actuallycrying:

I’m a Big Fan of watching people grow and become healthier and happier versions of themselves

momjoon:

U ever think about someone and it turns ur insides into ur outsides ur so fragile and soft for them

celeritious:

untitled by Lauri Beckmans on Flickr.

geopsych:

Stopped at an old abandoned house the other day and while the person I was with took pictures, I wandered along the road to have a look at plants. I love old garden plants from other eras and old overgrown shrubs that must once have been loved.

There were two old lilacs, one of them (the only one pictured) a gorgeous deep-colored double variety. Someone must have been delighted when that was planted! It still smells so sweet even as you approach it.

There was an old hydrangea with green flowers, and an old spirea, now overgrown with vines. But the thing that took me a while to compute was a shrub with flowers and leaves resembling an apple tree, but not an apple. 

I should have known it right away because I’d lived near one when I was little, but it didn’t actually click for over a day. Then while I was looking at the pictures again, I realized—quince! Not flowering quince, but the good old-fashioned kind people used to grow long ago for making quince jelly. It was those big fuzzy leaves that finally tipped me off. What a sweet old thing to find.

I imagined a hard-working woman, a housewife, busy all day with making and mending clothes, cleaning house, gardening, cooking and canning, taking care of children and a million other chores. I know a little about that life because I know some Old Order Mennonites and they once told me that a few generations ago their ancestors and my ancestors lived almost the same kind of lives and wore similar clothes. I can picture the flowery sun bonnet and apron. What would that sweet-smelling double lilac have meant to her? It must have seemed like a frivolous way to spend money when almost everything on the farm was useful! It must have seemed like a treasure to her. I wonder, do old plants still remember the people who loved them?

My time there was short and I didn’t get to go scouting around for remnants of gardens or old garden flowers like double buttercups or snow-on-the-mountain. But even that short stop gave me a lot to think and wonder about. I wish I could have a taste of that sweet quince jelly! <3

Sometimes plants can tell you bits of history if you pay attention.