TINY TUESDAY - LOOK IN THE EXTRAS!

There is always great excitement in our house when the first "Nanny Iles poppy" blooms - and last night when Mr. HCB got home from cricket, and had been round to close the greenhouse and survey the garden generally, he came in and asked if I had seen the poppy.  I had, but had waited for him to see it and tell me, because after all, it belonged to his Mum!

We brought a small plant from her garden just after she died in October 1996 and it has bloomed very well each year, so although we remember her at other times, of course, we particularly remember her when the bright red poppies bloom.  

Mr. HCB’s father, Harry, was a very keen gardener and liked nothing better than to potter about in the garden - and after he died suddenly in 1977, Joan often found solace in doing the same thing.  When we visited, she loved to take us into the garden and show us her plants and the poppies were always her pride and joy.  I can almost hear her now saying, “Do come and see my poppies, dear, they’re blooming again and they’re beautiful!”

So today, my Tiny Tuesday offering is in my Extras - and shows the middle of the poppy - and I make no apology for making the whole flower my blip for today in fond and loving memory of a wonderful lady, who was more like a Mother to me.  I was so blessed to have Joan in my life and of course, if it weren’t for her and Harry, I would have no Mr. HCB, so I am doubly blessed!  

“What we once enjoyed 
     and deeply loved 
          we can never lose, 
for all that we love deeply 
     becomes a part of us.”
Helen Keller