Wild Rose Country

This caption appears on all Alberta license plates. It is a well-deserved one. For my part, I have yet to understand the proliferation of these blooms in a climate that is both harsh and cold in the winter, hot and dry in the summer, and too often lacking in precipitation.

I am watching with fascination the return to life of the wild roses, almost as if they were doomed never to green up and bloom again. Right now, the wind is fierce and cold, despite valiant efforts from the sun to create a more spring-like environment. The trees are raising bare skeletal branches to the sky, probably in supplication as I am for a Real Spring. One must approach really close to them to detect tiny buds that look as if they were shivering, attempting to hide from the arctic wind.

How such a climate can foster the profusion of wild roses is a mystery to me. However, once the blooms appear, they appear everywhere. I took a photo of the most improbable rose bush at a disaffected road end. It had made a home for itself in a hole that used to hold a guard post, right in the middle of the pavement!

Which proves my contention that, despite all that we humans do to deface our beautiful planet, this Earth Mother’s dedication to life rushes in to restore beauty every little chance she gets.