TUESDAY TEXTURE SHOT--LAST PORTULACAS OF THE SEASON

When I was a little girl I loved to go to my grandmother's house and play in her backyard. It wasn't much of a yard. More of a cement slab, no grass,  but flower beds around the perimeter and lots of pots of flowers. I vividly remember coming out of her back door and seeing a large white enamel dishpan with red trim filled with portulacas. Today these are still one of my favorite flowers. I think it is because of the variety of colors they come in and because of the sweetness of the flowers. They are precious little  rose- like flowers that bloom all summer long in hot dry climates.  When I moved to Colorado I started planting  them every summer in honor of my grandmother. I was lucky enough to find a dishpan just like my grandmother's tucked away in a cabinet of our mountain cabin. When my husband and I bought the cabin, the contents came with the structure. Most of it was junk which we promptly got rid of. But when I came across the dishpan I was so happy you would have thought I had discovered gold in them there hills. But this lowly dishpan has become one of my most treasured items because of the joy it brings me when I plant portulacas for my grandmother, and the fond memories it brings back of being in her yard on a hot, sultry New Orleans summer day

The flowers are sweet and silky. But the sprawling stems are succulent with cylindrical leaves that provide beautiful TEXTURE in the garden. Tonight will be our first freeze so I took these photographs to put in my journal.  So when I'm knee deep in snow this winter, I'll have a picture to remind me of one of summer's great pleasures.