My friend Jennie brought a me a bunch of bluebells, knowing how I love them. My father grew bluebells in a shady patch down the bottom of his garden, where they spread freely under the oak tree. When he died, I dug up some bulbs and planted them in my own garden. Some years later I left that house, but took a few bulbs with me to the new one, and also planted some at the bach.
Each spring when they flowered, I thought of them as 'Darcy's bluebells'. But I left my house two years ago, and no longer had a garden. Building work smothered the bluebell patch at the bach, leaving just a few. I gathered them, all four stems, just recently, feeling a little sad.
Then Jennie arrived, with her abundant bunch. 'I love bluebells too,' she said. 'These originally grew in my grandfather's garden.' Her bulbs also carry a heritage of love, family, and continuity. And so it is; we tend our gardens, we cherish the hidden bulbs which secretly multiply, and we gift them to others. Love may seem to dive underground at times, but in spring it surfaces once more and sweetly asks to be shared.
8 comments:
That is so lovely, linking flowers with the past and with loved ones. I can imagine how sad you would feel to lose the bluebells.
You remind me ..I must go back to the spot down at the lake where the the inscription read..I know a place where bluebells grow. I'll go see if there are bluebells there.
What an enticing inscription! Do let me know if you find some.
It is such a lovely thought, bulbs and the memories that they hold being passed on. I once took a cutting from a tree my great grandmother planted and it grew beautifully only we sold the house. I walked past our old house recently and looked at the tree and it brought back so many memories.
Thank you so much for joining my blog Juliet and for your comments. I think the Wintergardens are so special; my grandmother took my mother and her siblings to the Wintergardens, my parents took my siblings and me and Jeff and I took our children - the Wintergardens have so much beauty but also have so many memories for me.
I've been wanting to join for a while, Marilyn,but only just worked out how to do it!
Such an uplifting post and such a lovely friend. Springtime awakens us to new growth and I think it also awakens us to treasured memories though those new growths, such as these dainty bluebells.
Yes Penny, that's a lovely comment: the awakening of treasured memories as spring advances. I will reflect more on this; thank you.
The bluebells were there Juliet! How wonderful that people plant and create restful places to sit and contemplate.
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