Showing posts with label Months. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Months. Show all posts

31/01/2016

Snowdrops



A small bird twitters on a leafless spray,
Across the snow-waste breaks a gleam of gold:
What token can I give my friend to-day
But February blossoms, pure and cold?
Frail gifts from Nature's half-reluctant hand...
I see the signs of spring about the land...
[T]hese chill snowdrops, fresh from wintry bowers,
Are the forerunners of a world of flowers.

~Sarah Doudney, "Snowdrops (Consolation)," c.1881

22/11/2014

Royal Albert: Months of the Year

Lily of the Valley 
Royal Albert
Months of the year series 
This is a series of 12

15/06/2014

The Poppy

                              A red poppy means pleasure 

The poppy has a very interesting history and is something that has been around for many years. The poppy flower generally is used as a symbol for people that had fallen during World War I and today it is adopted by the Royal British Legion as a symbol.  The poppy actually is a flower that has a lot of history as opium is extracted from it.  You will see that for a floral meaning, the poppy can symbolize oblivion, but it can also symbolize imagination.



http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/poppy-spray-pottery-jug.html



Goodbye June

31/05/2014

The Rose




The rose is a type of flowering shrub. Its name comes from the Latin word Rosa. The flowers of the rose grow in many different colors, from the well-known red rose to yellow roses and sometimes white or purple roses. Roses belong to the family of plants called Rosaceae. All roses were originally wild and they come from several parts of the world, North AmericaEurope, northwest Africa and many parts of Asia and Oceania. There are over 100 different species of roses. The wild rose species can be grown in gardens, but most garden roses are cultivars, which have been chosen by people. Over hundreds of years they have been specially bred to produce a wide variety of growing habits and a broad range of colours from dark red to white including as well yellow and a bluish/lilac colour. Many roses have a strong, pleasant scent. Most roses have prickles (incorrectly called thorns) on their stems. Rose bushes are able to tolerate a wide variety of growing conditions. The fruit of the rose is called a hip. Some roses have decorative hips.
Roses are widely used across the world as symbols of love, sympathy or sorrow.
Rose is widely used as a girl's name.



The birth flower for June is the rose. Each of the different colours of a rose also has it's own meaning.
The pink rose is a symbol for grace and elegance.


An inspirational story John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose. 

His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. 

Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting — 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York. "You'll recognize me," she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel." 

So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen. A young woman was coming toward him, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. He started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As he moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. "Going my way, sailor?" she murmured. Almost uncontrollably he made one step closer to her, and then he saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. 

The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. He felt as though he were being split in two, so keen was he desire to follow the girl, yet so deep was his longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned and upheld his own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. He did not hesitate. His fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify him to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which he had been and must ever be grateful. He squared his shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while he spoke he felt choked by the bitterness of his disappointment. "I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?" 

The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile. "I don't know what this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!" 



Happiness is not something ready made


 A rose for Rose
Red roses were her favorites, her name was also Rose.And every year her husband sent them, tied with pretty bows.
The year he died, the roses were delivered to her door.
The card said, "Be my Valentine," like all the years before.

Each year he sent her roses, and the note would always say,
"I love you even more this year, than last year on this day."
"My love for you will always grow, with every passing year."
She knew this was the last time that the roses would appear.

She thought, he ordered roses in advance before this day.
Her loving husband did not know, that he would pass away.
He always liked to do things early, way before the time.
Then, if he got too busy, everything would work out fine.

She trimmed the stems, and placed them in a very special vase.
Then sat the vase beside the portrait of his smiling face.
She would sit for hours, in her husband's favorite chair.
While staring at his picture, and the roses sitting there.

A year went by, and it was hard to live without her mate,
With loneliness and solitude that had become her fate.
Then, the very hour, as on Valentines before,
The doorbell rang, and there were roses - sitting by her door.

She brought the roses in, and then just looked at them in shock.
Then, went to get the telephone, to call the florist shop.
The owner answered, and she asked him, if he would explain,
Why would someone do this to her, causing her such pain?

"I know your husband passed away, more than a year ago,"
The owner said, "I knew you'd call, and you would want to know."
"The flowers you received today, were paid for in advance."
"Your husband always planned ahead, he left nothing to chance."

