Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Visiting Auntie E


We've been away visiting my 91-and-a-half-year-old aunt in Norfolk, as we do every year, each time wondering if it'll be the last... but so far it never has been. When the children were small, we went every two years. I've told before the rather strange story of why she lives in this beautiful house (basically, she and three friends retired there. Now only she and the much younger husband of her friend remain, in separate flats).


We went to our favourite places, though have never been to Norfolk in June before and so have never seen certain flowers blooming there. This was the year of the iris.



I love irises. We had some in my childhood garden at home.



They were rather like this purple one. Irises have an interesting smell - not exactly a lovely scent, but pleasant and, to me, redolent of my childhood.



I love the way...

... they now come in a variety of colours.



These are flag irises, growing wild(ish) by the side of the lake at Felbrigg.



And these are in my aunt's wonderful, enormous garden. When she retired, at 58, she did the garden all by herself. Now she has a gardener two mornings a week and her friend, the much younger chap, does the heavy work. My aunt still gardens most days, but isn't as able as she was and there are quite a lot of weeds. Still, you don't really notice them if you look at the flowers. I did do some weeding.



Bye bye, Auntie E, Norfolk, garden. See you again next year, I hope.


5 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:13 pm

    I think that Irises are always glorious. Mine have a delicious perfume though this year they were knocked back by the cold and wet that we had earlier. Your Aunt has a lovely garden and I envy her the Irises.

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  2. Love irises, your Aunt's garden is beautiful, glad to hear she's still able to garden.

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  3. I have purple irises in my back yard; they are long done blooming but are glorious when they do. Love this story of your Auntie. She sounds like quite a person!

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  4. Wow -- what beautiful flowers! My sister was going to give me some irises from her garden -- I need to check on that! I love that you're so faithful with your visits to your Aunt and I'll bet she loves to see you -- you're a good niece!

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  5. I love Iris! They come in thousands of colors. I love hearing about people like your great aunt who are in their 90s but still enjoying life and doing things that give them pleasure.

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