Naturelover is back flirting with cultivated nature. Early spring means for me, above all, daffodils, and not just because I love Wordsworth and the Romantic poets. Who can resist the sight of a thousand smiling suns waving good morning at the start of each day? In the south of Italy, Goethe was fascinated by the profusion of nature, and also by the way that nature could manifest itself in so many different variations on a theme. Daffodils have a lot of alteration at the hands of humans in this matter, as we have experimented with different forms and colours, accentuating this or that feature of the flower. Be that as it may (that is, they are hardly pure, unadulterated nature), I still can’t help loving them. Like Goethe, I love light, and I adore the way the light shines through the petals.
Here are some shots of my garden this year so far. We only have a few more weeks of daffies, and already other buds are thickening up. Soon I’ll be raving about cherry blossom and crab apples. Early roses are already greeting me, trying to eclipse the daffodils with their beauty, but my heart in September only has room for daffies.