Wild Things

This little rose had wrapped itself around the trunk of a birch tree at the edge of a pond near home.  Once I noticed it when  I was out for a walk, I noticed there were many of its kind wrapped around the base of birch and other trees. A parasite?  Once thoughtful landscaping gone wild?  Who knows.  Sucked in by a pretty face, I was fascinated by the play of light on the contours of the petals, the waxiness of the leaves, all of summer in a blossom, and that grain of sand...