In the sunshine a walk to the fishmonger is a step towards normality. Clams for a spaghetti a la vongole and Mackerel for tomorrow. Swinging my arms and moving my hips may seem to be insignificant gestures but are harbingers of an unaccustomed freedom. Yesterday I was complaining to the GP about my condition. Today I am doing something about it.
We are taken to a country pub for a drive and lunch. "Heliotrope," says Pam, supplying the name me of the pink flower on the verge. Winter heliotrope. A garden escape which explains why a number of wild flower books don't feature it, though it is now fairly common on roadsides in the south of England. It flowers from January to March. I like the name. So exotic sounding for a Sussex lane.
1 comment:
I always thought it a bit odd that heliotrope was quite a strong shade of purple, when the flowers that I've seen have, as you say, been quite pink. So then I had to look it up, and the flowers are sometimes really quite violet, though its history as a colour name is quite recent. There are lots of literary allusions to it on the Wiki page, though not the one I remembered from 'Sons and Lovers', but including a whole chapter in 'Finnegan's Wake' where it recurs repeatedly, and an episode in 'Thank You Jeeves' where 'Pauline Stoker escapes from her father's yacht and ends up in Bertie Wooster's heliotrope pyjamas'.
May your limbering continue well!
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