Figure 1 – The Last Water Lily, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Madison, WI. (c) DE Wolf 2014.

We seem to attach special significance to the first and to the last, to the alpha and to the omega.  I’ve had an ongoing theme in this blog about photographic firsts and recently I posted about fall’s first color – and it is proving to be a very glorious fall here.  Well, we are in the thick of it now.  Fall color is everywhere, even though some hardy flowers persist.  But last Sunday on my adventure to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI something struck me.

It was a chilly and grey day, with little to really remind one of summer.  There is this little reflecting pool, which now bears only the remnants of water lilies, and even these had started to turn a shade of red.  So as I stared into the dull water, I was thinking about glacial verves – appropriate since  Wisconsin has a glaciation named after it.  These are the “rings of the Earth” fine bands of sediment that once settled annually when glacial lakes froze over in winter and now turned to stone. It seemed wholly appropriate, since the water lilly, Monet’s flower, is related spiritually, if not taxonomically, to the sacred lotus a symbol of life, death, and rebirth – of the endless cycle of life on Earth.

And then I saw it, and tried to capture the feeling in Figure 1.  There was one remaining water lily blossom – still ever so perfect.  It was in essence the last bloom of a summer now past. And it defiantly proclaimed the promise of spring.