Today I walked home from work along the cycle path. There were hawthorn trees everywhere, frothing with white. That sight of those bright green leaves against the creamy flowers and the smell of the blossom - slightly sour and earthy - always reminds me of visiting our friends in the west when we were all newly married. They lived in a high-rise flat but B, a true homemaker, had put a flowering hawthorn branch in a green bottle on the side of the bath. It looked lovely.Every year in May I'm transported back to that happy time in my life when we were all young and starting out.
Or that's how I tend to remember it. Actually, I was a schoolteacher and found work very stressful in many ways. I wouldn't really like to go back to standing in front of a class of 34 stroppy teenagers crammed behind desks in a small airless room, as I pretended that I was in control.
I wouldn't mind reliving the weekends, though.
Ooh, 20 comments! How exciting! Nothing like being plaintive for eliciting reaction... Thank you!)
Our New Forest hawthorns were amazing last week. The best blossoming in years. We had a thunderstorm a few days ago and the hawthorn petals were falling like snow.
ReplyDeleteI find that I have to go into "edit html" to get my paragraphs to behave on my own blog. I don't type in any code; I just use either the space bar to add a space between paragraphs, or the backspace to eliminate space. Sorry I can't be more specific than that, but that's as technical as I get!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd go back to my 20s. I'm exhausted just thinking about it frankly. All that going out!
ReplyDeleteIf only we could pick and choose what past bits of our life we could return to.....
ReplyDeleteWe who are now shivering think wistfully of spring. Actually, having put up with horrid heat for months, I do not mind that it is becoming cold. It just takes a little adjustment, and good heating.
ReplyDeleteMy twenties were spent being newly wed and having horrific and disastrous pregnancies, so the times I'd wish to revisit would be most carefully selected. 1967 and 1968 were pretty good, though.
All I can boast of, in the realm of flowers, is the osmanthus, with its wonderful scent. The Japanese anemones are dropping their petals.
It would be lovely to revisit the freedom we had in our early twenties - weekends spent driving about visiting friends or new places. Even having a small baby didn't restrict us as our current life does. It wasn't all roses - but nice to remember despite the hassles.
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