More than a year ago, I had to finally give up working my garden. Oscar has more than enough to do shouldering the house stuff, so all my flower beds have become weedy boxing rings where only the strong survive.This year, I mourned the loss of my Wolfsbane, aka Monk's hood and Aconite. It had survived til fall last year somehow, but was lost behind virulent mugwort this year, or so I thought.
Yesterday I stepped out the back door to reward myself for finishing the shawl pattern, all but the name. I could not think of a name that seemed to fit.
I know, I know, I'm not supposed to walk, and especially not on uneven surfaces but I had to take a few deep breaths and look at the maples for just a minute, and the sun was shining.
There, against the fence, I spotted the flowers of Monk's Hood!!!!!
I was so happy to see a remnant of my old garden I cried. Silly, but true.
I had my camera, so I adjusted the long range viewer and snapped a photo.
Naming a 'shawl' pattern monk's 'hood' would be confusing, and I LIKE wolves so I didn't want to use the name 'wolfsbane'. I decided to name her Aconite instead. Now whenever I see the pattern name, I remember that surge of joy :-}
3 comments:
I love this story, Diana. Beauty - and memories - pop out at us when we least expect it! Lovely name for a lovely shawl! (I used to have monkshood in my garden. I love it! I dug it up when Jenny was a puppy, though. She ate EVERYthing. . .)
Aw. I miss my garden. But I know almost exactly how you felt, I think, when you cried to see a survivor of yours.
Very cool. Pretty shawl, pretty flower, lovely memories made from the start.
Lupus is the latin word for wolf, by the way: the disease got its name because it was a fad in the 1800's to name illnesses after animals, and someone thought the typical facial rash looked like a wolf's bite.
And it is a pun for loop-us: the disease of not being able to stop making little loops of yarn continuously!
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