Figure i – Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. (c) DE Wolf 2018.

Yesterday was June 1. So I wanted to celebrate the coming of summer, the coming of the solstice, and most of all the coming of the irises to New England Gardens. It seems a simple but magical moment, but I wait expectantly for these beautiful flowers in early June, every year. Those in my own garden are a beautiful yellow, closer to that of the natural iris. I am growing impatient, but they should bloom today or tomorrow.

The iris is the flower of Iris, the Greek goddess of the rain bow, the messenger of the gods. Hers is a beauty that takes us back to Homer, the blind Greek poet who saw so much. So here today, and very simply as beautiful visions should be, is a perfect bloom that I captured outside my office at just the right moment.