The primrose path of dalliance
Up in le massif de la Chartreuse where the boozy monks make their famed green elixir, we happened on these perfect primevères perkily posing on the muddy, rocky, thorny path up to Mont Rachais. I love Primrose and can never see them without being reminded of the supposedly curmudgeonly Queen Victoria. When Benjamin Disraeli died, amongst all the extravagant floral tributes was a simple wreath of Primrose with the message ‘His favourite flowers’ written in the Queen’s hand. An unlikely pairing – she the Monarch, he a Jewish novelist, and we are not talking heavyweight tomes here but rather the Victorian precursor to a celebrity memoir with a heavy emphasis on the gossipy, with not an aristocratic bone in his body they nonetheless shared a true and deep friendship that had nothing to do with his being her first minister though I am sure it helped the process immensely. He loved primroses, and wrote to her ‘I like them so much better for their being wild’ a fact with which I am wholly as one with him. The untamed, the untarnished, the unfettered have always called loud to me. There is something remarkable about flora and fauna that survive and thrive with no interference from human(un)kind … a reminder that often the best way is to leave well alone.
I have no particular reason for sharing my simpletons philosophy except that the picture was taken on my road travelled, not the one less travelled by, which is my preferred route but the one I am choicelessly taking with every breath, every heartbeat, every step of this one little life I am living through and in which I try to be as tolerant and uninhibiting as possible for the rather dull and untrumpetworthy reason that I actually do not believe I am any more important than anything on this earth we call home. Certainly no better than the brave primevère blooming in February at 1,100 metres altitude. In fact put like that, I’m rather feeble in comparison, I would aver.
The Road Taken happens to be the title given to this week’s photo challenge of which you can find a full arcade of entries here
PS: The title is plucked from Hamlet. Ophelia genially berates her brother Laertes, reminding him that he should refrain from pontificating whilst he himself blithely flies in the face of his own wisdom.
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
If the cap fits, wear it but it’s probably better to tighten your hatband and admit that casting those boulders in fragile huts of glass does nothing whatsoever to enhance one’s credibility.
PPS: If you ever get the chance, do visit Hughenden Manor in Buckinghamshire (Disraeli’s home) and if you can make it in early spring you will be treated to a carpet of primrose that will melt your heart. I promise. The promises of nature, you see are only broken when she is tampered with.
Most people here seem to dig up their primroses after the initial flowering and replant next year. I on the other hand keep watering them and behold, back they come in the summer, and then we split them up so they don’t get overcrowded and we have more in the other borders. I love them too. Lovely post.
I never understand that digging up thing. Not only with primroses …. daffies and crocus and bluebells if you are lucky enough to have them in the garden all do perfectly well left alone. Funny that! …. so glad you get that double reward of summer primmies and thank you for your kind words – I rather appreciate it!
“I am (not) more important than anything on this earth we call home” . If you manage to fully believe this and live in accordance with it you have a chance of … well, becoming Buddha ? Or one of my beloved Medicine Men who had so much to teach us too .
Please don’t forget that we are not more important than anything that exist in the other homes either, and above all that a primrose is not this curious “primevera” (WtF ?) but elegantly “une primevère” .
I also resonated to a sentence at the very end, “The promises of nature, you see are only broken when she is tampered with.” INCREDIBLY sad that America’s current “leader” doesn’t get that!!!!
Jumped over from the Senior Salon, Osyth. Thanks for posting there or I might have missed this lovely post.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to educate a world!”
Madelyn I am thrilled with your comment! I’m so glad you found the post lovely, I wanted it to be that. I was very determined to try and avoid politics in this one but believe me the R Party doctrine that global warming doesn’t exist was hard to resist taking a pot shot at!!! Xxx
Thank you, Osyth. I know just what you mean about the determination to avoid becoming a political blog – and that some things are so outrageous that it’s simply impossible not to comment! I sneak the potshots into my content too.
xx,
mgh
Stealth is the way forward!
