Monday, June 13, 2005

Buttercup, Bluebell Bouquet

Sweltering days of summer searching for something to do left us exploring in the woods, gathering wildflowers that grew in every nook and cranny of our land. Armed with scissors or even a paring knife we set off on a mission, to get a bouquet of flowers for Mom and a bouquet of flowers for Grandma.

Kicking over toadstools, stepping over fallen trees we trudged through dense willows, long grass and wild rose bushes to get the perfect bouquets. Tiger Lilies, Buttercups and Bluebells grew all over throughout our pastures and woods. We would also collect Indian Paintbrush and this flower I have no clue what it’s called, except it had little white clustered flowers on it, you couldn’t pick it, you had to cut it and I think, it was really a weed.

We would tiptoe through Grandma’s garden and add some lilacs from her trees, daisies, pansies, peonies, snapdragons and the like just to give them that perfect touch.

I can’t help but think of those bouquets and how much fun it was exploring as we gathered those flowers and of the love that went into each picked flower when my children come into the house with handfuls of dandelions. Every time I gladly pull out a cup or glass and fill it with water so I can display the beautiful bouquets they have gathered. Some people see them just as a handful of weeds but I, I have learned to see them for what they truly are, a beautiful gift… a demonstration of absolute love. They are my buttercup, bluebell bouquet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful writing. You ought to be writing books. I can just picture this as a children's book with beautiful artist's renditions of the flowers...

That white clump one - we used to pick one and we called it "Queen Anne's Lace" - my mom was sure it was just a weed that LOOKED like the real Queen Anne's Lace. We never knew and it didn't matter.

My sister and I spend many hours gathering flowers like that too. Instead of making them into bouquets, we made these elaborate mud cakes and mud pies and decorated our creations with wild flowers. Mud pie making was an art for us! We had different containers of dirt - this one was the flour, this one was sugar, this one, baking soda, etc., etc. That's some of the BEST memories I have of playing.