![]() ![]() Every May I get a little homesick for Cairo and those blooms. In fact, I was so taken by this spectacle, I wrote a short story with these gorgeous flowering trees playing a symbolic role. Years later, here in my office, I can close my eyes and still see these blooming trees clearly. The outstretched, large branches were heavy with fiery orange blossoms lined in gold and arched like rainbows over me as I walked. The newly unfurled leaves glistened a brilliant green. One morning I discovered the giant dull green buds of the enormous Poinciana trees (flame trees), had exploded into gigantic fiery orange blossom lined in gold. ![]() Soon trees blossomed into delicate yellows, pinks and lavenders. A few days later I knew I was home when some birds built a nest in the tree outside my living room windows. From my apartment windows I had a view of two narrow streets, other apartments and gardens. When I lived in Cairo for the first time, I arrived there on the first day of spring, alone, a stranger in a strange land and settled into a third floor flat in Maadi, a suburb of Cairo. I never tire of flowers or plants of all kinds. No wonder artists whether, painters, beaders, quilters, or embroiderers go back time and again for inspiration from nature, as do writers and musicians. Our green world is amazing and beautiful. So Maria is absolutely right about talking to her plants. Exposed to kind statements they flourished while the ones exposed to nasty talk withered up. And beware what you say in front of them. Plants can also warn other plants about predators. Another study seemed to prove that plants can detect one sound from another. No, they don't have ears but they respond to vibrations. Guess what? The Royal Horticultural Society, researchers at two universities in Korea and other researchers have discovered that plants respond to sound whether our voices or music. ![]() She even talks to them as she works. If you think that sounds crazy, I checked out talking to plants on-line. She loves gardening and unless the weather defeats her she is out there tending to her "plant children". I have a dear friend, Maria who I met in Egypt in 1987, and now lives in the Houston area. Even early man placed flowers in the graves of their loves ones. Funerals are barren without flower arrangements. If you've ever gotten a corsage, or a bouquet of flowers or a plant as a gift or a token I'm sure you remember that warm, happy feeling that gift brought. Smell a flower and an event in your life flashes before your eyes: marriage, prom, a baby's birth, a particular Valentine's Day. Think December and poinsettias come to mind Easter - lilies Love: roses. In fact, most holidays and special events and a number of other life passages are marked by flowers. We need to plant flowers, grow then, tend to them, press them and of course, embroider, quilt and bead them. Sort of a constant reminder of the natural world about us and how we can't survive without it. But we also need the color of greens and flowers on our walls, on pillows, coverlets, sweaters, etc. I figured I could start small with adding plants inside the house and when Phoenix cools down in September get started on the outside - one small step at a time. Yes, I've got lots of to do, but so does most everybody. As I looked out my office window I saw plants and bushes but they definitely needed more tender loving care. That's when it hit me, I didn't have enough of nature inside my house. I felt so happy after looking at these incredible beautifully done embroideries of the natural world I turned back to the beginning and looked at it again. What brought me to this realization to see what was lacking in my own life? I was browsing through the current issue of Inspirations Magazine issue #107 ( Who can resist perusing that magazine!) and it happened that this new issue was full of embroidery themes using plants and flowers of all kinds. In fact, inside I have one measly cactus blooming. I speak out of guilt since I've been SO busy with business and life I haven't done enough with "green" inside and outside of my own home. I'm sure most everyone is aware of this but what can we do about it? Besides donating money to a cause, we have the option of keeping our home full of green inside and out. I watch the rain forest disappear (called our lungs) and I worry about the world for my grandchildren. Without our green world we won't have enough air left to breathe. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way."Įvery time I see a piece of cement poured where land used to be or see a tree removed, I shiver. Please Welcome Plants and Flowers into your Embroidery as Well as your Home and Garden.
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