First and importantly, I will correct my typo! I’m guessing my clever-clogs Mac thought I meant Spring (Italian) …. ne late at night after a decent glass or two I am lax with my proof-reading 🙊 I genuinely do believe what I wrote about my own importance in this great (and if we left it be, magnificently balanced) earthly structure of ours. I am also of course on occasions an abject failure. But the fact is that if I am mindful at least I have a chance of living a decent life and being the least harmful I can be. Thank you for your thoughts, as ever my Shaman friend 😉
I’ve never understood the logic of digging bulbs up either. I can’t imagine Mother Nature going round with a trowel every spring to keep the species alive. Disraeli and Queen Victoria are a real odd couple, but I have the impression that Victoria was not the numbskull she’s portrayed as, with her piano ‘limbs’ and her perpetual morning for dear departed Albert. She had a lot more about her than the milksop Windsors (who my dad always refered to as Guelphs and my mother as Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). Wild primroses are lovely. The horticultural varieties are pretty, but give me a good old-fashioned yellow flower any day.
I now have an image of Mother Nature with trug, trowel and a kneeler going about her vast garden and cursing loudly that her carefully planned and manicured patch is not behaving courteously. I am certain QV was not at all as portrayed. I believe she was smart and feisty, reliant on her Albert and entirely in love with him and certainly bereft when he died but I think the mourning was a jolly good shield that kept her suitably distanced from the male ‘advisors’ (read buggers on the make) who wanted to take her over. She knew her own mind and she was Queen and jolly well going to rule as Monarch (and Empress) …. Dizzy I think saw straight through her and she liked that. She liked strength not sycophants. that’s my theory at least.
That’s very similar to the image I have of them. And I don’t believe she had anyhting to do with the puritanical malarky associated with ‘the Victorians’. She detested Gladstone who really was into that kind of stuff heart and soul. I reckon she was a good thing and Dizzy was also a breath of fresh air. Long live the Primrose King and Queen!
Exactly! And I join you in exalting the pair of them (Gladstone makes my skin crawl – all that stuff does … totally ruddy hypocrites the lot of them)
Gladstone was a perv before the hour 🙂
Exactement!
Victoria and Benjamin, a pair of mavericks…his Jewish background and his outspoken wife; her shady parentage and her need for male admiration.
I have vague memories of Primrose League bunfights in the gardens of a local ‘big house’: lemonade and tea in the marquee for the docile underclass, to be paid for by listening to a speech or two about how necessary it was to remain docile.
I didn’t attend, needless to say, but to a youngster the preparations were always interesting – the posters, the bunting, the erection of the marquee…
I used to pass a lane in France which was one rivulet of primrose in the spring…I can see it in my mind’s eye always….but all our gardens there produced cowslips and I believe that the two do not co exist.
That is absolutely right – primrose and cowslip fight according to my late grandmother. I love cowslip too, of course. QV and BD were extremely interesting and I have read much about their relationship. He was bound to fascinate her and certainly knew how to play her but I think they were good for one another. Gladstone was another fish altogether!
I knew it recalled something else.
Robert Burns
The Primrose
Dost ask me, why I send thee here,
This firstling of the infant year?
Dost ask me, what this primrose shews,
Bepearled thus with morning dews?
I must whisper to thy ears,
The sweets of love are wash’d with tears.
This lovely native of the dale
Thou seest, how languid, pensive, pale:
Thou seest this bending stalk so weak,
That each way yielding doth not break?
I must tell thee, these reveal,
The doubts and fears that lovers feel.
I have never read that poem – how remiss of me! My younger brother was born on Burns night and my elder married in Alloway (his wife is from there) – I always prided myself on being the only one that had actually READ Burns but I had never read that. Thank you. It is absolutely lovely
What a fantastic look at the simplest of things with the true understanding of our minor role on this most wondrous of flora and fauna laden rocks in an immense universe. We are sooo small.
