flowers.

Take time to smell the roses.

One thing I love about my boys is that they can be really enthusiastic about ANYTHING.
I'm dreading the day when they decide that enthusiasm is not cool and that only the few things which their peers dictate are "sick" (or whatever the word may be by then) are allowed to be discussed with any overt interest.
A case in point is flowers! The boys really appreciate them and will happily point out how beautiful they are, or that they smell delicious. It's really endearing... and I can't see it lasting!

We were lucky enough to have a week in France just before Easter, and the French countryside had done a much better job than ours of noticing that it is Spring.
One evening the boys played outside in an adjoining field until after sundown, and then came to get us to show what they'd been up to. They'd made a "beautiful hedge" by threading it with dandelions they'd picked in the field. It had kept them occupied for ages and they were really pleased with their handiwork, which was indeed surprisingly effective!


I have mentioned before that I am not an avid gardener. When we moved in to our house the garden had lots of rose bushes. My husband is not a fan of roses, he objects to being grabbed by the thorns, and he promptly dug up most of them. As a compromise we didn't put them straight in the compost, but replanted them around our gravel drive. I'm glad we did because they have flourished out there and the boys have enjoyed the multi-sensory experience of burying their nose in the soft petals and inhaling the amazing scent.

Rose petal confetti.

Plus when each flower goes over, they love to do the dead heading and throw the petals up into the air to make a colourful shower like confetti. The local pre-school once took all the children to the church to enact a wedding, and as they walked back up the lane past our house Zac and I showered them with rose petals, which swirled about in the wind like a snowstorm. The kids loved it!

I'm getting married!

 I remember my cousin and I trying to make perfume as children by mashing roses in water. I seem to remember it smelt ok when it was fresh but went a sinister colour fairly rapidly.

Much taller than me!

Of the flowers we have grown ourselves, the most successful from the boys' point of view have definitely been the sunflowers, because they mostly get MASSIVE. It still seems magic to me that from the tiny seed you plant you get a monsterous flower with a million seed of its own. And the pattern of the seeds themselves is a work of art if you let the flowers dry out.

We made a flower out of sunflower heads.

I loved our wildflower patch too. It was a big splash of colour in our mostly green garden and gave loads of opportunities to watch the insects at work. (see more in my posts on minibeasts and growing things!)

Watching the creatures in the wildflowers.

Busy buzzy bumble bee.

Appreciating the "butterfly bush"

 And the boys thought it was a novel thing to do to eat the nasturtium flowers we grew in it:

The other lovely thing about flowers is that they're another way to mark the passing seasons. From the first snowdrops suggesting winter might be nearly over, to the vibrant daffodils trumpeting in the spring, bluebells hinting summer is on its way, and poppies celebrating the sunshine it's another way for children to notice how things change but repeat across the years.

I'm watering the "daffadeals!"

The scent of spring.

Poppies painting the countryside

A walk through the bluebell woods.

Summer Meadow wanderings.

Ok, so I think you might have gathered that some of the boys' enthusiasm for flowers comes from me. I am called Daisy after all. They've made me enthusiastic about combine harvesters, I've made them exclaim over flowers. I think being enthusiastic and appreciative of the little things in life is probably one of the greatest gifts we can give each other.

My little flower fairy!

Flowery hats!

 Just a little update! Although this post was written over a year ago, the boys are still enthralled when they see a beautiful flowery scene! We've spent lots of time visiting the local bluebell woods this spring, and last weekend went to the Rhododendron gardens at Bowood. The whole place echoed to the sound of the two of them racing around exclaiming over all the different colours and proclaiming which ones smelled lovely too.

Hunting for orchids in a local meadow...

...because they're GORGEOUS!