Roisin Ashanti

Roisin Ashanti Rosenthal. born May 26, Rotterdam, Holland. In honor of her birth, I set off today to find some wild roses.

Roisin is Irish/Celtic for Rose. And Ashanti is African for guide.
I call my garden; 'Rose garden', because of all the wild roses growing everywhere. Here they are not fully blooming yet. Just the odd one. Sitting on my lawn, enjoying the other flowers in the lush green, I say to myself; "Roisin Ashanti, guide me to the roses."


Via 'Don's decent' I get on to my 'beach trail'. It is an old bank from Ancient 'Lake Champagne'. At some point it crosses the creek and I am drawn to check out 'elfin fall'. It's a glorious sunny day today and after all that rain the creek is full and just beautiful. Sparkling water admits the green. From the falls I go straight up the bank. And soon enough I come to a side hill where the roses are blooming! Lovely, lovely. Continuing the trail, I come onto a higher bank. Roses here and there and everywhere. Not only roses. This grassy side hill with some bedrock poking through, is full of flowers. It's so gorgeous. (I'll make a list again). One purple/pink little beauty, I have never seen before. It is a ray flower, It will be part of the Asteraceae family. Where my 'beach' disappears into the forest, I can see the '911 pond' and farther to the west into the Kluane range. There is an old gravel pit below, I'll go in there as it connects by a lovely little road to the power line. On the road I rummage in an old dump site. I imagine these little dumps being left from the days building The Alaska Hwy. They're fun. Along the power line it's a long straight walk to the south/west corner of our property. On top of the ridge it was nice and windy, like a proper beach walk. But here just hot sun. Still mud in the tracks. Which means lots of insects. The good and the bad. I only call mosquitoes bad, but I even like to work on that. As it is all part of Mother nature. Beside them there is all sort of bees, dragonflies(one being a Boreal Whiteface, Leucorrhinia borealis) and many colorful butterflies. I love the bright yellow Sulphers, but also all the blues, which are not all blue. There was a real little pretty one, a typical butterfly with brown, orange, white and black.(probably a Variable Checkerspot,Euphydryas chalcedona anicia) Less flowers here, but occasionally there is a cluster of blooming rose bushes. As they are not yet abundantly blooming in my garden. I am grateful to have been inspired to find them. Thank you for 'guiding' me Roisin!