I KNEW you’d get it! Of all the people I know, you were the one I absolutely knew would understand and agree. If only. If only the rest were as wise!
Thanks, you made my day!
Sounds fair because you made mine!
Little beauties. Lovely post!
Thank you so much! I loved them (there were many more of course but these just begged to be captured on camera!) x
I didn’t know primroses grew in the wild! Oh the wonders of adventures in the blogosphere to learn such things. Here in the Great White North, potted primroses arrive in the grocery store around Easter along with Easter lilies and hyacinths. They must come in pots because the ground remains frozen for at least another 6-7 weeks. Spring is still a loooong way away in Ottawa. I adore your humility Osyth. As sweet as a wild primrose.
Oh one day you must must must see them growing wild …. they are so beautiful – those were just a little pair but there will be masses of them growing on the mossy banks in the next few weeks. Of course that’s just it, isn’t it? Different climates, different rewards. And I do think Nature has a wonderful way of eking out the season til we are desperate for the next to start. Here we are getting all mizzly drizzly which is not popular but when the sun shines it is like elixir! Thank you, as always for your kind and thoughtful words. And may you one day see wild primrose and may I one day see the wonders of Canada!
Love it, and not just because I live above the Café Primerose…
Oooh – I would love to live above that café! I’m above Caisse d’Epargne bank which is not so enticing at all!
Your words are a garden of beauty.
My garden is full of beauty!
nothing prettier than a little patch of colorful primroses…..one of my favorites as well….lovely post….xxx
Glad you enjoyed it, Kat! Primrose are such perfect little blooms I think and their stalks are all fluffy and pliable yet so difficult to break. Quite magical! Xx
I used to have a giant patch of them in one of my gardens from years past…so colorful and your right they are hearty little beauties….
I think all those harbingers of spring have the most uplifting effect on the spirit!
makes mine wanna dance for sure….
What a delightful thought ramble you take us on, dear Osyth. Never before made the association with primevère and primrose. Question: have you tasted chartreuse, and is it anything like the colour?
Rambling’s my middle name! Primevère (once I had corrected my Italiate spelling) … funny the words we learn – I am quite good on flowers and birds mainly because of all the walking when I was first here and then looking up the words. I can’t string a conjugated sentence together but I can recite a botany book in French!!! Yes, I have tasted Chartreuse and the first time was expecting bitter, almost poisonous but in fact it is sweet and I think has rather musty back-notes – not at all fresh and minty like a crème de menthe nor bitter and mouth-puckering like our local eau de vie in Auvergne, Aveze which in turn reminds me of Campari which I loved in the 80s because it matched my stilettos!! xx
I am a “naturist” gardener, and by that I mean: I plant them, then nature has to look after them!. 🙂
Love this little ramble through your garden of words.
Thank you Claudette! I am unsurprised that you are the right sort of gardener (in my opinion of course) …. Nature is a wonderful head gardener if we let her be 😊
Wouldn’t read too much into it Osyth – I am just basically lazy in pampering plants 😉
Honest!
I also had no idea that primroses were wild. But of course they would be. Here, we have the luxury of planting them in fall as “winter flowers.” Because winters are so mild that flowers bloom the entire time. I don’t dig them up, but it gets so hot and dry here in summer that they shrivel away–even on the north side of the house.
I love the intertwining of gardening, history and literature here!
Thank you so much for that very generous last sentence … I am inherently discursive so I tend to meander around and then wonder if people can actually follow what I’m on about! Primrose are magical growing wild … I think all the harbingers of Spring have a special effect on the spirit … snowdrops, crocus, daffodils – they lift us in the nick of time!
Beautiful entry, simply said as the primrose itself.
I had no idea about Disraeli. I love the quote from Hamlet, I studied this at A level, and this is bang on true for so many folk………
I am once more a little distracted from the world of blogging as my mother has just suffered a mild heart attack (while I was home in France, but I managed to alert the emergency services from there!)
