🌸Petals and Possibilities🌼

Flowers have always held a special place in human history, their beauty drawing people to them, their sometimes sweet fragrance intoxicating our nostrils and their healing properties that have been utilised all throughout time. Recently we visited the Margaret Roberts Herbal Centre and Restaurant here in Harties. Such a visually beautiful scene to enjoy your lunch in, it is just covered in all sorts of amazing florals and herbs and greenery.

My camera and I had a blast!📷

For some reason, even among all the "prefect" and intact flowers around me, I am always drawn to the not-so-perfect ones. These falling apart and decaying flowers with droopy petals are always so fun to photograph, I think it also shows quite nicely the circle of life, how nothing - not even the prettiest flower - stays perfectly beautiful all the time...

Pink roses are often associated with admiration, gratitude and gentle affection. I wish I had the words to accurately describe how unbelievably beautiful this delicate cluster of soft petals smelt... like nothing you have smelt before... the sweetest, most delicate perfume that cannot be replicated by man... it was unreal!

Along with beauty, flowers are also given symbolic meanings and used to celebrate important life milestones. A red poppy for example, is a symbol of remembrance as well as hope for a peaceful future. Poppies are worn as a show of support for the Armed Forces community in the UK.

Just look at the detail on these! All the tiny little hairs.

Dandelions are often dismissed as weeds (Which they very well may be...) But these sweet clusters are far more than just a weed(in my mind at least), they represent wishes and dreams, each blow of the seed head carries the hope of something new and exciting.🍃

Flowers bring us love, hope, wishes, dreams and romance but they also offer us healing physically. Think back to years past when the only medicine to be found was growing in your back garden... need a cure for a headache, pain, swelling? Theres a flower for that!🌷

Walking around this sanctuary of flowers, along with the bees and the butterflies, you will notice how many different and unique flowers share the garden, growing next to each other, sharing soil and sunlight. I like to think about humanity when I see this, every human being you cross paths with is so vastly different and unique but we should be able to live harmoniously, just like the flowers. The Poppys beauty doesn't take away from the rose and neither should your neighbours beauty take away from yours!

There is a quote that I love:
"A rose🌹 is beautiful, but a sunflower🌻 is beautiful too. Each one is different, but both are beautiful in their own way."

So if you are a sunflower, don't compare yourself with the roses! We can all live harmoniously in the garden of life.
Beauty comes in many different forms and everyone has their own inherent beauty, even though everyone is so vastly different (flowers and people)

I know I said flowers and plants are often used as medicine for healing purposes but you don't even need to eat them for that to be true, just find a lovely garden filled with flowers and plants, sunshine and butterflies and spend some time walking amongst the flowers, smelling the roses and admiring the daisies. Trust me, this is healing for your soul!

So in this new year, I urge you to spread your wings and spend more time among the flowers. Walk in the sunshine and heal your soul in 2025. Admire the beauty of all the little things that surround you. And if you can't find a garden to walk through - plant your own!💐

Have a beautiful, blooming and blossoming new year filled with beauty and joy! And remember it is ok to slow down every now and then.. you don't have to be at 100% all the time...

Take a moment and smell the roses today!🌹

All my love
AJ🌼
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