Today was officially our first day of spring.
Balmy weather, the first horseflies, suncream unearthed, sunhats sought, doors opened to let in the warm air.
It was also the first day of the grape harvest...the children spending a fair part of the afternoon picking the ‘grapes’ from our ornamental vine, which is putting out leaves, flowers and shoots as fast as it can.
They produced a gourmet meal of salad, followed by pudding, with much hard work on the part of the youngest chef.
I celebrated by photographing arum lilies, up to my knees in wet grass, trucks thundering past on the main road as I focussed, composed, recomposed on a prolific patch of the waxy white blooms, casually growing in a ditch beside the N7.
My birthday present behaved admirably. (A Canon Powershot A620, pocket sized, great macro, sharp focus and big enough file size for our photo library). The best thing about it, is that it can see more sharply than I can, so I literally can point and shoot, without having to wear my ever-more-necessary glasses, though I have to wait to get back home to the computer and said glasses before I can see the pictures properly!
Such lovely pictures...Welcome spring to the southern hemisphere! What variety of grapes are the children picking? The arum lilies are gorgeous. They look like the calla lilies I am familiar with. I wanted to carry these in my wedding bouquet but the stuffy florist and my mother had other thoughts...said they were "funeral flowers"... I have always thought they are an exquisite flower. I opted for white orchids and stephanotis instead. :( Can't wait to see more flora in the upcoming spring and summer months where you are at! :)
ReplyDeleteI carried three arum lilies, freshly picked from a roadside ditch at our wedding, which was in South Africa at the end of September. I love them - they have nothing to do with funerals for me! THe spring flowers all come out in a burst now, then we'll have dry dusty months with nothing much beside the agapanthus, until the winter rains bring on the flowers again.
ReplyDeleteThe children's 'grapes' are the little bunch of grape shaped flowers of the ornamental vine, which doesn't bear any real fruit, but turns a gorgeous red in autumn.
White lilies are considered funeral flowers in Costa Rica too. I had my sister take our picture beside one at my wedding (which was held in a cottage in the woods) and some of the family on the Costa Rican side were a bit surprised.
ReplyDeleteI love the arum too..How romantic to pluck flowers for your wedding bouquet that growing in wild abandon nearby! Do they have a fragrance?
ReplyDeleteNot much, just a mild hint of flower.
ReplyDeleteMy engagement ring is shaped like one of those lilies (we call them calla lilies around here). Imagine a gold lily bent into a circle, the stem touching the blossom, and the blossom cradling an opal. I have loved the flower ever since my husband proposed.
ReplyDeleteCalla Lilies! I too gathered them for my wedding bouquet. They grow thickly in San Francisco, but not along the road as yours. This post makes me dream of such feast days and roadside snapshot moments!
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