My greenhouse is an ongoing source of joy. Today held a surprise: one of my new 'Angelique' tulips has become the first to bloom - and it's stunning! A double flower with creamy outer petals, the centre is rose-like, but the claim to be fragrant has not yet found its way to my nose. Perhaps this will come later?
March birthdays are like a rash in our family. Last weekend we were invited over to our son's house where he and his partner went to a lot of trouble to entertain us royally with a wonderful lunch followed by tea and home-made sponge. We were celebrating M's birthday - he doesn't really want a fuss made, but we all insist - and since he's also undergone a minor operation this week, we felt a little indulgence to be appropriate. Little details such as the cake decorations, chocolates with our coffee and mini marshmallows sprinkled on the gorgeous dessert - are small gem-like memories to treasure.I've acquired a slide scanner, and my brother heaped upon me two boxes full of old family slides dating back to the 1960s and beyond. I felt quite daunted by the thought of even attempting to operate the machine with my distorted vision, but it turned out to be easy to use and the results are engrossing. The forgotten country of the past suddenly finds its way onto my computer screen in bright colours, and it's mesmerising! So I leave you with a photo of my late uncle's garden. All of my father's family were passionate gardeners, and he took enormous pride in creating this one when he lived just outside Oxford. I love the curving edges to the borders and the neatly mown lawn. The photo was taken in August, 1978 on a beautiful Summer's day. And with Spring most definitely with us now, we can look forward - I hope - to just such a Summer.
Ah, the summer of 1978 Prue....
ReplyDeleteO levels just finished and a summer of limitless potential stretching before me. I was more interested in the music of The Undertones, Joy Division and The Jam than I was in gardens at the time but I do remember painting a friend's garden wall white for five quid one afternoon in the blazing sun.
Life seemed a whole lot simpler in those days didn't it? Three television channels and The Good Life on one of them, clothes bought from John Collier or Burton and a letter or telephone call to communicate with friends.
I suppose that part of the beauty of flowers is that you never really know exactly how they are going to turn out in a given year, but, based on what has happened for every year in your living memory you have a fairly good idea as to what is going to happen. If only human life were like that.
What a brilliant set of memories, Hugo! I am slightly older than you, so my 'wonderful Summer' would be 1970 when I'd just finished A levels and Mungo Jerry was singing 'In the Summertime'. (Now there's a song which will accompany me throughout today and probably into tomorrow until I'm heartily sick of it...) I got a job in Boots, when there were still long wooden counters on each side of the shop. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to leave and I think it was responsible for cutting short my brief sojourn at Teacher Training College that Autumn.
ReplyDeleteYes, life was so much simpler - but would we enjoy it as much now? As a writer of time travel, I think you'd find it too different a world to stay in for very long. I don't know. Nothing ever travels backwards in a garden, and yes, there is certainty that the seasons will repeat and the plants will try to grow. For us, there is only the certainty that at some point we will cease to exist, but now I grow morbid, and I don't want to spoil the day for either of us. Enjoy yours, Hugo :))
Lovely and well done you for conquering the slide scanner - there are such wonderful moments captured on old slides and somehow they elude us wedded to the age o digital
ReplyDeleteThank you Christine - and I completely agree with your comment. Sad to think of all the millions of slides which will just fade away...
DeleteSuch a lovely post and how wonderful to now be able to view slides from long ago. Memories are so valuable. I remember writing a poem at school and stating that they are the foodstuff of the old. Not that I really understood then what that meant!
ReplyDeleteOh, and who knows, perhaps we will always exist ...
Mike, thank you so much. Such a profound comment for a school poem! I find it astonishing how finding an old photo (or slide) from long ago can awaken memories which come flooding back. Or perhaps I'm getting old...! Yes, perhaps we will :))
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