Hello from Sunday night, the gardening edition

Oh my goodness, I can hardly believe that the rain let up for today.It's been over a solid a week of rain...maybe two weeks, maybe two months, I've lost count...but today it stopped, and, as I took stock of my garden, I found some of my beautiful winter blooming plants in full swing.Wow I love winter blooming flowers. I'm one of those garden maniacs who live for garden flowers, always can't wait for the flowers to come, so the earliest flowers are really important to me.Years ago, when R and I met, we found out that we had a love of Beverly Nichols' gardening books in common. How obscure! We thought it was amazing that we both read and loved these books. Do you know about them, have you read them? Oh you should. They're so incredible. In Merry Hall, Nichols talks about his patch of iris stylosa.He says, "They were pale blue, flushed with mauve, stripped with a deeper blue, lit in the centre with gold. There were about fifty of them, in a big white basket under a lamp, and their petals were so frail, so delicate that they trembled in the draught."I don't have that many, certainly not 50 to pluck and put into a big white basket under, (undoubtedly), a golden lamp on a mahogany table in the music room, (which I also don't have). I have only, maybe, nine in total and will only sacrifice one to my bedside table at a time, but I'm working on it.As I was puttering around the garden, I found a fifth tiny little tea pot. I don't know if I ever told you, Kerstie had my granddaughters hide seven tiny little tea pots and one mushroom in the garden, and I still have two tea pots to find!I took out one of my ink bottles with water and made myself a little posy for my bedside.And just as I cut some winter flowers, look what I found! SWEET VIOLETS!Oh my gosh I love sweet violets to pieces. I just had to pick all the little buds I could find and put them into my special, tiny violet vase and put that on my bedside table too! :D One looks like it might open tonight, and the rest will follow tomorrow. I love the smell of violets.Kerstie loves violets too. Actually, they are her favourite flower. So much so that Bunny's name is Isla Violet. One year, when she was about 12 or 13, Kerstie came home from a visit with her father, and brought me a bunch of violets, which she dug up and put into an Eaton's bag. I painted that little treasure the very same day before I planted the violets in the garden. I've lifted those little plants and moved them from house to house for years.Here's that little oil painting. It's called "Kerstin's Gift". I love it.R gave me my house plaque to remind me that there was a time when I didn't create drama at the house. Well, I'm sorry my love, but with all these winter blooming flowers, I just can't help myself. :DThere are plenty of books by Beverly Nichols, but some of the ones which I love are: Down the Garden Path, Merry Hall, Sunlight on the Lawn, Laughter on the StairsSharing with Judith and the mosaic bunch. :D