This day began with visions…of loveliness. The first vision came from the words of William Wordsworth in his sonnet “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”. Whilst London is far, far from me, the lines
“This city now doth, like a garment, wear the
The beauty of the morning; “
were a perfect description of the loveliness of my garden, bathed in morning light. Not my entire garden, really, but the focus of my second vision, the Michelia tree.http://www.wairere.co.nz/Trees_Evergreen/Michelia Yesterday, I didn’t believe the tree could look and smell any more beautiful than it did, but I was wrong. For, today, it is beyond sublime and I can scarcely take my gaze from it.
Michelia, wearing the Morning Light
My photos don’t do the vision justice but, perhaps, they will give you the smallest glimpse of what is before my eyes…. (the captions are taken from Composed Upon Westminster Bridge)
Now, as I looked at the Michelia, all arrayed in white blossom, I began to think of a conversation I had with Annie at http://forestsogreen.wordpress.com/. She commented about the floral print dress, worn by Grandmother, in my previous post here: ” My grandmother also wore those dresses made of fabric with flowers 
” said Annie. To which I replied, “Yes, Annie! Looking at the photo, I remembered so clearly those flower print dresses. My grandmother also had her flower print dress for morning when she did most of her household work and cooking and, then, in the afternoon, she wore a nicer, better flower print dress. She didn’t flop around in her pyjamas like her lazy grandaughter!!!!” And, then, from my thoughts came laughter and love because, suddenly, my beautiful Michelia became a living, visionary version of my Nana’s floral print morning dress. And, of the days, when we took our garden bouquets and imprinted them on the fabric of our daily lives; our house dresses and our aprons and our dresses for “best” .
Enough of the fanciful. Let me return to the practical. My good blogger friend at http://ordinarygood.wordpress.com/ told me that the soft fuzzy bud cover on magnolia and Michelia blooms is known as a perule. Such a pretty and perfect word for them. These last two photos are for her.
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- Perule
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- Non-Perule
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I love the Wordsworth, and your homage to your flowering tree, and you delightful connection to your grandmother, too. What a beautiful jewel of a post!
Thank you Brenda. As you showed in your lilac post, there are moments in gardens that bring back the most wonderful memories of our grandmothers.
Yes, and my grandmother wore floral prints, too. Made me grin to remember. She had her day china, and her special china. She had standards. 🙂
Indeed! And oh those lovely crisp white formal tablecloths; I still have one of them but it is never starched :(.
Yes, we never have formal meals anymore. I remember her talking about “elbow grease” and I thought it was a cleaning product at first. 🙂
I think I puzzled about ‘elbow grease’ too.
LOL Glad I was not alone!
🙂
What spectacular blooms! I love your comparison of them to the floral print dress; sublime! 🙂
Thank you. It is very beautiful. And has had a long flowering season. I have 3 blooms still.
Hi! I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Please get the badge at http://wp.me/p3z6Kf-eL and get more info. Have a great day. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
I love the concept of morning flower dress and afternoon better flower dress! Made me smile today that I have to pack for my trip 🙂
I hope you have some ‘flower’ dresses to pack 🙂
WOW! So gorgeous!
I am getting closer to Holler standards all the time 😉 !!!
Your photos of your Michelia are doing great. They represent the beautiful tree very well.
Thank you for your kind words 🙂
Lovely, indeed! Awesome video of your photographs!
Thank you. Taking photos in a halo of fragrance was a wonderful experience.
A lovely post filled with the fragrance of both fowers and words! I love the dress/apron? and my grandmother used to wear them too. I kept a couple of them in my old chest. Perules I have never heard of…but new words are always welcome here!
I do wish to have my head in a bush too…and a photo of you in yours…
We are going for autumn now, but it is still warm – about 20 C. We have had the longest and warmest summer I can remember…and the autumn is warm and sunny too. It’s lovely still…but no such beauties as your flowers!
Thank you!, and I wish I could give you a photo of me with my head in the bush!!!! So glad you still have some of your grandmother’s aprons tucked away in your old chest. The one garment that I have of my grandmother’s is a hand sewn and crocheted petticoat. It would be at least 70 years old if not older.
Wow, what a lovely post, you are so kind to mention me and my blog, I know that someplace I must have a photo of my grandmother wearing a floral dress, I think I will be browsing the photo albums this afternoon. Your tree is so very beautiful 🙂 Annie
Thank you for admiring my tree 🙂 Do hope you find that photo of your grandmother. I have a photo of my maternal grandmother in a floral dress too. I didn’t find it in time to put in my post, so perhaps I will have to do a special post for her another time.
William Wordsworth…I use to scrapbook years ago and they have a line of products with his quotes…they were always my favorite to play with. Great photos my friend.
I am fascinated by that information about the quotes. Scrapbooking must have been such fun.
My Grandma used to wear a tabard rather than an apron or ‘jobs’ dress. I can never remember her not wearing it! Love the flowers but look at all the petals on the ground (did you disturb them when you put your head in?). How long do the flowers normally last? I’ve never actually heard of a Michelia before – does it have a more common name? Or perhaps they are not very common in the UK…. or Singapore for that matter. Cath
Ah, yes a tabard would be useful. They are very good, too, for putting on little ones when they are doing art work. The petals on the ground are natural fall ( I hope!) from some windy days. The flowers seem to last for days on the tree but deteriorate quickly if picked and brought indoors. A type of Michelia is found in Singapore http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/docs/diy_guide/FCP_trees.pdf It is plant number 18 on page 5 of the document. It is called White Chempaka. http://www.kew.org/plants/temperate/michelia.html and possibly found in the UK. Perhaps some essential oils from the Chempaka have found their way in to the handmade soaps in Singapore 🙂
I am put to shame at your thorough research! The Fort walking trail is about 15 minutes away from my home, it’s in the centre of town, so I think that will have to be one of our weekend walks, I am going to find the Michelia (or Chempaka!)
