Holy Flowers! The story of a woman, her friend and their dogs!

This week your intrepid Flower Friend, worried about not having enough flowers to give over the Easter bank holiday weekend, received an unexpected and welcome message from lovely Lynda Stuart, secretary to the Kilburn Webheath Tenants’ Residents’ Association and chair of Kilburn Older Voices Exchange (KOVE).

“Seeds making progress. Would you like these in the meantime, can deliver Tuesday pm.” she wrote, along with pictures of pots of baby seedlings, some sweet dancing narcissi in her garden and a big winter jasmine donated by one of her neighbours.

Lynda was one of the many Webheath residents who popped in to pick up some flower and herb seeds at our giveaway event on the estate last month, with the kind intention of sowing and growing for Flower Friends to give to isolated and disabled people in the community.

Phew, problem sorted, I thought! As promised, Lynda turned up with the flowers and a friend with two shaggy guide dogs of mixed heritage, one large and soppy and the other small and naughty :))

All I had to do then was add cherry blossom, bergenia, chocolate vine, hyacinth, eucalyptus, gypsophila, Japanese acer, bay, spirea, daffodils, hellebores and heuchera leaves (all except the gypsoplila grown in my own and the Brent Mencap garden), wave my wand and voila, three tins of flowers destined to bring floral love and joy to the Kingsbury residents who received them, courtesy of KTs Care Angels.

No locally sourced red, purple or blue flowers were available for Passover this week nor roses for Ramadan, but next year hopefully you brilliant gardeners will bring us tonnes of tulips and rose-like ranunculus in a rainbow of hues, as well as the trusty yellow daffs so symbolic of Easter, to celebrate all our holy seasons with passion, friendship and humility and the hope that spring surely brings.

Happy Easter! Chag Pesach sameach! Ramadan Kareem!