'Occasionally, whilst airing my bed clothes, I tried to divert their conversation, especially from football, by drawing their attention to some little wildflower. But evidently they considered 'whether the St. Mirren would beat the Celtic' a more interesting topic, and diagnosed wildflowers only as weeds, although they smoked in their pipes a most poisonous one.'
Dugald Semple, Joy in Living (recalling the time when visitors would come to see him in his wheelhouse in Linwood Moss in the early 1900s).
It was only a few years ago that I made the crucial realization that I was a wild flower. OK, so a wildflower who had spent much of his flowerhood with a cut stem and in a vase, but a wild flower nonetheless. To be sure, I'm still in a vase, but I have at least realized my original face, and am making some efforts to re-engage it. One of these efforts is collecting wildflowers that I encounter along the way during my pastoral cycling excursions (to see what plant attributes I can commonly identify with). I started collecting these colourful and fragrant roadside beauties last year and adding them to my kitchen vase on a weekly basis. That way, the natural and seasonal year passed its time in my kitchen at least in colour and fragrance.
Dugald Semple, Joy in Living (recalling the time when visitors would come to see him in his wheelhouse in Linwood Moss in the early 1900s).
It was only a few years ago that I made the crucial realization that I was a wild flower. OK, so a wildflower who had spent much of his flowerhood with a cut stem and in a vase, but a wild flower nonetheless. To be sure, I'm still in a vase, but I have at least realized my original face, and am making some efforts to re-engage it. One of these efforts is collecting wildflowers that I encounter along the way during my pastoral cycling excursions (to see what plant attributes I can commonly identify with). I started collecting these colourful and fragrant roadside beauties last year and adding them to my kitchen vase on a weekly basis. That way, the natural and seasonal year passed its time in my kitchen at least in colour and fragrance.
July, 2017. Blue Lettuce (Lactuca tatarica), Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), Spotted Orchid (Dactylorizha fuchsii), Field Scabious (Knauta arvensis)...
Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare), the blue flower, centre, Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) in the back left. These were picked up along the Sustrans cyclepath between Kilbarchan and Howwood, a wonderful wildlfower corridor if ever there were one.
