Silver leaves and lilac

Jesus was praying to God and His disciples were with Him. He asked them two questions:

Question : Who do the people say I am?

Answer:  They say you are John the Baptist, but others Elias or one of the old prophets risen again.

Question:  Who do you say I am?

Peter answered: “The Christ of God.”

“Don’t tell anyone this!” said Jesus “because I must be rejected and killed.”

Luke 9: 18 -23 (Sandy’s summary. )

This particular plant has had 18 summers in this garden.  I bought a pair but clearly the position of the other was not as favourable as was this one’s. I chose to photograph it with the silver of the leaves still present, noticing that I preferred the evening light. The cardoon is an architectural plant, and these deeply lobed downey leaves will become grey-green and grow up to 20 inches long.

At the foot of the cardoon is the Italian straw plant, more silver in colour with all the rain we have had. This evening photograph shows its fine leaves  heavy with rain drops.

By the side of these two plants is a lilac tree with its first blooms.

What is lilac?
Pale,soft, rich,deep
Purple.
A mix of red and blue.
How much of each?
French lilac
More red?
Pale lavender.
More blue?
Which blue, which red?

Just lilac!

Silver lilac?
White lilac, purity, and innocence
Purple lilac, spirituality.
A little edging in colour to the blue side,happiness, and tranquillity.

And then T.S. Eliot said:

"Philosophy : a purple bullfinch in a lilac tree."

What does one understand by  that?  

T.S. Elliot, in his twenties, asked some other questions,  influenced by what he saw around him after World War I. Listen to him read a poem if you like.T.S Eliot Reads: The love Song of J. Alfred Profrock.

Maybe you don’t have the time, so here is a proverb that leads to two more:

Speech is silver, silence is golden.

This was used as early as the 9th century, and its earliest use in English was in Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus 1833-1834.

Similar proverbs in English include:

Still waters run deep.

Empty vessels make the most noise.

This post travelled, and I enjoyed where it went. Not included are the  explanations of the poem by T.S.Eliot, I guess they were deviations I saved you from but I enjoyed.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Sandy 🙂