Sometimes it’s the smallest things that bring us the simplest and greatest joy. . . like these minute little wild violets. . . the tiniest of pretty flowers.
Don’t be fooled. . . the vase is a little vintage bottle I picked up one day in an antique store. It stands just 8 centimetres tall and together with my vintage mini Oxford dictionary, they make a perfect vignette.
There’s a reason why violets bring a smile to my face. . . a long time ago, back when out children were just tots, I had wild violets growing in my garden bed. The girls liked to pick them and play with them in their cubby house. This patch of violets spread bit by bit. . . until they filled an otherwise dormant garden bed under a gum tree. . . it was about 3 metres long. They looked so elegant and sweet. . . almost like a mauve coloured carpet when they flowered.
Then one day there was an incident!!
It is fair to be said, that the man-of-the-house is no gardener. He keeps his lawns and edging immaculate, but when it comes to plants and weeds he has little knowledge. That’s okay though, because I quite enjoy gardening and see it as another creative outlet to be explored. Our partnership in the garden worked out just fine until the day he purchased a new ‘boy toy’. Oh yes. . . that whipper snipper demonstrated more grunt and muscle than we had ever seen in the garden before.
The man-of–the-house was jubilant with his triumphs in the garden that day . . . especially when he explained how he had gotten rid of that nuisance weed that had taken over our garden.
And of course he was right. . . not a leaf nor stalk stood where my violet patch once was!
Lucky for me, the root system was still intact and within weeks some resemblance of life was re-established in my violet patch. I remember being pretty angry at the time, but years later I smile whenever I see a dainty little violet poking her face up towards the sun and remember back to that time in our life.
Recently we noticed a lone violet in amongst our herb garden. Left untouched that one little violet became many and we have such a pretty display of flowers at the moment. Sadly, that herb patch is being dismantled tomorrow to make way for a new patio, so this morning I picked the last of my violets. . . well for the time being!
I hope that you’ve had time today to stop and notice something small and insignificant.
Hugs ~ Kerryanne