I have just witnessed both the wrath and endurance of nature while walking in Sefton Park yesterday. I was heartbroken to see beautiful ancient trees ripped from there roots whilst in the first throes of bloom, but gallant little crocus and primroses defiantly putting their pretty heads above the parapet (quote from future snippet that I will try to post over the weekend)
A case of the flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak at the moment with me…. xx
Don’t overload yourself, my beauteous sista. Take care of what you need to take care of (your mum must have been an awful shock and although I read the word mild, you will worry for certain). Disraeli and QV are worth reading about … I did A level 18th and 19th Century history and it piqued my interest in him, particularly. The quote from Hamlet should be taken to heart by many. I never studied the play but have seen it several times and as with most of The Bard’s work there are messages in the text for modern life. Nature overcomes if we let her but we have to let her be. I will be in Liverpool May 25th for daughter’s final exhibition (probably in and out overnight) if it happens to fit …. anyway, I must email you! I’m hopelessly disorganised at the moment – too many homes my eldest tells me … she talks about my property portfolio which is entirely misleading … the house in Boston, yes; the Maison Catastrophe which will be beautiful but will it be in my life time, yes; but the others she includes are my rented flat in Northern Cantal and the rented flat here in Grenoble. Rude little madame – just like her mother!!!! xxx
Thank you for your kind words – yes my mother was telling me the pain was due to Cathedral Mature Cheddar(never eating that bloody stuff again…..) I am saying Ok, I’m just going to hang up now and call you back as I have another call trying to get through, while googling the GP in Wales………who was at here house within 20 minutes and ambulance was called (in which she stayed for between four and five hours being treated inside as A&E was full, then another five hours on a trolley in A&E while waiting for a medical bed – after saying tat she has got nothing but praise for all staff, was made very comfortably, had all the essential a tests and received all essential medication and was treated with humour, kindness and dignity, what more can you ask for…..
25th May is good for me if we can squash in a coffee or a drink, I will hook up where ever convenient for you.
I thought that I had Hamlet all stitched up and had about 27 ‘stock’ answers up my sleeve (not literally, I didn’t cheat ha) then I opened the booklet and there it was a question on Poloius’s speech WHAT! I had a panic attack and had to go to the toilet (again not literally, just needed to get out of the hall…)
I turned the page and answered all the other questions, (this is my philosophy on life – save the worse till the last and if some catastrophe precedes, then you may never have to confront it….
Ha – Yes – I doubt if the Rapunzel House will e finished in my lifetime either.xxx
That’s just the thing … the NHS medical teams are really really good in general – the mess is all about administration and these poor, caring vocational people are absolutely up against it in trying to dole out the great care that they want to give. Very very glad you were on the phone and didn’t buy the story about Cathedral City! Excellent – pencil it in and we can refine the detail when I know what the detail is! You are so right – deal with things when forced and avoid panicking over something that may not even be relevant. I think I might write that down since I seem to be perpetually anxious about non-existent realities at the moment!! xxx
A beautiful piece on a simple little flower, Osyth
Thank you Derrick, that is comment to cherish 🙂
I cannot imagine a wreath more beautiful! My mind is singing at the thought of it! I struggle with a battle between my desire to take every wild flower home to my garden and my guilt at having upheaved it from its natural place in the world. I have a decent display of foraged primroses, bluebells, wild garlic, wild rose, wild strawberries, forget-me-nots…it seems guilt does not win.
See it as your part in preserving wild flowers …. after all who knows what might happen if they were left where they grew – roads, parks, shops, amusement arcades – all manner of unimagined horrors might befall them. They are safe with you. And happy. I want a primrose wreath too – though not sent by royalty.
It is amazing how the heart and mind soar with happiness when coming upon nature’s simple beauty.
