-June Mohan

Photos: (Copyright Mohan 2007) To contact the artist, please send email to: junemohan@hotmail.com