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| Rosa 'Emily Carr' & Hostas 'Halcyon' & 'Sunny Halcyon' 6 July 2023 |
Those were the Halcyon Days
Halcyon Days – Walt Whitman
Not from successful love alone,
Nor wealth, nor honor'd middle age, nor victories of politics or war;
But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm,
As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky,
As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame, like freshier, balmier air,
As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs
really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the tree,
Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!
The brooding and blissful halcyon days!
Perhaps the most elegant hosta (my opinion) is Hosta ‘Halcyon’. It has slender leaves that are curved and if kept in the shade it has a lovely blue coating called bloom. Only recently via Holland was I able to purchase a yellow (gold) sport of Halcyon in my local nursery.
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| Hosta 'Halcyon' photographed in my garden in the 90s |
With my male cat Niño languishing with cancer at the hospital (I am getting him back tomorrow Friday and he should live comfortably for about a year) I cannot say that I am living a period of calm, usually in the past and often nostalgic (a Wikipedia definition). But the blooming of the Canadian rose Rosa ‘Emily Carr’ was a good enough excuse for a scan and this blog.
Etymology courtesy of Wikipedia
From halcyon, from Latin Alcyone, from Ancient Greek Ἀλκυόνη (Alkuónē), daughter of Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. When her husband died in a shipwreck, Alcyone threw herself into the sea whereupon the gods transformed them both into halcyon birds (kingfishers). When Alcyone made her nest on the beach, waves threatened to destroy it. Aeolus restrained his winds and kept them calm during seven days in each year, so she could lay her eggs. These became known as the "halcyon days," when storms do not occur. Today, the term is used to denote a past period that is being remembered for being happy and/or successful.
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| Rosa 'Emily Carr' & Hosta 'Wheee!' |