It really is! Those little stoic reminders that the days are lengthening and the temperatures will warm and the sun will shine a little more and when it does it won’t just illuminate our clouds of frozen breath, those little reminders are to be bottled and treasured!
I love your post as much as I love wild flowers… <3 ah, Disraeli – such a GREAT man…
* * *
@"boozy monks…" – smile of the day… cheers! 🙂
Glad to raise a smile and glad to find a fellow Disraeli admirer! 😊
Oh I adore primroses. Like hellebores, they are such cheery and resilient little things and such a wonderful glowing colour. I like what you said about the promises of nature, and it’s such a wonderful time right now with all the blossom starting and the colours all coming out.
So glad you enjoyed them and wholly unsurprised that you are a primrose girl! All those little harbingers of Spring strike joy in our tired pallid hearts, I think 😊
I’m with Disraeli and just love Primroses.. the first breaths whispering Spring is on the way… I love gardens that are full of ‘wild abandonment’ far more that the beautifully manicured landscaped gardens we so often see… Thanks for this lovely post Osyth! x
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Wendy. I do like formal gardens … the great, grand parks but in the end Mother Nature is surely the greatest Head Gardener of them all and left to her own devices gives us the most profound delights. Very happy that you are a kindred primrose spirit! Have a lovely weekend when it arrives (which I think it just about has by now!) xx
There is a magnificence to the Grand Formal Gardens but when it comes to our ‘homely setting’ … for me it’s ‘wild’ all the way! A Fairy Kingdom…
You have a wonderful weekend too Osyth and yep – it’s here! x
Ah… Primevères; they used to make my mother so happy when they came out; there is a forest, five minutes from the house, the biggest plantation of beech in Europe. They will soon come out, the Dog Violets are out already, to be followed by Forest Anemones and in April, the whole floor will be covered with Bluebells… Bring it on Spring, bring it on… I am ready! Lovely post! 😉
What a lovely memory of your mother. It’s hard when they leave us but those moments when we feel them even closer as they watch by us by grace of nature’s most beautiful displays. Those moments are to be treasured and bottled and inhaled when we have those other moments of unbearably missing them. Mine is my dad, by the way and Nature provides me with the reminders I need to keep me straight and true. That forest sounds formidable … like I want to BE there all the time. I’m so glad you enjoyed the post – those little pixie flowers seemed to want to say something 😉
For sure!!! I wrote on a post once, saying that I bring the Dead with me on walks, those who meant something, those I love… I haven’t reached the stage of talking to them yet, so I will keep doing my botanic strolls… And if someone ask me who are those weirdos on your shoulders, I will go Bob Dylan on them: ” They are just friends of mine…” 😉
Have you ever seen ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ – written by the late and sorely lamented Anthony Minghella and starring the late and equally lamented Alan Rickman. I highly recommend it (not if you are bluesy though) …. it says what we are saying very nicely. As did Dylan. They are friends of mine and I do talk to them when out walking and only heard by the woods and mountains and their indigenous dwellers who seem not to mind at all!
I will look at it again… Thank you… So Sweet! 🙂
So much to enjoy reading this Osyth and the primroses are beautiful. At the moment we are enjoying Victoria on the TV who as the young queen seems anything but curmudgeonly. I clearly need to read more about her life. And you have quoted from my favourite play, Hamlet, so you can see you have made my day. And was there a hidden meaning in your use of “unTRUMPetworthy”, or in the words of Hamlet “The time is out of joint.” 🙂
My mother, quite the quiet historian absolutely loved ‘Victoria’ feeling that finally here is a portrayal of the woman not the caricature. I have yet to see it – keep being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I do recommend learning more about her. I was fortunate to have a wonderful teacher for A level British History ((I did 18th and 19th Century British and European) who piqued my interest in many things …. Disraeli was compelling to an adolescent girl, Gladstone repellent and still is! I love Hamlet. And you know me too well is my only comment on the little concealed messages 😉
It’s amazing how those great teachers stay with us all of our lives. I’ll never forget mine who walked up and down between our desks reading Hamlet to us and reciting Yates and Keats. I can hear and see him now as I write this to you 😊
The good ones are the greatest gifts of our lives …. it sometimes takes a while to appreciate it fully but they absolutely are. I remember a wonderful BBC advertisement for Education programmes where they got numerous famous people from all fields to simply look at the camera and say the name of the teacher who had been most influential in their life and that teacher’s discipline. It was simple and highly effective. At the end of each airing (it would show between programmes as a filler being Auntie Beeb and not commercial TV) I would find myself saying Mr Mackey, RK who was undoubtedly the best of mine but the British History Teacher was in an outstanding peloton that I also had at Secondary School – I was fortunate and eventually I came to understand just how fortunate!
