Flowers and Gardens, In Memory

Given the current chill, we can rejoice that January's shoots stopped short, and most of the plants will recover. Meanwhile, we can revisit flowers in our memory.

Ginny Palmieri sent a link to a past summer's blog: Crowz Nest: Visitors in the garden

And I revisited a place from my childhood: Fortín de las Flores...

When I was sixteen, and my family was living in the steamy port of Veracruz, Mexico, we took a family trip (probably in April, 1963) away from the heat and humidity of the east coast to the mountains of the western part of Veracruz state.
We went to a little town called Fortín de las Flores ("The Little Fort of Flowers") to stay in the hotel "Ruiz Galindo" (later called “Hotel Fortín de las Flores” and now long gone). In the distance you could see El Pico de Orizaba, the snow-capped volcanic mountain that dominated the horizon in western Veracruz. And there was a swimming pool in which hundreds of gardenia flowers were floating. They gave off a smell of fresh and clean but exotic delight. It was magic!