Beauty Too Rich for Use, for Earth Too Dear

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear,
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5.

"Did you see those flowers blooming out back?" my husband asks me on Sunday morning. "Were they there yesterday, when we were raking? How could we NOT have noticed them?"

And so it is with the iris beds. One day they are standing there, each plant just full of pending blooms - satin ribbons wrapped tight, like toe shoes. The next - VOILA! - they are suddenly blooming!

And so I went out Sunday morning to take a look at them, and I was just stunned by what I found. A profusion of maroon and gold antique blooms, their colors rich in the sun. A few steps around the other side of the iris bed and - look at this! - a single pink bloom, a standout in the crowd, the only one of her kind.

"Like a pink princess dropped here from another planet," I muse to myself. And I am reminded of the story of The Little Prince: the prince and his beloved rose, the rose who was different from all the other roses.

No expert in iris genetics, I can only ponder the reasons for what is most likely some slight deviation. But I can enjoy fully, even without knowing why: this pink princess from another world, who landed on my planet in the dark secret hours of the night - in my yard - to become my beloved flower.

The soundtrack: All Angels, Nothing Compares 2 U. This song was written by Prince and recorded perhaps most famously for the MTV age by Sinéad O'Connor. I came across this enchanting version on YouTube last week by accident. Enjoy!