This little cameo is from one of a set of framed paintings, which have a special place of honour, hanging above the fireplace in our our living room. They depict the four seasons and were all painted by my Mum who sadly died earlier this month, just five days short of her ninety second birthday. Painting was one of the mains loves of her life along with gardening. I wish that I could have inherited her artistic talent in my genetic make up but it was not to be. Instead this painting along with its companions is providing me with some comfort as what has been a most stressful and painful year comes to a close.
Mum was Italian and although she came to this country over sixty years ago she still missed the warmth and sunshine of Roman summers. As a child she could go out into the garden and pick apricots and figs. She always especially cherished violets and cyclamens which were familiar to her when she was growing up. In later years her mobility was very restricted but she showed great tenacity and determination to tend to the alpine bed full of her treasures. On a beautiful summer afternoon this year I took her out into the garden, where from her wheelchair she managed to weed and prune, as well as to direct me to carry out other tasks. That was to be our last excursion into the garden together where over the years we had spent many hours working together or sometimes just sitting and being.
Just opposite her kitchen door is a is long and thin strip of earth, where snowdrops will be flowering soon. I will be digging up a clump of them to bring home with me, where they will have a special patch to grow in along with some of the other flowers that she loved.
I wish all my blogging friends a happy, healthy and peaceful year to come and I hope that 2017 treats your patch of earth kindly. Thank you for visiting and for all your much treasured wise, witty and simply wonderful comments which make blogging such a pleasurable experience.
