This blog post is for a new Blog Hop: Wonderful Wednesday, which is a (wonderful) idea that Cyndi Calhoun who blogs at Pictimilitude came up with. The idea that photos will be the focus of the blog posts and each week will have a theme. Today’s theme is flowers.
I love flowers. One thing I particularly love about them is that they can get away with things we can’t. You know that saying, “Red and green should never be seen except upon an Irish queen?” Or maybe it’s, “Blue and green should never be seen, without one colour in between.” Or: “Brown and blue will never do.” There are so many variations, it’s hard to keep up, but my point is flowers don’t even try and they always look pretty. The blue pansies in our garden look just gorgeous with their green stems and with the brown earth in the background. (My withered Peace Lily doesn’t suit its brown tips quite so well!)
But seriously we could learn a lot from flowers. I’ll bet you’ve never heard a flower say: “I can’t come out today, my petals aren’t pink enough.” And I’ve never heard a buttercup say, “I can’t be friends with that clover: she’s red and I am yellow.”
When I sat down to work on this post, I thought I hadn’t written much about flowers before. I remembered one article on HubPages with flower photos my daughter took, and that was about it. Then I started thinking about Drawings in Sand, and realised that although there are no passages that wax lyrical about wandering lonely as a cloud among daffodils, there are frequent references to flowers. They mark the beginning of spring in the first chapter, as in this extract below.
She went into Kirsty’s room and opened the curtains. It was a beautiful day, and the trees in the back green were beginning to bud. Their shadows danced against a row of sheds along the side, while beneath the high back wall daffodils swayed in the breeze. At nearly the end of April spring had arrived in Aberdeen. They could go out into the sunshine and do Sunday morning family things. They could go down the sycamore-lined street to Victoria Park, through it, and on to the play area in Westburn Park.
Spring doesn’t last and the weather turns bitter and winter returns. Crocuses, broken by snow and wind, reflect Stella’s emotional turmoil.
The only flashes of colour were crocuses and daffodils, lying flattened by the wind, shivering in the frost. Kirsty kept asking to pick the pretty flowers, and Stella always said no. “They’re not ours; we’re not supposed to pick them. Besides if we do they will die.”
These crocuses also reflect love: Stella’s daughter Kirsty gives her a bunch of them. Stella’s boyfriend Macklin has said it was okay to pick them since they were broken anyway.
Later on in the novel, flowers remind Stella of a dressing-down she got as a child. Flowers also signal the possibility of improved relations with her mother. The push-pull of conflicting emotions stirred up by this memory and hope are reflected in this extract below:
They walked back with their purchases, Kirsty proudly carrying the flowers for her own garden. They looked like any normal family group out together. For all anyone knew a grandfather and father were waiting for them, out in the garden now the drizzle had stopped, getting the soil ready for these beautiful plants. No one looking at them would know about the ache inside Stella.
As in this novel, flowers are woven into the fabric of our lives. Even when we barely notice them, they are there, adding beauty, bringing memories and giving meaning to the smaller moments of life.
20 Comments on “Wonderful Wednesday: Say It With Flowers”
OH my god, your writing is incredibly eloquent and it reminds me of Victorian lace, so beautiful, detailed and elegant. 🙂 I have your book downloaded…and hopefully soon I’ll get a chance to read.
As for your “flowers” post – what a WONDERFUL post, indeed! Lovely tie in with your book, too…oh, this makes me want to set everything down and start to read NOW! 🙂
Gosh, Cyndi, this is such a sweet comment! And it is also eloquent! I love that image of Victorian lace.
Thank you so much for your kindness, and I do hope you enjoy Drawings.
Love it! It’s is such a great piece of writing and give me a few ideas. You are such an excellent writer!!
Kelly, thank you. And I look forward to seeing the fruit of your ideas!
Daffodils are my favorite flower!
Mine are probably carnations. Or wait, maybe it’s roses with their gorgeous smell, or lilacs, or sweet peas, or blue pansies, or primroses. Then again I love snowdrops…
Hmm, maybe I don’t have a favourite!
Yes, flowers teach us many things! Beautiful, Yvonne! http://petsawarenews.com/?p=149
It’s strange, but they do don’t they Michelle? Thanks for your comment.
This is an illustration how in good writing almost anything, including the inanimate (if flowers are considered that) can become the subject. This was just lovely!
Katia, thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Great description.
I also have your book downloaded, but gotta read past the first chapter.
Beautiful captures 🙂
Ruchira, Hoping that’s just because you’ve been busy, and not because you didn’t like it! 🙂 Thanks for popping by.
Wow, beautiful flowers! I love the excerpts, I’m going to have to go buy your book!!
Thank you Melissa! I hope you enjoy it.
I love your thinking attached to this post and what flowers bring to our lives…all so true!
Thanks, OhBoyMom.
I’m going to go download your book! Amazing and I love the images and how you tied the flowers into this post.
Thanks Kristi! (Not sure how I missed your comment but sorry for taking so long to reply.)
Daffodils are very special to me because they bloom here in late January, always the first sign of spring. They can take so much abuse, too..and keep growing through late frost of reven snow.
Rebecca, it takes till late March or April for daffodils to show up here! Thanks for your comment (I’ve been away so only getting to reply now.)