I left the reminder of the beauty where it landed.

The peony in the corner of the front of our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood gave us its all during a furious week of budding and beauty.

A full 15 flowers shot out of that one sturdy green plant in one week. They lasted slightly longer than that. I let the petals lie where they fell until I swept them up with the lawn mower.

Bye, bye peonies. See you next year, if all is right with the world.

Hello, yellow roses.

But my dear wife Karen and Mother Nature have planned things well. For a mere three strides from that corner patch sits our hourglass garden.

And raising its head to the world now from there is one rather healthy yellow rose. Other buds are there. It looks like it will be a good year for…