The little girls were very offended that I mowed the lawn yesterday. We have beautiful little wild violets, you see, and beautiful dandelions and other weedy flowers. And yes, I'm very fond of them, as well, but I would like this spring to go down in the books as the first spring in which the city has not posted a warning on my door to mow my lawn or face a fine.
So I mowed, and the little girls scurried ahead of me and rescued all the beautiful little flowers in my path by pulling them up and stuffing them into a bucket. And when I was finished, they presented me with the bucket, and I thought, "What DOES one do with a gift such as this?"
One gathers one's girls, is what one does, and one throws down a large, pretty mat board into a shady spot in the backyard, and everyone works together to lay out a masterpiece:
Here are the dandelions:
And violets, and some lilac, which was not in the way of the mower:
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that bulb flower would have been safe, too, kiddos:
And clearly by this point the girls have just lost their heads, because here's some phlox, as well:
I don't know what that flower with the green leaves is, but I WOULD have mown that down:
So far this spring we've eaten our weight in dandelions, painted with them, and created an art installation that speaks to the ephemerality, and also the eternality, of youth. We haven't eaten the violets yet, but we will, and we may even make dandelion and/or violet jelly, although I'm still not sold on the idea--SO sugar-heavy! But it is still spring, and there is still much foraging to come.
6 comments:
What a lovely activity to do with the children. The blue card is just a perfect colour to show off the flowers. You do have a good variety of flowers. Its a shame they don't last. 'Least you've got the photos.
I discovered that blue in my small mat board stash, and can probably see it now as the backdrop to EVERYTHING I photograph, especially in my etsy shop, because I love it so much. Of course, the things that we love around here, we have the tendency to love to death, so look for a new color to be appearing soon.
It was REALLY fun to make the flower art. I can't quite imagine how you'd introduce the activity to a child, though--"Sweetie, go spend an hour picking a thousand flowers?"
it is really beautiful! i hated to see carl mow yesterday,too-- but i do enjoy that fresh cropped look, and our perennial beds need weeding, so we still have tons of violets, dandelions and other flowering weeds to choose from.
i did not know about violet jelly! hmmm....
i think i will hold out for the mulberries.
Very cool! I think I could lost in your blog! We haven't eaten any dandelions this year, but we did last year. The kids are feeding them to our guinea pigs this year. :)
I wish we had lots and lots of violets - I would love to candy some for my children.
But we only get one or two.... just enough to make me smile. :)
I wonder if you could candy dandelions? EVERYBODY has enough of those!
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