Violets

Violets

Violets are possibly my favourite flower. I never realised before how much evidence there is for this:

• I gave the name Violet to the doll I played with most (although I didn’t like dolls much)
• Violet is the name of the heroine in my novel ‘Queen Anne’s Lace’
• I used to draw stylised violets all the time
• I secretly carved a violet into a piece of old floorboard
• My mother put violets on my birthday cake and my grandmother ate them
• I still have the tiny bottle of violet perfume I bought at Lulworth Cove many years ago
• I bought a cake of violet soap to give as a present but used it myself
• I used to look for violets in the woods wherever we went in Spring
• I thought the white violets in our orchard were literally magical

The violets in the photo were under some bark mulch and survived the snow while others perished.