I have just finished reading - The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland. I have been a bit slow coming to this book, as it was published in 2019. The cover attracted me when I saw it on the shelf in my local library. Can you see why?
This beautifully written book is the story of Alice Hart, who lost both her parents in a fire when she was nine. She goes to live with her grandmother on a flower farm where she is taught the language of Australian native flowers. Spanning 20 years, the story takes you from the coast to inland Australia. It delves into the stories we inherit, those we select to define us, and those we choose to hide. It is about loss, family secrets, betrayal and what we do to survive. I love this quote - Life is lived forward, but only understood backward - Holly Ringland, inspired by the writing of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
You can also find Holly on Instagram @ hollygoeslightly
What I particularly loved was the way that Holly has dipped into the Victorian tradition of giving meaning to flowers. Holly has written meanings to Australian flowers and woven them into her story. For example: Sturt's Desert Pea - Have courage take heart.
These are Sturt Desert Peas which we saw on our trip through Western Australia's north west a few months ago. They are amazing.
Each chapter of the book is headed by a flower, it's meaning, and a short description. Accompanying each chapter is a beautiful wildflower line illustrations by Edith Rewa. Also see on Instagram. Her work is truly stunning.
I had visions of being a botanical artist when I was in high school and have dabbled with it over the last year or so. I need to work on it more.
In September I brought you a blog about the exploring the Bridgetown Jarrah Park between Nannup and Bridgetown, a couple of weeks ago we had a few days free so we went back down to Nannup with our caravan to stay for a few days and do some more wildflower walks.
We arrived in Nannup around lunchtime in the afternoon went out to the Kondil Wildflower walks which are only a short distance from town. There are three loop walks - 700 metre, 2.5 km, and 3.3km. We decided to do the longer walk. Below are some of the wildflowers we saw. This bright blue one is the Blue Leschenaultia. Stunning isn't it.
This mauve one is one of the fringe lilies. And the one below it is a hooded lily - Johnsonia lupulina. I had never looked closely at them before. The layers open into little flowers which you can see if you turn them up. So beautiful. Of course there were also orchids. Clockwise from top left - cowslip, one of the hammer orchids, forest mantis, Crab lipped spider orchid (a new one for us), white spider orchid, and enamel orchid. The hammer orchid was an exciting find because they are so hard to see, we have only seen one a couple of times. And these are rattlebeak orchids - Lyperanthus serratus - - I hadn't seen them in such a group before.
And this is Western Australia's floral emblem - the kangaroo paw - Anigozanthos manglesii
That's it from me today. I will be back another time with more from our few days in Nannup. It really was a lovely short break and I wished we had more time. Have you read the Lost Flowers of Alice Hart? What did you think of it?
Do you have a favourite wildflower walk? Perhaps you would like to tell us about it in your comments.
You might also like: Exploring the Bridgetown Jarrah Park
An excellent orchid identification site is: Western Australian Native orchid study
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