Grandma's Flowers

 the dahlia. no other flower reminds me more of happy times at my grandparents farm when I was a little girl than the dahlia. the variety, their strong leaves, the colours... memories of endless summers, good times with our family pre-anything-digital. those were the days... days we spent outside, in the garden taking care of the vegetables and little farm animals. all of this and many more good memories of playing with my cousins in the kids' house grandpa made for us, baking pancakes with grandma, walking with grandpa and standing around the huge bonfires he made, the chickens and geese, the owls in the trees, all this comes back to me when I see these pretty dahlia's. 

we usually spent the weekends there and as we left on Sunday night, grandma gave us fresh eggs, something preserved and delicious, and she gave my mom a bunch of dahlia's. the trip home was a 2 hour drive, so she wrapped the stems carefully in wet paper towels, covered in aluminum foil or a plastic bag. I can still see her hands wrapping an elastic band around the final package to keep it in place. loving and caring hands that were always busy in the kitchen, therefore always a little wet or oily. grandma and grandpa would wave us off the driveway and I would almost immediately fall asleep in the car. at home dad would carry my brother and me out of the car, still asleep, and put us to bed. those were the days...

do you have memories so strongly related to flowers?