Stopping to Smell the Roses

I know, I know – the May Flower Challenge is over! But since doing the challenge, I’m really noticing flowers more and when I spotted these beautiful roses, I couldn’t resist whipping the camera out . They were in the town gardens near the public library. Waif and I were going to pick up some books, but were there a few minutes before opening time, so decided to walk around the gardens. As well as spotting the roses, we had a read of the plaques giving the history of the garden and the friars’ tower within it. I am ashamed to say that I had never read them before, despite this garden being less than a mile away from my house. Sometimes we are so busy looking elsewhere for new experiences and information that we can ignore what’s right here on our doorsteps. We just need to open our eyes…which brings me to my second index card for the ICAD2 challenge:

I’m calling it “the eyes have it”. Waddya think?

First Marigold

Ack, it’s the last day of the May Flower Challenge!! What fun it’s been . I am super grateful to Lori of Lori Moon Studio for hosting the challenge.

I thought it would be fitting to finish with a picture of our first marigold to come out in flower. It’s a “Mr Majestic” and I showed you a tray of them as tiny seedlings in this post at the beginning of the month. And, as hoped, we now have flowers!

I hope you have enjoyed the may flowers challenge posts, and have had chance to check out the blogs of some of the other participants, especially that of Lori herself.

Tommorrow is a new challenge (isn’t it always?!) – the Index-Card-a-Day Challenge over at Daisy Yellow.

May Flower Madness?

Well, we certainly had a somewhat unusual flower-related start to the day today. Lying in bed at 6.30am, there was a knock at the door. Staggering down the stairs in our pjs, we opened the door to gentleman with a strong foreign accent, asking very politely if he might snip a few of the flowers from our lilac tree to take home to his wife!! We agreed, somewhat blearily, that that would be fine and no, we didn’t want paying, thank you. The fellow duly produced a pair of scissors from his pocket, snipped 3 or 4 blooms and was on his way. May flower madness? Certainly was a somewhat different way to start our day. Here is the said lilac tree:

Would you be tempted to ask for some blooms for your wife?!

On Flowers, Impermanence and Hope

Here in the UK, it has rained most days for the last four weeks. So this morning, when there was a window of sunny opportunity, I dashed out into the garden to photograph what flowers I could find that were still blooming:

Those flowers may still be looking fresh, but many of the familiar early spring flowers such as pansies, daffodils and tulips were definitely past their best. Like this red tulip for example:

Not so long back this stood tall, upright and majestic with beautiful, glossy, tight blooms.

Flowers have many lessons to teach us. One of the most important, perhaps, is to remind us of the impermanent nature of the world. As Heraclitus put it:

“Everything flows and nothing abides,
everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”

But flowers are also a lesson in hope and patience. Here a tray of seeds sown by Gman last week, with seedlings popping up their hopeful little heads into the world:

In a few week’s time, these will have grown into the gorgeous gold and orange blooms of Marigolds.