This afternoon I visited the Lan Su Chinese Garden and had Jamaica on the brain the entire time I was there, mostly because while I resisted the "flower freak" label she tried to stick me with our final night together, I can't really deny it anymore. My moment of truth was at the Peony blossom exhibit when I found myself taking close-ups of my favorite blossoms without anyone forcing me to. When Jamaica and I were on the road together, I was all about my scenic and/or car shots and would only take close-ups of blossoms when Jamaica dragged me over by my elbow and made me do it.
As I took shot after shot of my favorite blossoms this afternoon, I couldn't help remembering our last night together when we rolled in the door around midnight (after the showdown with ice, ice baby) and I immediately sat down in her living room and started tearing through each of her flower books to come up with the names of the only two flowers we had seen our entire trip that she didn't know the names of. After I had done my frenzied page flipping through one book, then another, then another, I looked over and saw a fourth flower book in her lap and said (probably with a little crazy in my eyes), "are you done with that? Can I have that? I need to look at that." She looked over at me slowly with one eyebrow raised and said, "well, my dear, I think you've become a bit of a flower freak." To which I immediately responded (enjoying a nice big scoop of denial with a little bit of rationalizing sprinkled on top), "No, I'm not! You're the flower freak around here, not me. I'm just a curious person. I just don't like not knowing things." Prompting her to inquire (still studying my slightly crazed face with one eyebrow raised), "Really, sweetie? Really? Because you seem very much like a flower freak to me. You look like a flower freak (gesturing to the flower books strewn around me), you're acting like a flower freak (I think she was basing this on my refusal to go to bed until I figured out the names)..."
Finally, I cracked (though I told myself I was just appeasing her), "Fine, fine, I'm a flower freak. Now will you just help me? Please?" Satisfied that she had made her point she took a couple of the books back and we spent over an hour reading through them all to no avail because these two flowers weren't in any of the books. We finally gave up and went to bed, but first thing in the morning she got the names from a friend...because she's devoted like that. So, I am posting two pics of my two favorite peony blossoms because I know they will put a smile on her face...and because, thanks to Jamaica, I am a certifiable (probably in more ways than one) flower freak.
Hall of Brocade Clouds (houses the Peony exhibit)
Peonies and Poetry
More Peonies...
"Cora Louise"
"Color Magnet"
For those of you who prefer redwoods to peonies, this is the redwood I drove through in Leggett...
...and these are some redwoods that I drove past as I worked my way through the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (via scenic old 101 north of Orick)
On the 101 somewhere between Eureka and Crescent City (where I picked up 199)
Dearest Ketch,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that I could be so persuasive. This is a big one, this conquest of making you overcome your powerful aversion to adoring flowers, for it is such a girl thing to do, no? Well, there you are, in full swoon, though I have to say, most people will succumb to a peony in spite of themselves, no matter what they do, no matter how hard they try. These ones you have posted here are particularly beautiful, I must say.
Your descriptions of your trip has made me wish, over and over again, that I had just dropped everything and hopped on board your beautiful car. It was magical being only a passenger. From observing you, I think being a driver is the thing to be but I most likely could never enjoy it as much as you; I do like being driven and you, my dear, are a first rate driver. Just tell anyone to ask me.
Really and truly: wish I could be there.
Jamaica