FLOWER FRIDAY - CENTAUREA CYANUS

The Gloucestershire air must have done me good as I was in bed early last night - very unusual for me - and today I have designated as “Clean Out the Kitchen Cupboards Day” - well this morning anyway, as I need to do some business in town later.

So, on the lookout for a flower for Flower Friday, I spotted this bedraggled little cornflower in the garden.  Although cornflower is its common name, this is also known as bachelor's button, bluebottle, boutonniere flower, hurtsickle or cyani flower.  I have brought it indoors and once again, will enjoy it on my kitchen windowsill.

Sometimes, we see people who are looking a bit bedraggled - and perhaps not only in what they are wearing, but by their demeanour.  Maybe that’s the time to draw alongside them, pick them up and maybe even take them out for a coffee, cake and chat!  Do you know someone like that?  Sadly some of the people I know who are feeling a bit like that live far away, so the best I can do for them is to pray that their day will be a good one and that someone else will do what I would love to do.  

Alterntatively, you could buy some daffodils, as I often do at this time of year, and just give them away to random people - that always cheers someone up!

One thing we can all do, though, is cheer someone up with a smile - so when you are out and about today - give someone a BIG smile - you will be surprised, but may never know, how much it will lift that person.

“If ever there is tomorrow 
     when we're not together... 
          there is something 
               you must always remember. 
You are braver than you believe, 
     stronger than you seem, 
          and smarter than you think. 
But the most important thing is, 
     even if we're apart... 
          I'll always be with you.” 
A.A. Milne