Kip’s Comments - September 17, 2022

The Story Behind the Single Long-stemmed, White Rose

This afternoon I spent quality time with two of my grandsons as we hiked the Margo Frankel State Park trails. Since the boys are young – 6 and 3 years old, we did not go far, we took our time, and we did much more looking and learning than we did hiking. We studied many varieties of fungi, a few late-season wildflowers, learned about poison ivy, and just had a great time together.   

As we were explored the wet logs in the forest looking for acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts, and fungi, a bright white object on a log in the air caught my eye. I was expecting to see some form of fungi I could show the boys, but no – what I found was a single long-stemmed, white rose placed in the opening of the cut log.     

There must be some story behind this rose. Was the rose placed by young people in love as they walked the woods? Did it somehow signify the end of a relationship? Was the rose a reminder of a loss the rest of us hiking the trails are unaware of?

Chances are we will never learn the story behind the rose. By the way, one of the grandsons noticed the shape of the opening of the log was like a heart. Did that play a part in this white rose mystery?