Missing My Grandmother: June 09, 2013

June is a difficult month – there was a time, up until nine years ago that the first two weeks of June included the birthdays of my Father, my Grandmother and myself. We usually picked the first weekend after the second to celebrate all three. Now I celebrate in solitude and remembrance. This year I was privileged to have Meconopsis x sheldonii ‘Lingholm’ to keep me company. His petals are a shocking blue, similar to my Grandmother’s mesmerizing sky blue eyes that you could sense upon you from fifty yards!

It was she who first introduced me to the intoxicating world of gardening, and who I credit with my ‘turning’ to the ‘dark and shadier’ side of gardening. This and so much more! Grandmother, mentor, friend, confidante. The list seems as endless as the blue sky that stretches for eternity above my head.

Nine years later I still miss her, but know that every time I walk among the ‘children’ here in Teza’s Garden, every time I pick up a trowel or watering can, every time I stop to admire one of my multitude of blue flowering kids, she is there beside me - a beatific smile on her face and those dazzling blue eyes holding me firmly in a moment of fond remembrance.