Autumn Flowers

Flowers in soft-focus and now I know why – my whole world has been in soft focus for a while now and the optician has told me I need to start wearing glasses all the time, not just when my arms aren’t long enough. The silver lining is that maybe I’ll be able to see the details sharply once again: that sparkle in the children’s eyes, the sheen on a rose petal, the texture in a stone. The colours will look brighter through the right lenses... and my husband assures me that the frames I've chosen are sexy!


Flowers on our table all week long – a bouquet of golden roses that over a few days opened fully from bud to scented full-blown flower: a gift from Charlotte when she brought her children to lunch here and our blogs finally met in person. Thanks Charlotte for the gorgeous flowers – they have inspired both of us to a frenzy of flower photography and have smelt wonderful all week!


Flowers in waiting: my sister-in-law ordered a load of bulbs this year and surprised me with a present of some bags of daffodil and snowdrop bulbs, remembering my nostalgia for those English spring flowers. I spent this afternoon planting them, tucking them carefully into flower beds among other plants that I hope will shelter them and encourage them to flower. There’s something very therapeutic on a damp autumn day in planting bulbs for spring – you leapfrog over winter and are envisaging bright blooms and fresh sunshine, even as the days are closing in and the evening chill sends you hurrying indoors at sunset.


Flower therapy: despite my stiff back (because once outside you can’t just plant a few bulbs, and end up pruning back lavender and rose geranium until a couple of hours have fragrantly passed and you find that you can no longer stand up straight…) despite the aching muscles, I feel revived by the time spent outside with growing things. I can still smell the rose geranium on my skin and in my hair and there is a buzz of energy and a lightness that wasn’t there yesterday after a day lolling inside over a book.