I have half a dozen that instantly come to mind some of whom are key my security question answers 😊
😊
As ever, a thoughtful and thought-provoking post. I love your ability to find the profound in the apparently – deceptively – simple. I also like the mingling of history (my own passion) and literature. I take pleasure in the small things that announce the rebirth of spring. In my case, it’s a small patch of improbably purple violets beside our well, which came out suddenly last week, tempted by the sunshine.
Thank you Nessa. That is a lovely thing to say and I will treasure it. Violets are such precious little blossoms and I can only imagine how welcome they are just in the nick of time as we march into March. I hope you are not being blown away … I have never seen anything like it in the middle of Grenoble on Saturday morning – the market was only for the very brave! Of course half an hour after I got back indoors, entirely saturated with an extremely disgruntled dog, the sun came out and husband reported when he pottered to the library that the market was in full swing and everyone seemed unfeasibly happy. I just stared blankly at the little pot of narcissus on the table and willed them to give me happy thoughts so I wouldn’t hit him with a stale baguette (not that we have such a thing in our house, I hasten to add!)
April showers come early in France, where they are les giboulées de mars. The wind is getting up yet again here, although I don’t think it’s forecast to be as strong here as in some parts further north. These past few weeks have been very blowy.
We seemed to escape the wind here and then get it all of a sudden at the weekend. It seems to have abated for now and to be frank my hair is much relieved!
I remember as a child we would take Hwy 80 to the Truckee River for a few days of camping and fishing. During spring time the foothills would be covered in every color of wildflower imaginable and accented by the rich color of California Poppies. I had completely forgotten about it. Thanks for prompting the visual recall.
We humans don’t seem to be capable of leaving well enough alone. Tampering with nature and human nature has been given the ‘good seal of approval’.
And that good seal of approval will be our downfall in the end. I’m so glad to have prompted happy memories … those flowers sound luscious!
I love them, too–the more for having read your piece.
That is such a lovely thing to say … thank you so much, you are very kind 🙂
What a beautiful flower! You truly can see beauty every where Fiona xxx
That is so true, Lynn and you are very talented as a photographer and spotting and taking beautiful images. Primroses are adorable little blooms and so brave I always think xxx
I agree! xxxx
Xxx
Haven’t been lucky to see one… Hope I could visit this place some day!!
Ps – have read The Hamlet… It’s so absorbing.
Primroses are delightful. spring flowers always seem so courageous to me – and resilient. Two traits I admire greatly. I will be writing much about this place in the next few weeks as I feel very fortunate to be here for a few months. Hamlet … one of the very greatest plays even by the standards of Shakespeare.
