Flamingo Sunrise

Father's Day is strange.  My father is long gone.  My husband's father passed just this winter.  I don't have any children fathered by my husband.  Neither does my stepson's current wife.  My husband's daughter has a strained relationship to her father.  So gathering on Father's Day sparks a range of emotion.  Some of us gathered with my step-son's Brazilian wife's family on this chilly Father's Day in Maine.  Even though the Brazilian Father's Day isn't until the second Sunday in August, we all all sat around a warm open fire. My husband made a toast as we sipped Blood Marys (which are not named after THE Bloody Mary), "To all the father's who do the best they know how.  I think I did pretty well. It wasn't always easy."  We raised our plastic cups full of tomato juice and vodka.  A moment later, "One more thing.  To my dad.  You are missed."   Later both my stepson and I comforted my husband who is broad shouldered and seems so in charge, over by the fence as he shed a tear for his beloved aviator father.  A patriarch deeply missed, he died peacefully at the age of 98.  But, life is not all is tears and reverie that makes you turn your back for a private moment.  This Diva, better knows as a Garden Dahlia was grabbing my attention from the side garden.  Dahlia's are also called Ballerinas as they dance in the wind on long stalks.  This one has dark glossy mahogany foliage but it's the hot flamingo pink bloom with a sunrise center that compelled me to tire-toe through the garden to take this shot.  Most dahlia's look like puff balls but not this little Ballerina Diva Dahlia.  She's the national flower of Mexico, originally grown by the Aztecs, named after a Swedish botanist.  And this particular bloomer is a Mystic Sparkler.  She originates from Australia.  Did you know people can patent cultivars?  Keith Hammett did so in 2015.  And now has an entire collection, the Mystic Dahlia's Collection including ten different flowers all similar and yet colors range from salmon to deep red.  I love this Mystic Sparkler but Mystic Spirit and Mystic Wizard make me want to know more about Dr. Hammett, father to such blooms in the colors of a magenta, pale pink and apricot-colored sunrise.