Azaleas

July 27

I am thankful for azaleas. Azaleas light up the day landscape in the southeast in spring. The sheer magnitude of the numbers of and assortments of colors of azaleas in the south is amazing. They are a true gift from above.

This is a photo from Avery Island, Louisiana, in the Jungle Gardens in spring, showing several azalea bushes across the pond. Avery Island is absolutely beautiful during springtime with all the azaleas in bloom.

azalea

her name was azalea

a beautiful southern belle

she rose at day’s first light

at dusk into bed she fell

her suitors were many

her detractors were very few

azalea was the belle of the ball

she was the belle of the bayou

a young man named robert

came around one fall day

to ask for to court azalea

and take her far away

it is said she left with Robert

for she was seen no more

but she left flowering displays

of her namesake galore.

© rt tulley