Such a beautiful post, such beautiful flowers and such lovely comments to read all through! 🙂 I never knew that fact about Disraeli and QV! It´s exactly these little snippets of history that drew me to the subject, to know that how grand everything seems in hindsight, history was actually lived by real, more or less normal people, breathing, not knowing if what they do is right… and admiring the small beauties just like us. I also believe QV was much different than always portrayed and I enjoyed your discussion with Jane Dougherty 😉 I prefer a wild garden over every perfectly manicured! Sure, the Schlossgarten in Vienna for example is stunning and terrific but it does not let my heart sing with joy like a patch of wild earth, flowering forth and needing only sunshine and rain 🙂 xxx
Jane is always good for a discussion and mostly our opinons merge so there is no risk of unseemly argument! QV was a fascinating woman, Disraeli a compelling man but you are so right. Neither had the benefit of hindsight to gauge their actions by. None of us do. We are just a moment in time and those ordinary people before us were just the same and equally diverse. I think it is a slight arrogance of modern time to ignore the lessons that history gifts us and to assume that we are the Trail blazers, we are the ones who have progressed so rapidly that we are breathless. My grandmother was born in 1897 – in her lifetime she saw two world wars, women getting the vote and some equality, horse drawn vehicles give way to cars and lorries, trains go from steam to electric or diesel, man taking to the air and commercial flights becoming the norm, men in space,men on the moon, direct dial telephones … that is a huge amount of progress in a lifetime and that history is very recent yet we forget and do nothing but talk about the progress we have made. I could bang on for hours about history. The smartest people I know have an active interest in history. Primroses. Now primroses are survivors! Xxx
You´re are so right about the arrogance of our modern times and the ignoring bit. I´m sure historians and sociologist will have a lot to write about us in a couple of centuries! History is one of the most fascinating objects for me. Its importance can not be overrated and I´m always so sad when I hear that students don´t like the subject at school – mostly because their teachers fail at making it interesting. I think it might have to do with the increasing lack of fantasy, children are so used to getting everything by a mere touch of their fingers now, they can be entertained at every hour of the day, they don´t have to do it themselves anymore by inventing games and plays. Without the capacity to imagine the world how it must have been centuries and millennia before, there can not be a real interest in it and the lessons they have to teach us. The timespan your grandmother had lived in was indeed a fantastic one! So many changes, so many discoveries and inventions! I quite envy that… I hope we meet someday, then we can have a very lengthy conversation about history, squirrels and primroses while sipping lovely strong English tea! 😀 xxx
I totally agree, I hate the disappearance of children games that once required imagination, handwork and patience . Humanity stopped educating its youth and we will pay it .
We will pay dearly and then the regrets will start …
Thank you! AndI agree: we definitely will… 🙁
Oh we will. Meet. I don’t let opportunities slide easily. I think we should take the tea in thermos flasks (it enhances the stand the spoon up tooth curling strength) and drink it amongst squirrels whilst we compare notes on the world and all the loveliness it contains, what would make it better (an appreciation of history and a return to children actually using imagination instead of just-add-water game consols and all things beautiful that inspire art … good for starters?) xxx
That sounds like a perfect plan to me!!! 🙂 I already look forward to it! Can I bring some biscuits too? Or maybe scones? I just love these 🙂 The squirrels will probably crawl all over us then 😉 Have a very beautiful weekend! xxx
Scones make everything good! Enjoy your weekend and I hope there are some squirrely kisses involved to lift your spirits 😊 xxxx
Thank you, Osyth! 🙂 Just started reading your Coup de Coeur series because I couldn’t resist 😉 It´s beautiful!!! xxx
Oh I hope you enjoy them …. it is a downward spiral so far but it will be beautiful. It really will! Xxx
I have endless trust in your abilities to turn it into a little masterpiece!! With so much passion you simply can not fail! xxx
As you well know, the creative spirit is racked with doubt – I think it has to do with giving one the impetus to just keep trying to improve. I’m good at encouraging others, hopeless at encouraging myself! xxx
You´re right, I absolutely know this just too well… 🙂 Never seen the good side of it before though – thank you for making me face those doubts with more appreciation from now on! 🙂 You´re brilliant! xxx
Thanks for sharing your philosophy! I learn from you!
