“A beautiful plant is like having a friend around the house.” –Beth Ditto

My dear mom would have agreed with that sentiment.

It ran in her veins, like our life blood, or the life-giving rivers that feed the globe’s oceans. Just as she nurtured her only daughter, she also nurtured her plants with an uncanny natural knowing. Any plants in her home could never die. It was as though they had a pact to never wither and die as long as they were in her care. Yes, that’s the effect my mom had on her house plants. People would call it a green thumb but I call it a tender knowing.

So when I first read that quote by Beth Ditto it stopped me cold because all I could think of was my mom. Her home was always filled with her best friends. They’d respond to her caring ways; would bloom in thanks; would proudly show their robust ways when others came to visit; they were healthy company as she drank coffee and worked on crosswords or read yet another book.

I remember her giving me one of her plants, with a hand written note set atop the soil. The note read, “I like a sip of tea from time to time.”

== My mother served as a ‘Wren’ in the Royal Canadian Navy in the 1940’s and so I honour her today, and every day.

5 thoughts on “offer it a sip of tea”

  1. the photographs in this post are stunning and your words are poignant. it seems some of your most intimate thoughts come to the surface when you write about your mother. well done in sharing.

  2. Marjolein, I’ve sent you two responses but they have both been rejected. I doubt you will come back here to read a response but I have no other way to send this. Here is the last message I sent to you: “Thank you for your visit and taking time to leave your lovely note.
    Funny you mention knowing the Latin names — I used to know most but can barely recall a handful of those Latin names.” – Diane

  3. Yes, that’s how I grew up and I was expected to also know the Latin names (especially garden plants), but fortunately I quickly forgot about them.
    Nice range of indoor plants

  4. A great way to honor your mother during this time! I can’t tell you how many plants my mother would drop off at our house, saying that she is running out of space. She always thought that I had so much room thanks to a three seasons room we have. But during that “fourth” season, our house is stuffed to the gills with plants. One plant that she gave is a very large jade plant. Recently the lobes started dropping like flies and I quickly had to diagnose. The only thing that I could think of was that it was root bound. After transplanting it to a larger pot, the lobes slowly stopped dropping. Whew! I’m a note collector as well. Mom will leave many notes with “treasures” to enjoy, whether it’s fresh cookies, homemade soup, or a magazine/newspaper article.

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