Magnificent Magnolia: In Memoriam

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• Twenty years ago today, the 5th of May 1994 my mother died.  She loved Spring. In our large, overgrown and overblown back garden we had many flowers.  Not planted by us but by the green-fingered previous owner.  Of the flowers that survived our loving neglect, the yellow forsythia never failed to bring cheer after the drudgery of winter.  Every Spring Mum would say excitedly, “the forsythia’s out.”

  She also loved spring bulbs.  When we were at school, she would hop on a bus up to Hyde Park to walk amongst the daffs and croci.  She was a painter and she produced s short series of daffodil paintings in the 1980s.

  I took these 6 photographs of the magnificent magnolia in April this year.  The English country house and estate in Wiltshire, Corsham Court puts on a good show.  This year the magnolia and the spring bulbs cut through on a grey overcast weekend.  We were not a grand family but my mother was grand.  She would have been at home living there.  They also show some of her painterly eye.  For you dearest mum, you are still missed and never forgotten even after 20 years.