Last evening after reading the weather forecast I nipped out and cut a peony flower. It has been sitting on my desk next to the computer where I can periodically bury my nose in its delicious fragrance and contemplate it. It is a true rich pink with a lower almost double ring of big, almost flat, slightly satiny petals, above these is a triple ring of pale pink, very narrow, short petals which support the center. The centre is a thick cluster of petals in the same rich pink as the lowest ones, they are not as broad as the lowest ones and not quite so long but they are fluted and densely packed hiding the stamens and pistols in the very centre.

Katherine Swift in one of her Morville books says that she needed to describe in words plants for a catalogue. I am sure that there are a whole lot of technical terms which could be used and of course measurements would help, even so pictures are invaluable. However we are used to glancing at pictures and words take time to read and ensure an organising of ideas to write. But words cannot encompass the beauty of a peony flower.

Photos: the peony; the Columbia River, looking north, almost as high as I have ever seen it; no sandbanks showing and the two permanent islands are drowning.