Not sure if the Michelia is widespread in the UK if it’s in Kew under Asian temperate plants. I have never heard of the essential oil but I bet I will hear it all the time now – that happens doesn’t it? Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Yes, I am not sure about the Michelia in the UK but, since it grows here, it may also do so in the UK. The white chempaka in Singapore looks like a bolder, bigger and more tropical version of my Michelia. However, I think if you can find it, and it is in bloom, you will have an idea of the fragrance I enjoy from my tree. And I am sure that ,from now on, you will see the essential oil every where and you will wish you had never heard of it!!!!!
Yes it does look a rather large tree from the photos, hope I don’t miss it. I hope it is in bloom too, it would be a shame not to smell it’s fragrance.
Of course, I don’t really know how large my Michelia is going to get. I was told it was a dwarf, and compact, variety but one never knows!
I was just thinking, I could be walking right under the trees whilst I am out and about without realising it – they won’t be just limited to the park surely? I nearly fell over on my walk tonight looking upwards!
Oh dear! Perhaps, it would be better to look for smaller trees at eye level 🙂 !!!!
Will take note…..
It looks so lovely! The pure white symbolizing purity. Just like want to lay underneath and enjoy its scent and let them fall on my palms. Isn’t it so great? 🙂
Yes, exactly! If it wasn’t so damp on the ground, I would do that myself. Don’t laugh but I put my head right inside the tree branches just to smell the beautiful perfume all around my head 😀 Imagine that photo if someone had come along; a person with a tree for a head!!!!
Your pictures are stunning, but I especially liked the photo of you and Nana in her flowered dress.
Lillian
Thank you Lillian. It is a special photo because I don’t have many where my Nana is actually carrying me. Not surprising really because I look as though I am a hefty baby to carry around 🙂
I am in awe of your slide show of the beautiful Michelia tree. My daughter’s name is Michelene. I’ll have to see if I can get one of those for my yard!
Oh that would be lovely if you could do that for her. It really is one of the most delightful trees I have ever known. Mine is probably about 6 years old. The first few years it didn’t do much at all but this year it is outdoing itself.
What a beautiful tree and I love your image of it becoming a living visionary version of your grandmother’s floral print morning dress. 😉
Thank you. I do get carried away with my words sometimes 😉 ! It’s great fun to let words tumble and run 🙂
You have a way with words. 😉
🙂
they are gorgeous photos but also ripe for a watercolor don’t you think?
An excellent idea; calling all watercolour artists for assistance please. 🙂
Au contraire! I think that your photos most certainly do the Michelia justice and they certainly give your readers a gift today. We are lucky to take so much joy in such small things, aren’t we?
Thank you, Heather. I wish I could send you some of the Michelia’s fragrance. It’s very delicate. Hints of lemon, freesia, frangipani, maybe orange blossom? I would probably wear it if it came as a perfume. Ah,yes, small things are wondrous. 🙂
I remember the days when my grandmother had her floral apron on. I hardly ever remember her without. We had to wear aprons and not make our best dresses dirty on a Sunday outing. How life has changed. I was always worried to fall and get grass staines on my white tights. The worries of a child, I think I only ruined a sunday dress once by falling. Otherwise I was a very good girl… 🙂
Aprons are so sensible. I do have one but only occasionally do I remember to wear it. Mine is stripey! I am sure you were very well behaved in your best Sunday dress. I had the most beautiful Sunday dresses. They weren’t always comfortable but they were frilly and pretty. Even had a small hat at one time. Not so much a hat, but more like what are called Fascinators these days. No white tights though because our climate was too hot for tights.
I forgot to add that I would like my very own Perule to enfold me and I could emerge when I felt ready to bloom…..thanks again for the mention. I discovered Perules on another website:-)
What a lovely idea. Wouldn’t that be cosy and perfect? More perules; where?
I learnt about perules here: http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/capture-spring-breaks/?i=50#replies
The Capture section of winter and now spring photos is offering me much enjoyment now that I have found it. I see many of the contributors are Christchurch folk.
Thanks for the link. Some beautiful photography and I saw the flattened perules looking like a bird 🙂
I loved the bird-like perule too. I think my Magnolia is in for a thrashing in the forecast 120kms gales arriving tomorrow:-((((((
Oh help. Good luck with that.
Our warmest winter since records began in the 1860s could well be about to remind us that spring can be very much like a cold winter…..
We often get our biggest snowfalls in the earliest part of September!
Oh thank you for mentioning me in such kind terms in your blog post. Your Michelia photos are just gorgeous and the connection to your Grandma’s floral print dress adds so much. I am thinking here of that saying/quote/maxim about us being a part of everything and everything a part of us. Forgive me for not relating that in a more “gainly” fashion.
I have a couple of aprons here that my Gran made. She always wore an apron to keep her dresses clean and she had house dresses and going out dresses and best dresses. Her granddaughter does not own a dress!
BTW did you read English Lit at Oxford I wonder?
How lovely that you still have your Gran’s aprons. And, I think I might be hard pressed to find a dress in my cupboard. Even skirts; last time I wore a skirt it was one borrowed from my daughter! Love your quote. I do feel that life is entangled exactly like that. No English Lit for me! I was only at Oxford for a year on a post graduate course in diplomacy. It was great fun.
Diplomacy – we could use more of that in the world right now….
Truly, truly.