Snowdrops

Years ago, when my mother was kinda starting to lose the plot, I’m ashamed to admit I wasn’t always as patient with her as I could have been. When it came to things like forgetting where she’d put something, or struggling to remember the name of an old friend, I got it; we’ve all done that. And I understood that short term memory was often the first to go and it was longer term memories that would tend to surface, and be more accurate.

But sometimes she just said the silliest things and I would get frustrated. I remember Mum & Dad driving up to my house. It was mid-winter, deep snow, and they were staying a few days. That late January afternoon, Norma looked out the window of my house at the snowdrifts and said, “Where are the flowers? Why are there no snowdrops?”. I’m afraid I was a tad impatient with her, “It’s January, Mum. The bulbs don’t come up until April.” (said with a bit of a tone, because any idiot knows that regardless of the country, flowers don’t start blooming until the spring.) She looked confused.

Well, here’s what Scotland looks like on January 31. These are just a tiny portion of the snowdrops (and crocuses) that are already blooming here on Orkney, and down in Lanarkshire.

Sorry, Mum.