Cherry parfait roses and Instagram

Hubby is even more of a techie geek than I am (yes, that is possible), so he's often an early adopter of new technology in the world of social media. When Twitter entered the scene, Hubby was there signing on with an early account. When Google+ was there to challenge Facebook's share of the market, Hubby was signing up for an account. So, it stands to reason, when Instagram first made it's debut, Hubby was there with an early account. After he "played" with each one to see if it had value, he would encourage me to sign up for my own account on each.  I have often ended up being a "semi-early" adopter through his influence. In the case of Instagram, I was excited about it until Facebook bought the company. That soured me on the idea and I removed the app from my iPhone...

...until a couple of weeks ago.

I was at the wedding of two good friends who are great amateur photographers and Instagram users. At regular intervals throughout the reception, Hubby was taking photos with his iPhone and then post-processing them on the spot. Periodically, he'd show me his creations. Then he'd quickly post them to Instagram. I was intrigued. So I started playing with taking some photos at the reception. I had to load the Instagram app back on my iPhone so I could play with post-processing photos I was taking. Before I knew it, I found myself deeply immersed in the creatively inspirational world of Instagram.

This isn't the first time this has happened.

Several years ago, I had a similar phenomenon happen when I was corresponding with a fellow photographer blogger, Jen at Muddy Boot Dreams, whose work I greatly admire. She offhandedly mentioned how much of an inspiration the Flickr community was for her creativity. I took her advice and joined the world of Flickr. She was right. I found myself feeling like I was in a master's class of photography on a global scale. It was wonderfully inspiring for me and pushed me in my work and my creative eye. I ended up adopting new techniques of post-processing which led to me finding a completely new way of digitally painting my photos. It opened up a whole creative world for me. All because I acted on the advice of a fellow blogger.

I am finding that Instagram is doing the same for me. I am pushing my photographic eye and my creativity at just the right time when I feeling like I needed to be more creatively challenged.

There are some Instagrammers (IG'ers) who are iPhone only contributors that are really pushing themselves creatively. I have to admit, I'm not quite that brave... yet. My Instragram gallery is a mixture of shots from my DSLR cameras and iPhone. Maybe someday I'll take the brave leap into iPhone only.

For now, I'm thrilled to be discovering the work of some really brilliant IG'ers. Some are also bloggers, so I've gotten the bonus of discovering some beautiful blogs along this journey!

If you'd like to join me on Instagram click here

The roses featured in this post are "Cherry Parfait" all from the same bush. This is the most spectacular display it's put on since I planted it probably about 4 or so years ago.

A Cherry Parfait to Brighten the Day

Today was such a dreary blustery day here at Rosehaven Cottage with rain pouring down and the light in the sky never getting brighter than that of dawn. I'm all bundled in my snuggle-y clothes thinking of cracking open a Jane Austen book, when I get an email from Kylee at Our Little Acre telling me to check out her latest post. Being a woman of great curiosity, I ventured over with the click of the mouse to find that she has tempted me beyond my rainy day willpower with photos of the Disneyland rose that is a new addition in her garden as of this year.

Now, it's only fair since I tempted her mercilessly with photos of my Gold Medal rose, not once but twice. The second time I did so knowing full well that it's on her wish list now.

Fortunately, my newly found yearning for the Disneyland rose only has to be held at bay until January (which is when I put in my new roses for the year). I really can wait until January... I really can wait until January... I really can wait until January... (I'm going to keep chanting this to myself).

But then Kylee breached etiquette worse than Ralphie triple-dog-daring Flick in "A Christmas Story". She posted photos of another new rose to me, the "Kordes Perfecta". Little does she know that white roses with pink edging are another weakness of mine.

So in order to prevent a complete internet-rose-buying-frenzy, I decided to post an entry with photos of my favorite new acquisition this year, the "Cherry Parfait" rose. I'd never seen the rose before coming across it at Wal-Mart. I saw the photo on the bare root package and thought that if it was half as beautiful as the photo then I'd be happy. For under 6 bucks, it couldn't hurt to give it a shot.

And it turned out to be the perfect choice for a spot of the front garden that has clay soil and very full sun and doesn't want to support anything except weeds. Now the low growing Cherry Parfait happily blooms it heart out against the perfect backdrop of the white picket fence. It is hearty, tolerant of the heat, and already producing beyond my expectations.

So thanks to Kylee you all get to share in my pick-me-up and shopping aversion tactic for the evening. And also thanks to Kylee, I got a good laugh on this otherwise dreary blustery day at Rosehaven Cottage.