I feel like I'm becoming more mature and less like a wild animal you might have trapped while it was stealing your garbage one night. Mature people are always noticing flowers and talking about how gorgeous flowers are and I used to be like, "Eh, what flowers?" I thought it was some sixth sense. I would never notice flowers unless they were a gift to me or someone said something ilke "Hey, look at those pretty flowers over there."
And now I have crossed over. I am always talking about flowers (Did you know that May and June is when the countryside is full of wild poppies?) and asking my great aunts to walk me through their gardens and also I bought a jardiniere for my windowsill this spring.
The little Latin signs at the Jardin des Plantes? I will learn all of them. Because botanical snobbery is SO going to up my womanly value on dates and also, look very good on my resume.
Kathleen and Dax sent these amazing flowers to my family in sympathy and they were a real bright spot in our home. My parents loved them and I took no less than 84 pictures of them.*
Also, if today is Tuesday, I am back in France.
*I don't actually know what they are and I forgot to call the florist before I left town. Feel free to tell me and help in my quest to become a flower geek.
I can't tell you what flowers they are but they really are delightful! I think it was a very thoughtful thing for your friends to send a lovely non-funereal arrangement for your family home because the right flowers really do create a bright spot in an otherwise lousy week. Someone did that for us when my grandmother died and it really made a difference.
I think your observation on you starting to notice the small details in life -- like how wonderful flowers are -- is a good one. I do think as we mature emotionally, we stop being so self-focused and obsessed with our own little world and we start being more in tune with the larger world around us. When I was young I never paid attention to current events (Vietnam and Watergate were faint blips on my radar during my early life) or to the pain and suffering of others if I didn't know them. Now it's entirely different; I've learned not only to notice things but to have an opinion about them too. I think it's the difference between being ON the world and being OF the world: "on" it means you're just taking up space like most people, and "of" it means you're a contributor and participant.
Big difference, eh? So welcome to the world -- flowers are just the beginning!
Posted by: The Bold Soul | 27 June 2006 at 08:50 PM
welcome back, coquette! and, as i am sure you have realized, you couldn't have picked a better day to come back to paris!!! can you hear that cheering??? it's insane!!! america has never experienced anything like this!!!
x, cassi
Posted by: cassi | 27 June 2006 at 11:33 PM
I'm excited for the people who care about football. I can def. hear the cheering. I came home tonight and watched the end of the game. It's funny because I called my Dad and he was watching 2 minutes behind because he had DVR and had rewound one part, so I told him about the Zidane goal and he didn't believe me, and then I heard him see it. He was v. excited. He basically comes home from work every two hours to watch soccer these days.
Posted by: Coquette | 28 June 2006 at 12:36 AM
I definitely related to your 'flower' post. Until recently, I wasn't much of a flower person. I always wondered why women were so into flowers. After all, they rarely lasted more than a week. And you know men -- always practical! But then I began to realize that this was part of the point. Flowers have no point other than their beauty and symbolism. And flowers are amazingly versatile because they add meaning to both sad events, like funerals, and happy ones, like weddings. And giving flowers is always the best way of getting a woman who is pissed off at you to forgive you. I wish I had learned more about flowers earlier in life. It would have solved a lot of problems.
Good to see you back, Coquette!
Posted by: Neil | 28 June 2006 at 01:28 AM
For the flowers, my guess would be (but it's a very wild guess) that they are all some sort of lilies. I have no idea for the aromatic plant, though (the greyish branches)...
An elegant bouquet, indeed!
Posted by: Lady Iphigenia | 28 June 2006 at 02:33 AM
the French name for these flowers is 'jacinthes', (I think you call that Hyacinths in English)
Posted by: nat | 28 June 2006 at 12:14 PM
I'm sure that the flower in the middle toward the back is a hyacinth. But I'm not sure that's what the other flowers were...maybe a diff variety of hyacinth?
Posted by: Coquette | 28 June 2006 at 12:45 PM
It's just a wild guess, but the shape of those flowers remind me of honeysuckle.
Posted by: Alicia | 28 June 2006 at 04:55 PM
I'm pretty sure the grayish white leaves are Dusty Miller.
Posted by: Heather | 28 June 2006 at 05:02 PM
Watch out: interest in horticulture of any kind is the first sign of middle age!
Posted by: R J Keefe | 28 June 2006 at 05:29 PM
Alicia, it could be pink honeysuckle, I just looked at some photos.
Heather, it's def. Dusty Miller! I love how it's so graphic and vaguely sealife looking.
RJ, early onset middle age. Figures.
Posted by: Coquette | 28 June 2006 at 09:54 PM
My guess for the prominent pink flowers are some species of orchid. I guess this because they are so abundant in Florida in the summertime.
(Is it pathetic that the sender of the flowers doesn't know the flowers?!) For perhaps the first time of my life, I didn't try to act like an expert with the florist. I squashed those control-freak impulses and let her work her magic. I was adamant about only one thing: that they be pink.
And I LOVED Neil's statement regarding men using flowers as a tool in their belt. Indeed, flowers are the way to a woman's heart. I'm not proud of it, but I'm helpless to resist a spectacular arrangement of cut flowers. A strategically planned flower delivery turned my now-husband from summer fling to long-distance boyfriend.
Like I said, I'm not proud of it.
Posted by: Kathleen | 29 June 2006 at 03:23 PM
I think they're pink azaleas. But I'm guessing.
Posted by: EB | 29 June 2006 at 06:08 PM
Thanks everyone! To further add to the mix, Jeanne, who used to work for a florist and went to agricultural school, is saying Jacinthes.
Posted by: Coquette | 03 July 2006 at 02:30 PM
They are pink nerine lilies and hyacinths. (http://tinyurl.com/gxn2x)
[I too used to be a florist and tend to an urban garden]
My condolences, Elisabeth.
Posted by: Tatyana | 04 July 2006 at 05:10 PM
Ah HA! Bingo. Thanks, Tatyana.
Posted by: Coquette | 05 July 2006 at 05:05 PM
I've come to solve the mystery once and for all. I sent the picture to my favorite florist in Vero Beach, Florida and her answer follows: The large center flower is a pink hyacinth surrounded by nurine lilies. The filler is commonly called gray ghost plant and she doesn't know the botanical name.
Hope this solves the puzzle!
Posted by: APat | 06 July 2006 at 03:23 PM
Oh wow, nice work Aunt Pat! Who is your favorite florist in Vero?
Posted by: Coquette | 07 July 2006 at 01:09 AM
Lynn at Hutchinson's Floral Artistry on Ocean Drive - right near Corey's. Lynn and her partners used to work at Holiday House (was by Designer Hardware.) When that closed, they bought Hutchinsons which was already established, but not doing great. Now they're doing well and putting out nice arrangements. :)
Posted by: APat | 07 July 2006 at 03:52 PM
These flowers were really cute. One can never see it's real beauty without taking a closer look. Thanks for sharing.
-fern-
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