pure white

our local cicada choir woke me up. a full-fledged summer’s day began. i got out of my bed, walked into my dinning room, and found something purifying my soul on the table. i knew it was there, but i was awakened once again by the beauty of pure white clover flowers. i had taken them home from a narrow park path a few days ago. they caught my eye during my routine walk. until then i’d never seen such big white clover flowers: as white as snow and as perfect globe-shaped as a snow ball. mostly, white clover flowers we see in meadows are murky and imperfect-shaped.
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when it comes to pleasing the eye, i have no boundary between cultivated flowers and wild flowers, say, weeds? as for picking flowers, i enjoy the latter since i’m not allowed to pick flowers in public gardens. besides, adorning a table with wild flowers sounds like a pretty elegant manner of living to me. so, i delight in spending a few days with these white clovers at home. i always find myself preferring white flowers to other colours, by the way. i even play with an idea of creating a little “white garden” of potted white flowers on my balcony one day. but, i only learn that i have no ability of being a constant gardener.

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gary, my best friend who’s lost touch with me sadly since last christmas (i was wrong in expressing my worries about his taking the financial risk for a new relationship apparently, rather than congratulating him. i’m still hoping that my dear american friend will prove me wrong at the end of the day) took me on an english garden tour while he was visiting london. among many gorgeous gardens we visited, hidcote manor’s white border as well as sissinghurst castle’s white garden were muted but awfully alluring. i got charmed by the white magic. my taste in colour for garden flowers was characterised at the time, i guess.

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usually, i’d love white flowers to be in my congenial surroundings, even though i am also very fond of flowers in different soft hues. old (and old-fashioned in particular) japanese people, however, would associate white flowers with funeral. in fact, a friend of my mother’s refused a delivered gift of some white flowers from her son last year. my mother laughingly told me about her girlfriend’s remark on her son’s chic mother’s day gift. she actually called her son to say this: “perish the thought, are you expecting my funeral so soon?” -- oh, what a thought!

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summer-white delights:

pic 1, 2, 8

pure white clovers and tiny flowers i don’t know the name (from my local park)
pic 3

千日紅 sen-nichi-koh, globe amaranth (in the park garden)
it resembles clover in flower, but the two belong to different families.
pic 4

百日紅 hyaku-jitsu-koh, which is read as sarusuberi, cape-myrtle

(on the premises of the block of my flat)
the japanese names of globe amaranth and care-myrtle are only one chinese character (千: thousand or 百: hundred) away from each other. in fact, they do not bear the slightest resemblance to each other. interesting.
pic 5

初雪草 hatsuyuki-soh, snow-on-the-mountain (in the park garden)
i love the soft green and white foliages like this one.
pic 6

梔子 kuchinashi, gardenia (in the park)
this luscious flower always takes me back to my buenos aires days. gardenia is called “jasmine” over there, though.
pic 7

sweet rambling roses (in london several years back)
i could see fragrant roses of organdie-like petals with glossy foliage anyplace in uk. i simply miss london parks and gardens.