Lovely, lovely peonies

If there was one flower from my youth that as distasteful to my nose as broccoli was to my palate, it was the peony. Tuberous peonies stank! They grew in one variety - dark blood red - in my grandmother's garden and I didn't appreciate them at all.

Now, however, after living through nearly 15 years of lush tree peony growth in my own back yard, I have come to adore everything about this flower.
Even the bitter smell of the petals.

These flowers lured me outside in the midst of a rainstorm on Sunday and I didn't regret getting wet. Not when you look at these lovelies swaying back and forth in the breeze, their petals heavy with silver drops of water. The heavy blue ball in the lower right-hand side is a nice part of our garden. Why don't we have more of these? Good question.

Other flowers that are more lovable from the start are the wiegila (not spelled right) and columbine. Enjoy these while I dash off to a meeting - femminismo

p.s. (edited later) Was bad and didn't go to the meeting. Went to a book reading at Powells to hear Steve Earle read from his new book, "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." He looked exactly as he does on "Treme" and I wished he would have sung one of his songs.