Speaking..."Flower" and of Fairies

A week or two ago I noticed a field,

a field full of wild sweetpeas.

One day, I stopped & went to look...

 I discovered a world of glory.
An unkempt paddock that nobody gives a second glance to as they pass by; merrily festooned in magical pink. Bees & bumble bees gleefully going about their flighty business by the thousands & thousands, swooning from flower to flower,

to flower... 

 In the language of flowers sweet peas signify delicate pleasure.

 Sweet, delicate pleasure it was indeed, to return to the field with Nina, a basket & some scissors. We didn't mind the bees. We worked around them gently.

 One boy decided he'd rather stay in the car thanks!

One day just before Christmas I spotted a little retro green typewriter. I adored it & bought it & had it sent up from Wellington. I thought that I would simply sell the very ancient Underwood & all would be well. I used old Greenie to type out the meaning of the flowers that I put in Sarah's bouquet for the wedding in early January..

 & afterwards both machines sat out, as I used one & prepared to sell the other. Then one day Rob came past & said "You know I still really like the Underwood" & I replied, "Oh bother, so do I!". So now we have two typewriters...which was never the plan, but really rather handy when there are two avid typers who came to visit & found them to be irresistible indeed! Soon, everyone got down to business & tipetty, tappetty, typed to their little hearts content.

 It's a very busy time of year right now for flowers & bees & picking & growing plums. Even in her plumy absorption, my gathering friend Ruth gathered these flowers from her garden recently & left them for me to pick up with some plums. Later she asked if I got the message? Well...you speak Flower don't you?! The pink Cecile Brunner...are pretty & pink, the Double Delight is just that, & exquisitely fragrant & the maiden hair...is well maiden's hair! Such a sweet message isn't it!

 We all know a little Flower....perhaps, more than we realise.

I have a little story to tell you about tulips. I read it in my "The Enchanted Garden" book, by Claire O'Rush that Sarah & Matt gave me last year. The story is in the chapter called "Flower Healing"...& you know, they really do...heal, that is.

..."Folklore tells of a meadow in England that was inhabited by fairies (meaning that they kept their underground courts beneath it & used it's surface for the revels in the moonlight). In a nearby cottage lived an old woman who tended a very pretty garden, wherein grew a bed of especially lovely tulips. The fairies delighted in this spot, & they would carry their infants thither, singing them to sleep with sweet lullabies. Sometimes, musical airs of such mellifluence were heard in the vicinity of the tulip bed that it seemed as if the flowers were making music of themselves. At dawn the fairies returned from the meadow where they had been making merry, & could be heard caressing & murmuring to their infants as they carried them back to their fairy fort.

The tulips remained in bloom all summer through because of the fairy enchantment & were as fragrant as roses. This so enraptured the old woman that she would never suffer a single flower to be plucked from it's stem.

In time she died; & her successor uprooted the enchanted flowers & planted a parsley bed in their place. the fairies were so distressed that they cast a blight over the whole garden, & for many years nothing at all would grow within it's confines except rank weeds. Yet the fairies tended the old woman's grave so that the grass which grew over it was ever bright green, & the loveliest flowers disported themselves wantonly among the blades, although no human hand ever planted or sowed or in any way ministered to the grave.

This story seems to suggest that where human insensitivity does not recognise the presence of love & the harmony & beauty that are it's gifts & it's manifestations, the life forces wither away, withdrawing to & remaining with the source of that love. A salutary lesson, perhaps, in our ecological troubled times."

And so a week or so later I took Rob back to see the field, but what should we find when we got there but decimation!!

I couldn't believe my eyes. 

All gone!

So we gathered seeds instead & pondered on the unsettling lesson, that life is in constant flow; whether we like it or not.

Peach coloured roses are all about sincerity.

Sincerely, Evelyn.

These zinnias are in your honour dear friends as they symbolise: lasting affection & thinking of an absent friend.

Sometimes begonias are said to mean "deep thoughts"

Dahlia brings the meaningful blessing & messages of  enduring grace. Dahlia is also a symbol of inner strength, creativity & standing strong in you sacred values.

They are also very attractive to bumblebees!

And butterflies!

Yellow roses, like Golden Celebration speak of friendship.

And soft, graceful Dove rather speaks for herself.

In the older texts sunflowers frequently carry the meaning of false wealth...

but the other day when I was driving home on an unfamiliar route, I passed by a road side stall & huge buckets of bright yellow cheerfulness. Right at that moment I knew (with out the slightest doubt) that really,

they mean "exuberant sunshiney joy"!

And this little message arrived from the newly weds. Isn't it the cutest little thank you note you've ever seen!

Thank you too for visiting.

It's so lovely to see you.

But do tell me, I'd like to know...did you know what mellifluence meant all by yourself & just off the top of your head?

We had to look it up!!

Mellifluence is a very old word meaning:

adjective
1.
(of sounds or utterances) smooth or honeyed; sweet

Much love Catherine x0x0x