Before the advent of agony aunts we used to determine the state of our relationships in slightly more organic ways. Picking a flower we'd pluck off the petals one by one chanting "loves me, loves me not." We also held buttercups under chins to see if there was a reflection - signifying that the person liked butter.
I do love wild flowers, much more so than any hot-house plants. So I've really missed my morning walks through local meadows and woods with our 3 dogs. They comprise of Max, a German Shepherd; Sam, a Black Lab and Badger, a Blue Merle Border Collie. They are collectively know as The Hoolies (short for Hooligans) though, to be honest, they are beautifully behaved and a joy to walk out with. I'm not banging our personal drum as dog trainers here - they were all fully grown when we adopted them...
Having a sprained ankle meant that I had to stay at home (was saving myself for last Saturday's wedding followed by a short business trip to Milan) and I was intrigued by Badger's change of colour as he dashed through fields of buttercups and came home streaked with yellow. So my own lovely husband walked home one day last week, clutching a posy of buttercups for me to put in a vase and enjoy because I couldn't see them in situ. I decided that this counted as a definate "Loves me" so I didn't bother to strip off any petals.
This weekend I laced up my boots over an elastic bandage and strode out over hill and dale with him. The meadows look golden with buttercups, the delicate purple vetch is opening and daisies are turning their heads to the sunshine. Gorgeous. If you haven't walked in the country for a while I can recommend it right now.
It's too late for "Oh to be in England now that April's there" but I'm so grateful to be living within a stone's throw of all this natural beauty and that I can hear the birdsong and bees humming, see and smell flowers, (and even put buttercups and daisies in my baskets of soap because of a little gadget called a Microfleur that preserves the colours when you dry them.)
WE can live off it all too - nettle soup is delicious and lots of flowers are edible and look gorgeous in salad. I'm just going out to collect some eggs from our hen hut and a few herbs to go with them. Let's not forget 'from whence they came'. As the hymn goes: 'All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above. Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love'.
Now that's something I don't need to strip flower petals off to be convinced of!
