“But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.”~Anne Bronte

“The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart.”

*Roses from my garden

“You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."  ~Emma Goldman

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."  ~Beverly Nichols

“A single rose can be my garden…a single friend, my world.”

~Leo Buscaglia

“Perfumes are the feelings of flowers.”

 ~Heinrich Heine, The Hartz Journey

“Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk

undisturbed.”

~Walt Whitman

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”

~Claude Monet

“A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring.”  ~The Collected Later Poems of William Carlos Williams

‘”People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”

~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

If You Love The Country

Shenandoah Watercolors

Written in a month by month journal style, Shenandoah Watercolors follows a year in my life on our farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. This collection of word paintings begins in May 2003 and concludes at the end of May 2004––a highly significant year for our family as it turned out.

Uncertain what route to pursue regarding its publication, I set it aside and continued to work on my fictional historicals for The Wild Rose Press. However, my mother showed Shenandoah Watercolors to a local historian who insisted it beautifully captured a vanishing way of life and must be published, an insistence that nagged at the back of my mind. With the evolution of the eBook world I decided to self-publish and share Shenandoah Watercolors with my fans.

My mother, Pat Churchman, did the spectacular cover and was of immeasurable help in editing this book, reading it over and over.  We originally intended to include some of her wonderful photographs of the valley and mountains, but the enormous undertaking involved was too daunting.  As it was, I had to hire an editor to format the manuscript for epub, not as easy as you might think.  So I invite you to explore this blog where many of mom’s photographs are featured in various posts on gardening and rural life.

Description of Shenandoah Watercolors:

Author/farm wife Beth Trissel shares the joys and challenges of rural life on her family’s small farm located in the scenic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Journey with her through the seasons on the farm, owned by her family since the 1930′s, and savor the richness of her cherished gardens and beloved valley. This journal is a poignant, often humorous, sometimes sad glimpse into a vanishing way of life for anyone who loves or yearns for the country and even those who don’t.~

Shenandoah Watercolors is available as an ebook at Amazon Kindle and at Barnes & Noble as a Nookbook.

David Austen's Magnificent Roses

Abraham Darby, my favorite David Austen rose, picture by my daughter Elise
“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”
~ Claude Monet
Beauty inspires my own word paintings.

English breeder David Austen’s roses are exquisite. To quote his website: “After fifty years of intensive breeding, David Austin’s English Roses combine the forms and fragrances of old roses with the repeat flowering of modern roses. They are very easy to grow, healthy and reliable.”

I struggle to raise the traditional hybrid teas which are not as well suited to our sometimes bitter winters here in The Shenandoah Valley, and more demanding in general to culitvate. Austen roses have far more vigor and I love the way he combines the old look and fragrance with repeat bloom. I have a small collection and am slowly adding.  Several new ones joined my little rose family last spring and we shall see if they survive this winter on top of last summer's searing drought.  I hope so.

His website and rose catalogue draw you into a wonderfully inviting world of fragrance and satiny petals in a glorious array of hues.  Perpetual, glorious spring and summer.
 
http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/Advanced.asp