Tonight, my 9-year-old daughter and I went to an amazing children's theatre production. Called 'The Grimstones', it is a gothic fairytale played out with beautifully crafted marionettes and giant books. The writer, creator and performer of the fairytale is deaf.
The basic plot: A mother is inconsolably grieving the death of her husband. Her young daughter seeks to comfort her by magically creating a new baby for her mother to love and care for. The baby is born with three legs. The mother initially rejects the deformed child, while the daughter is smitten with the baby & confused by her mother's reaction. Eventually, the mother grows to love the baby too, and they all live happily ever after!
I asked my daughter what she thought the moral of the story was. She quickly replied, "Don't judge others by their differences". Yep, she got it!
Hence my bloom for today is unusual, and beautiful of itself.
These are the long pendulous flowers of Acer negundo var. violaceum.
The flowers are like giant tassels, which adorn bare branches in the Spring.
It is a spectacular sight, and heaven-sent for the bees.
You can download the last of these images for your desktop on the 'Wallpaper' page of my blog.
