Don’t despise the humble dandelion
AS A child growing up in Finland, I loved collecting wild flowers with my sister. Spring arrives later than in England so the joy of seeing bright yellow dandelions after a long, dark winter was always worth celebrating. We used to collect big, fat bouquets of wild flowers for our mother to display on the dining room table. Sometimes she would weave us each a dandelion crown. We would wear and cherish these all day long while pretending to be fairies. As an adult, I now realise how precious these dandelion crowns were to us. My mother would patiently sit and weave her own magic into them, sending her daughters into a world of dreams and imagination. She would encourage us to remove our shoes, feel connected to nature and respect the world we live in. The other day I passed a field of dandelions with my children Frederick and Millie while on our daily exercise. I was suddenly reminded of my innocent childhood days. I just had to make my children their own dandelion crowns! We collected a beautiful big bunch of flowers while feeling the soft petals on our cheeks, smelling the nectar, feeling the stickiness of the stalks when they broke and listening to the busy bees creating a mesmerising hum. For a brief moment, we weren’t in the middle of a housing estate at a time when we have to self-isolate and distance ourselves from others. We were living in this beautiful moment where the Earth was giving us its best. Back at home, I started weaving dandelion crowns for my two fairies while I told them of my mother doing this for me when I was their age. I hope I showed them that there’s so much beauty in something as common as a dandelion.
IIDA ZELLEY, Flitch Green, Essex.