Blog by Lynne Pearl
March 26
MAGNOLIAS
Blog March 26
By Lynne Pearl
I felt dedicated to taking photos of magnolias because they are so splendid and brave in the wind and the rain, so extravagantly glorious in the face of human folly. I would wander the morning streets of Devon fascinated by the steadfastness of the magnolia trees. They were obviously old and venerable but somehow knew how to with stand the storms a the sea, lashed by rain, more and glorious.
There’s some that are like handkerchiefs in the sky. Then there’s others that sit in parks, put there probably by Victorians who loved to collect things from all over the world.
You might find them poking over a high red brick wall that encircles a private garden where magnolias surround a big house above the cliffs. Or they might be sprouting over stone walls and old hedges, these are the very old magnolias that get our Spring going in February where the storms take your breath away.
How many libraries are so adorned as this one? To go and get your books (your private joy) you have to walk past this, a pink confection which is losing its enormous petals that sit at its feet, battered but still glorious.
Even private houses have their tree in this suburb, elderly, leafy and gracious. In this house with its own magnolia tree the current occupants wait all winter for its pink blossom and then they know it is Spring.
Then there are other trees that grow up to reach the sky, where a sun comes to see us sometimes but it doesn’t matter because we can look at this glory of petals as large as handkerchiefs and saucers.
This year they didn’t seem to want to open but just sit still and wait so we had to wait for them too.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7796332.Lynne_Pearl
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thiel-One-Foot-Front-Other-ebook/dp/B00GLNTCR2
Art by Cath Whitehead