"There is a standing order, that I have on file down here,
And he has paid, well in advance, you'll get them every year.
There is another thing that I think you should know,
He wrote a special little card...he did this years ago."

"Then, should ever I find out that he's no longer here,
That's the card...that should be sent, to you the following year."
She thanked him and hung up the phone, her tears now flowing hard.
Her fingers shaking, as she slowly reached to get the card.

Inside the card, she saw that he had written her a note.
Then, as she stared in total silence, this is what he wrote...
"Hello my love, I know it's been a year since I've been gone,
I hope it hasn't been too hard for you to overcome."

"I know it must be lonely, and the pain is very real.
For if it was the other way, I know how I would feel.
The love we shared made everything so beautiful in life.
I loved you more than words can say, you were the perfect wife."

"You were my friend and lover, you fulfilled my every need.
I know it's only been a year, but please try not to grieve.
I want you to be happy, even when you shed your tears.
That is why the roses will be sent to you for years."

"When you get these roses, think of all the happiness
That we had together, and how both of us were blessed.
I have always loved you and I know I always will.
But, my love, you must go on, you have some living still."

"Please...try to find happiness, while living out your days.
I know it is not easy, but I hope you find some ways.
The roses will come every year, and they will only stop,
When your door's not answered when the florist stops to knock."

"He will come five times that day, in case you have gone out.
But after his last visit, he will know without a doubt
To take the roses to the place, where I've instructed him,
And place the roses where we are, together once again."
Author unknown

24/05/2014

The carnation


The Greek botanist Theopharastus gave the carnation the name "Dianthus" which they are also commonly known as.  Carnations got the name Dianthus from two Greek Words - "dios", referring to the god Zeus, and "anthos", meaning flower. Carnations are thus known as the "The Flowers of God". Another reason why carnations have become popular is because they come in numerous colours and each colour of carnation has a different meaning. 


The meaning of a pink carnation is "Mother's Love".

The carnation is also the birth flower for January and its general meaning is love, fascination and distinction.

Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_flower

22/04/2014

Royal Albert:Flowers of the month

Company History

Wild (Thomas C. Wild (& Co.)) (1896–1917)

In 1895 Thomas Clarke Wild joined his father, Thomas Wild, in the purchase of the Albert Works, Longton, and the partnership manufactured bone china teaware as Thomas C. Wild & Co. Wild became sole proprietor on the death of his father in 1898 and from 1905 to 1917 the business traded simply as ‘Thomas C. Wild’. The St Mary’s Works, Longton, was purchased from Bernard Moore in 1905 and used initially for decoration of the products manufactured at the nearby Albert Works. As Wild’s business prospered he acquired other factories and pottery businesses, the Park Place Works was acquired in about 1910, followed by the Royal Albert China Works in 1917, the Shore & Coggins Ltd business (and Edensor Works) in 1918 and that of William Lowe in 1919. By the early 1920s Wild owned or had controlling interests in about 15 North Staffordshire potteries.
If you like floral designs then you will adore Royal Albert's Flower of the Month series. For every month, there is a beautiful and breathtaking flower for you to admire. 



The flower of the month for April is the Sweet Pea.


18/04/2014

Royal Albert

Company History

Wild (Thomas C. Wild (& Co.)) (1896–1917)

Thomas Clarke Wild joined his father, Thomas Wild, in the purchase of the Albert Works, Longton in 1895. The partnership manufactured bone china tea ware as Thomas C. Wild & Co. Wild became sole proprietor on the death of his father in 1898 and from 1905 to 1917 the business traded simply as ‘Thomas C. Wild’. The St Mary’s Works, Longton, was purchased from Bernard Moore in 1905 and used initially for decoration of the products manufactured at the nearby Albert Works. As Wild’s business prospered he acquired other factories and pottery businesses, the Park Place Works was acquired in about 1910, followed by the Royal Albert China Works in 1917, the Shore & Coggins Ltd business (and Edensor Works) in 1918 and that of William Lowe in 1919. By the early 1920s Wild owned or had controlling interests in about 15 North Staffordshire potteries.

Flower of the Month 
May Teacup & Saucer
Flower: Lily of the Valley
To own a piece of Royal Albert is like having a piece of history in your hands.