This perky amaryllis is currently blooming in the window at the front of our little cottage by the sea. It’s the first amaryllis I’ve actually been able to get to re-bloom for me! Did you know that Amaryllis means sparkling in Greek? Referring to its large star shape, Hippeastrum, or horse star, is the scientific name for this blossom. You know how many women have been named for flowers (Lily, Rose, Iris, and so on) have you ever met someone with the name Amaryllis? I’ve never met one personally but there are some notable people with the name: the piano student in “The Music Man”; the famous cellist Amaryllis Fleming (a very interesting connection if you read about her on Wikipedia); actress Amaryllis Garnett; and (although not a woman but still a “she”) a ship named Amaryllis in the YA novel The Eyes of the Amaryllis
And this darling dogwood has been forgotten since I photographed it this spring. I thought she deserved a bit of the spotlight. I also thought she deserved a haiku:
Autumn full moon, the tides slosh
and foam coming in (haiku by Matsuo Basho)
I need to drop my computer off this week to get some extra RAM installed. I can no longer do any updates to the operating system, can’t purchase any of the current software, etc. until I do so. When I get my computer back at the end of the week (I hope it will be ready by then) I plan to finally do a post about my new Kindle now that I’ve read a couple books with it. I’ll also mention thoughts on some of the books I’ve read lately.
Back to the Amaryllis. Is there a flower (or any other name) you think would be suitable for naming a child (girl or boy) that perhaps is a bit out of the ordinary?
My daughter’s name is Amaryllis ; it suits her perfectly she is beautiful , intuitive strong and sensitive , like the flower . She sparkles as her name suggets.
I like “Laurel”. And “Daisy”. And “Lilly”.
I find myself attracted to the “old-fashioned” names. My daughter’s name is “Nell”.
I have no actual human names to contribute to the conversation (although for whatever reason people always want to call my daughter Ivy Lily.) But have you read the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Hankes? It’s a picture book and the little girl mouses name is chrysanthemum it’s one of the girls (and my favorites)
Good luck with the computer upgrade!
Oh, it’s so incredible to see your flowers in black and white. I agree with Sherry S. that they do make you pause longer and see better…I never think to convert any of my flowers…But I love the way you’ve opened my eyes. Can’t help but being reminded of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work…As for Amaryllis as a name, it remins me too much of Armadillo — don’t ask me why? LOL But I once new a woman named Dahlia…
I love these flowers in the black & white…they made me stop and really “look”. I think sometimes I take flowers for granted when I see them in their “natural” state because I know what they will be. B&W makes me look to distinguish…I like that. Makes me pause. We need more pausing in life.
Amaryllis…that would be such an unusual name, one that would be remembered and it sits nicely on the tongue. As for other floral names you’ve got me thinking…two floral names I like are Delphinium and Larkspur but I’m not sure about those as names…would be a far cry sweeter than Apple!! 🙂
Diane, these are gorgeous, and so perfect in black and white.
I was actually just looking through the literally hundreds of flower photos I took this spring and summer, so even though it is long behind us now, I will probably be posting some of them too!
Congratulations on your new Kindle! I use the Kindle app on my iPad, and I love it.