Queen Anne's double jonquil odorus flore plenoMy daughter loves daffodils and for her sixteenth birthday, I bought her 100 bulbs (from Brent and Becky's bulbs in Virginia). One of my favorites has been this little Queen Anne's jonquil, a species bulb from the early 1600's. Beside its beauty and fragrance, its best feature is its foliage. The narrow, reed like leaves suit the scale of the flower and can easily be left in place to add nutrients back into the bulb.
I am just finishing James Lee Burke's The Tin Roof Blowdown this week. This book is the 16th in his series about Detective Dave Robicheaux. The series is set in southern Louisiana, outside of New Orleans and Burke's love of the land, towns and cities and its people shine through in each book. His words bring to mind images and scents of the present and the past- the land and people of his life. The books are not always easy to read- people are capable of terrible things and these are certainly present in the books. But, it is his love of Louisiana that makes me look forward to the next book. I have never visited the South but I feel as if I know it through his eyes.
This book is particularly difficult to read because it takes place during and just after Hurricane Katrina. And so we see the devastation and atrocities and feel the incredible sense of frustration anew- from the eyes of someone who knows all that has been lost.
This last week, the world has been feeling the effects of a new strain of swine flu that has come out of Mexico. People are afraid, travel plans have been changed and everyone is waiting to see how bad it will be. And if it will come to them. To be reading this book about New Orleans and Katrina and then to hear today on the news that there are sections of Mexico City with no running water- I am horrified. I feel strongly that a society is judged on how well it treats its weakest members and by that standard- we continue to fail.
My mother is on the west coast of Mexico this week with my sister's family and we're hoping that they return safely. Wash your hands everyone. 
3 comments:
Wow, such a lovely flower, but I am amazed at the double bloom so upright on such a slender stem. Mine, with sturdier stems, just bent over in the wind. So, so pretty, lucky daughter!
I've just had a good old catch-up on your last four or five posts. Aren't you ambitious, with the cream puffs?! I've never tried to make them, but they are a treat.
I love your rose wall - photos (larger) please! I have a red kitchen, and it warms me every day.
I hope your family returns hale and hearty from Mexico.
Isn't 'jonquil' such a lovely Elizabethan-sounding word... puts you in mind of lute-playing men in those puffy little pants with tights. Or maybe that's just my weird imagination at work.
The cream puffs look light as air and scrumptious.
And like you, let's keep fingers crossed for the healthy return of your family.
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