Saturday, May 22, 2010

Heart's ease

I hardened my heart and pulled out my violas. I needed the pots for basil: cinnamon, Thai, lemon and purple. And the little pansies have just reached that lovely, loose, ruffled phase...

When I was little, we called them Heart's ease. Except I imagined it as Heartsies. They had tiny flowers, with more yellow, and they grew wild in the lawn of Rawdon's Hotel in the Natal Midlands, where we stayed when we visited my brother Francois once a year for his school's Speech Day. Poor Francois. Far from home. There was mist in the mornings in this green part of Natal, and I remember walking in the dewy grass to a pond and picking the tiny flowers.

There is a post about mangoes over on the (the Food). I've decided to keep food there, so check on it once in a while.

4 comments:

  1. Those tiny Heartsies? Also called "Johnny Jump Ups" and were, long ago, thought to be beneficial in treating the heart.Works for me! I feel happy just to see them(and scatter a few on the salad!)

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  2. Lovely! And they did give me heart's ease. Mille grazie.

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  3. I love this post and i love these. It always hurts to take them out, so much, I didn't plant any this spring. But now i can enjoy yours!

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  4. Only so much space per season. One must be hard-heartsied;)

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