Sweet, sweet rose

I hoped to paint today with the Portland Plein Air Painters at the Washington Park Rose Garden but the gray skies kept me from painting. It didn't keep me from admiring the flowers and taking photos of the ones that were open.

This has been such a cool spring, the roses are late to open. But the sun came out this afternoon and I hear it's going to stick around for a few days.

I can hardly look at roses, without thinking about these famous lines from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

JULIET:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.