A Vision of Violets

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The weather's definitely more springlike today. The sun's shining, the birds are singing and my daffodil bulbs are now starting to form buds but what most made me think that spring had arrived was my little patch of violets. Violets are such delicate little flowers and are a bit shy. They tend to tuck themselves away under their leaves but they're such beautiful little things and, if picked, have a very delicate sweet smell. I can remember as a child that Dad would take the family out into the countryside to pick primroses and violets which grew on the banks surrounding farmland. Unfortunately, due to the chemicals sprayed onto farmland these days, the chances of seeing any in the wild are rare. II got my violets on an unexpected rescue mission. I was walking into my village to do a bit of shopping at the village store and on my way there I noticed a lovely little clump of violets growing on a bank surrounding an old house. The house was almost derelict and a new young family had bought it. I heard the new owner talking to some workmen who were employed to demolish the house and he told them to clear away the banks to make the land flat ready for the demolition works. On the way back from the shop I looked at the little bunch of violets and decided to do something which, strictly, was illegal. I bent down, pretended I was rearranging the bunch of bananas in my shopping back and quickly plucked a root from the violet plant and popped it into my bag and then put the bananas on top. The original plant, of course, no longer exists but, as you can see from the photo above ,its offspring now flourishes in my garden. If I'd been caught taking the root I could have been prosecuted for theft as, strictly, the violet patch belonged to the new owner of the property but thankfully, I got away with it! Violets also have a significance to my partner Adam and his step sister Heather. Adam was brought up on a large farm in the British county of Essex. The farm bad several violet patches along the edges of the fields and, if Heather was ever upset or feeling down during the early spring, Adam's dad would get a small bunch of violets and give them to her and it always cheered her up. Adam's dad died when Adam was only 8 and Heather was in her early teens. Heather eventually got married and had three children and Adam, of course, ended up with me! However, Heather is a very spiritual person and often attends a spiritualist church in Brighton where she now lives. People poo poo spiritualism and I have to confess I was one of the disbelievers but a few years back when Heather phoned us, she told me she'd been feeling very depressed and had gone 'to church'. She said that the medium had singled her out and said that there was a message from a tall bald man with kind eyes. Heather said it must be her step father. The medium then gave her the message - 'don't be sad, just think about the violets'. Could have been a coincidence but seems a little too specific!!