Despite the Coronavirus induced “quarantine”, this has been the best Spring we have had in Italy! The two previous years it was very rainy and cool. I remember “arctic blasts” coming from Russia two years ago in March and “Dirty” rain from Africa in April! The “dirty” rain seemed to continue day after day as it doused our car and laundry on the line with red mud.
Last year the rain and cool temperatures didn’t let up until the last day of May. We wondered if Summer would ever arrive! I remember moving into our new house in late May and building a fire in the fireplace because it was so cool at night. Despite these weather challenges we hosted guests and put on a brave face as we tried to see the sites and slurp gelato while we shivered in our boots. We raced around bringing in laundry off the line to avoid the dirty rain and draped our wall radiators with our tepid laundry trying desperately to dry!
This year, thanks to Coronavirus we have no house guests this Spring. But as “Murphy’s Law” would have it, we have had the best Spring on record! Since the first of December we have had very little rain, From February we have had the most amazing show of wild flowers. On our walks through the olive groves we would see wild crocus, yellow mustard and fields of clover daisy’s.
We marveled that every couple of weeks there was a different flower putting on a show with the cast constantly changing. There were purple daisies with deeper purple centers that followed the crocus and mustard. These had not even exited the stage when white flowers appeared that carpeted the fields in what appeared to be “baby’s breath”, that lacy white flower used in florist bouquets around roses.
These white flowers stand at least a foot tall and love to cluster around the olive trees producing the most beautiful effects. The soft delicate “lacy” white flower framing the gnarled dark olive trees. At the peak of their performance they blanketed the entire orchard in a crescendo of bloom.
Every time I look across a meadow filled with wild flowers I want to run “frolicking” in the flowers, I want to lay down a blanket and have a picnic, i want to lay in the field of flowers with my fingers in the moist soil and my face in the sun, the flowers softly brushing my face.
We walked through the narrow trails only trampled down by the farm workers who came before us. They laboriously trim the branches from the olive trees to make sure plenty of light can filter in, producing the best crop of olives, and the best backdrop from tonight’s wild flower performance!
I know the workers and owners of the groves also enjoy the wild flower performance because all along the paths you see “make-shift” tables and chairs fashioned out of tree trunks, old slabs of marble and old bed frames. These are set up to enjoy a jug of wine and a hunk of french bread with cheese while watching the sunset or sunrise among the olive trees after work or during lunch.
I constantly marvel that Italy has such natural beauty, I am in absolute awe of it. When I go walking in the groves it absolutely takes my breath away and my heart feels like it will soar out of my chest as I take in the yellow and pink and purple colors colors that dot the landscape like a Claude Monet painting. In fact, that famous artist is known to have said that his greatest work of art was his garden.
But my garden pales in significants to this showy display that is in nature. I look around and there is not a wildflower here in these fields that I would not want blooming in my garden. Why have I bothered to plant and cultivate the soil when the natural beauty grows in such abundance?
Now, in mid April we have purple Sweet Peas creeping along and climbing any vertical object they can find. There are also other purple flowers that grow tall on a spike, this is always one of my favorite “English Cottage” looks. If you look closely you will find tiny blue and pink flowers carpeting the trail and large spikes of whitish pink flowers along the edges of the trails.
Blue Borragine (Borage) is blooming now and is apparently edible, or so I have been told by my foraging loving friends (all Italians seem to love to forage, whether it is asparagus, mushrooms, wild strawberries or greens). I love this flower because of the bright blue flower and the tiny hairs all along the stem make it look like it is glowing in the sunlight.
A favorite wild flower of all Italians is the wild cyclamin, it prefers the wet wooded areas and is always a delight to stumble upon, usually when you find the wild pink cyclamin you also will find moist dirt turned up around it by the snout of a wild boar. The favorite food of the wild boar are the grubs that also like to grow near the cyclamin.
The star of the show is always the Italian Poppy. It is very similar to the orange California poppy but it is red with a black center. It has just started to bloom now and it dots the landscape with its stunning red color. All of the other wild flowers seem to bow their heads in respect to the Poppy. When she is around, no one can see the glory of another flower. They simply play backup to her solo act.
I always gather up a bouquet of flowers as there is no law that prohibits it, the Italian don’t roll like that. The flowers are here for us all to enjoy, they are part of our world, our food, our medicine and our joy. I think that’s why Italians don’t remove them until they are dried up and gone. They embrace them as part of their ecology, part of the micro world that makes their food delicious.
These wildflowers are weeds that want to prove their value. Weeds are just flowers that we haven’t met yet, they have conquered all the trials, but haven’t learned to grow in rows. They are part of the olives that are grown here, part of the soil, part of the insects and bees, they are a visually beautiful part that play their role. Wild flowers are the whimsical heartbeat of nature.
