The Flowers speak to me

 

Beautiful Almond trees that bloom in our town every spring.  They have to be over a hundred years old.                   

As I am out walking I see many beautiful flowers that speak to me.  They remind me of times past and how I came to love the flowers. Today I spotted these Poppy's growing in a weed patch. They are all so beautiful but reminded me of a poppy garden I use to see blooming when I was a child.  My Grandma Elmer had a plot of ground between her home and my Uncle Rex's home in Payson, Utah.  Each year we would go over to see the beautiful bright red Poppies bloom.  They would bob and weave in the breeze and you could see inside the jet black center.  It was such a sight to behold.  One year we did not go to the Poppy garden.  When we did go to see Grandma the Poppies were mowed down and the land tilled up.  We could not believe what we were seeing.  Who had done this horrible thing to Grandma's garden.  My dad explained to us that the Poppies were Opium Poppies  and that the government had made Grandma destroy them because of the narcotic in them. Of course I  could not understand that and have not thought about it for many years. (probably half a century)   I then got thinking about who I thought about when I saw certain flowers.  I though about my mom as I saw a beautiful yellow rose and remembered how she loved the ones along Grandma Warner's fence.  Mom tried each year to start one from a cutting in her yard and never could. When I lived in West Jordan she brought a start  to my new house and that rose grew.....She was always so proud that I had a yellow climbing rose bush in my yard. Oh, the Iris!!!!!  Many a trip we went on around town and even to Mapleton to see a special color of Iris that was blooming.  I can't smell an Iris today without thinking of my Grandpa Johnny's back yard. The quest to grow a "Wabash" or "white" or a "coffee colored" Iris. My Dad always said he loved the Daffodil  because it told him spring was here.  My sister Elaine had to do a tribute about a rose one year when she was a young woman I think her rose was called a Peace Rose.  I don't remember for sure but when I see the colored roses I think of her.  I have always love the lilac bushes. My Grandpa Johnny had many along the side of his house and I think of him and my mom but I also now think of my sister Joan.  Joan gave me a book about the lilac which contained a wonderful message that when you see it bloom you know those in Heaven are with you. She gave me and our other two sisters this book after she found that she was finishing her battle with Breast Cancer. I have a lilac bush in my back yard that blooms multiple time through out the summer and even into the late fall.  I think of her when I see those blooms. My oldest sister Marilyn had a side yard full of three foot tall stalks with a large purple bloom  on the top. I don't remember their name but she sure comes to mind when I see plants that are on tall stalks like those.  Onion, garlic, etc.. She has moved from that home and I am not sure if they still bloom there.  When I see a Giant Joshua (cactus)  I think of my brother Kevin..(hehe) When we were little our parents took us to California to see the cousins.  We stopped by the side of the road to take a picture of those huge cactus. As we were backing up to get a good picture one got my brother right in the head. Cactus spikes like to stay with you so he had a pretty painful trip for a few days with that spike in his head.
    I have put a picture of the Old Almond tree on the top of this blog.  It is one of the sights I look for each year.  I begin checking when we have the first signs of spring and when they are in full bloom I sit under them and take in the sight and smell.  There are several trees along there that were part of an old pioneer orchard.  The tree trunks are gnarled and black. The blooms come out in that pale pink and seem to almost smother those trees.  I have taken so many people over to see "my" trees.  My Mom and Dad when they were alive. My Aunt Leora.  My Mother-in-law.  My husband has to go with me every year.  I have taken several friends.  I use to take my kids every year. Now I just send them a message that the tree in blooming. I don't know what stories my family will remember when they get old (like me) but I hope they are mixed in with a few beautiful flowers.