" Everything now gives way to daffodils. I am a bit one-sided about daffodils. If I were allowed only one sort of flower on my desert island, it would have to be daffodils. When nothing was out in a flat in-between time earlier in the month, I cam home from a tiring visit to find a bunch of cut daffodils in my letter box. Some telepathy from my neighbour had moved her to this inspired act. I retired to bed for a couple of days, downed by the slight attack of plague that had been dogging me throughout the month, bought a jug of lemon and the daffodils up from the kitchen window-sill where I had set them and together they effected the cure. What crisp fragrance, what unburdensome vigour, comes from leaning one's fevered brow to the cool touch of those extraordinary trumpet-tubes , and what health one breathes in from their stringent breath,
If there us one smell of spring it is the smell of daffodils, not the sweeter, further-travelling, sometimes over-powering jonquil ..... not the very elusive smell of the small wild daffodils ...... No, it is your ordinary all yellow single trumpet that catches the wind in its strong favourite horn and almost rings the bell for spring".
- an extract from 'Led By The Nose' by Jenny Joseph.
- illustration by Angela Barrett.
Ideal words for March.
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian :)
DeleteWould your choice be snowdrops? No idea what I would choose.
ReplyDeleteYou know me well Sue :)
DeleteYes daffodils do mean spring don't they? Is Jenny Joseph the poet who wants to grow old disgracefuly, pick daffodils from other people's gardens and wear purple with a red hat that doesn't go?
ReplyDeleteYes they are spring in a nutshell and it's amazing just how many gardens have at least one clump of daffodils. The very same Jenny Joseph Chloris :)
DeleteNow that would be interesting - desert island flowers instead of desert island discs! I do love daffodils, but not sure I would stick my nose in a bunch if feeling under the weather! ;-) What flower would you take to a desert island Anna?
ReplyDeleteI think it would depend on the variety Cathy as some are quite deliciously scented. Years and years ago Michelle from Veg Plotting hosted a desert island flowers meme which was great fun although most difficult to narrow choices down. I think that you know which flower I would take to my desert island but suffice to say the island would have to be in a cool part of the world :)
DeleteI'm remembering how I love to sit on a sunny doorstep - but somehow this house doesn't have the right doorstep.
ReplyDeleteA sunny doorstep is just the perfect place indeed for peaceful contemplation Diana :) We are lucky enough to have one doorstep that is fit for the purpose.
Delete? I have just seen a tiny dead chick in the corner of that picture.
ReplyDeleteOh Diana I think that the chick concerned was never alive in the first place but is rather one of those decorative chicks that you might put on top of an Easter cake. The illustration is one half of a two page spread and on the invisible side there is a definite Easter theme. I hope that it didn't upset you.
DeleteThank you for introducing me to this book, Anna - like Chloris, I knew it was Jenny Joseph the poet but hadn't come across this book and will be off to Amazon shortly! The daffodils wouldn't work for me in the same way but nevertheess she writes about them so beautifully - and what a lovely picture to accompany the post ��
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you would enjoy the book Cathy. I don't think that the daffodils would do the trick for me either but you never know :)
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