I never liked primroses abut then… I never liked daffs either… a thing if you’re from SA. However, the two humble plants have for me taken on new meaning… light! Light that can only mean one thing! Spring!! 😉
Thanks for the PS and the PPS… there is wisdom to be found!
May your spring be blessed and your walks up the hill inspired… or, bring more inspiration so you can pass on more wisdom! 😀
So sorry Al ‘you been spammed!’ so I only just found this and rescued it from Room 101. I don’t know why this happens, but it does. I am very delighted with your comment and thank you for it and look forward to many more moments of wisdom on your blog and on mine!
I love dalliance in the regards of relaxing, walking leisurely or the romantic definition. 😉
My idea of perfect dalliance is in playing outside with my grandies. My grown children tell my grandies I used to play, crawl, climb trees, chase and hang upside down. I am blessed they tell “Nana stories” which brings smiles since my single years started while they were 1, 3 and 5. I certainly had no back up for discipline. 🙂
Your primroses are like my Mom’s buckets of Lily of the Valleys. Every move we made with my parents to four houses, the buckets of those broad leafs, sweet scents in Spring made me happy. Roses were also taken but not in the same masses. 🙂
Thank you for your quote to clarify the primrose path. Now, I loved this newfound knowledge. hugs xo
You and I have had a similar path in one very profound way … I became a single parent when mine were 7, 4, 2 and unborn – your simple comment about no help with discipline brought tears and smiles chez moi. But now, although the adventure of Grandy’ is yet to occur I have so many moments when I realise that our raggle-taggle girlie clan was a success … they trot out those stories and they tell them with joy and laughter and when my third daughter had to write her Personal Statement to support her application to University as a mature student, even though it is in an art discipline and her father is the artist who did she turn to? Not him. Me. And it made me understand at a deep level that we loan parents get the best of rewards for the hard work and heartache, we get the trust – we are the go-to for our children and you will be for those little ones too. Here in France May 1st is la fête du muguets (the festival of lily of the valley) and it is traditional to give them to your mother …. xx
I love this personal letter, Fiona. xo
This one was heartfelt and touched me deeply. You had your hands so full!! Your daughters adore you and do appreciate you ever so much! My children are girl~boy~girl. For which I used to lightly tease “the boy” that he was “the thorn between two roses.” He is a great father and devoted son. When he braids pony hair or wears a crown on his head with his girls it cracks me up. His wife let’s him cook while she sews, bakes and crochets. His baby boy is spoiled “rotten.”
My grown girls are such; I may go to one for certain thoughts, business help and tasks, the other for more dreamy, artistic and still lovely as a mom of two boys! She I tease because she wore dresses all the time and played with dolls.
I believe we were “called” to this period in time. As if it were our destiny to impact (fill up) those children’s lives with all of our energy.
You are absolutely true on their trusting us, leaning on us but also lifting us up.
May Day (5/1) in the U.S. has us making May baskets in the past which my kids and I had a few elderly neighbors to leave a small bouquet wrapped in wet paper towels on doorsteps, ringing their bell and running. 🙂 The fete du muguets sounds delightful, Fi! The buckets my Mom carted from house to house gave me a love of those tiny sweet smelling “bells” on a stem. Thank you! xo I will be seeing my Mom over Easter and in May. Will remember your words to her. . .
What a delightful insight into your family … you did a beautiful job raising these children who in turn are carrying the baton and being wonderful parents themselves. It is clear that, like me, you feel that what you gave is a tiny fraction of what you get back – that surely is the power of real love xx
Once again I thoroughly enjoyed the richness of language.
“The promises of nature, you see are only broken when she is tampered with.” Exquisite delicate punch.
Maybe it is the ‘me’ who was raised catholic in very catholic countries, but my favorite line, the one that brought forth ‘touché’ and ‘right on’ as I chuckled was the one that includes ‘…boozy monks…’. Nice touch!
So pleased you enjoyed it and particularly pleased that you enjoyed the Boozy Monks …. of course they would (silently) protest 😉