Spring Memories

The garden is starting to look like Spring and I could not let the beginning of the new season pass without a few pictures of flowers. I have always loved daisies - they are so simple and unpretentious and come in so many varieties. These little ones self-seed themselves in my garden every year. Any flower which does that is more than welcome. These primulas have also self-seeded themselves this year. They always remind me of my childhood. My mother was a wonderful gardener and grew masses of them every year. During Spring, I would trot off to school clutching a bunch of primulas for the teacher in my hot little hand. I wonder what state they were in when I arrived. They are so delicate and we had quite a long walk to get to school. To me, Spring just wouldn't be Spring without primulas in the garden. The native violets are just starting to pop up their little heads so I leave them to it and let them ramble anywhere they fancy. They make a wonderful ground cover and do a good job of stopping the weeds. The jasmine is also flowering and its perfume fills a corner of the garden. The perfume from the jasmine...... ......combined with the perfume from the blossoms on the nearby orange tree make a heady combination and I stand between the two and sniff to my heart's content. Luckily I don't suffer from hay fever. The lime tree is also blossoming and baby limes are starting to appear. This looks like a great crop but I doubt they will all remain clinging to the branch. I suspect it will be a case of survival of the fittest.
The brilliant blue of these pansies is filling the courtyard with wonderful colour. When I was very young I had a book called 'Peter gets his Wish', in fact I still have it, although it is somewhat the worse for wear. The story is about a little boy who loved going to the park to look at the beautiful flowers, but of course he was not allowed to pick them. When his family moved to a house with a garden, Peter decided to plant his own flowers which he could pick and he planted a bed of pansies which had 'little smiling faces'. This is one of the few possessions I have which has survived many house moves and de-cluttering sessions. I could never bear to part with it. This little book must have made a huge impact on me all those years ago because I have been planting my own beds of smiling faces ever since.