{GERANIUMS BRINGING BACK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES}

Ever since my husband did take out the many planters from the greenhouse I had the idea to compose this blog for a special reason. When I stood there with the beautiful salmon red geraniums in my hands, all of a sudden by its very smell I went back to my early childhood... But first of all, let me grab a perfect vase for these darlings to show them off to you!

Okay, here they are in a Sancoussi Ivory Rose by Rosenthal vase as part of my dessert china from Replacements Ltd once bought for hosting a French Tea party. Are they not lovely? Well, I wish you too could pick up its typical geranium scent. Because of that, I did travel back in time... to The Netherlands.

Here I am, a little girl of maybe four or five years old, watching Mom cleaning our windows. The house had narrow tall windows with smaller panes inside and they were being opened from the center by pulling down a shiny brass handle so they came inwards into the room... There were indoor shutters, for closing to have privacy, and a rather wide window sill on which Mom kept her prized red geraniums. They could remain between the window and the shutters, once they got closed,  there was enough space.

At times the condensation did make the windows all wet and water had to run down into a special carved out mini-gutter which had one rounded opening in the center, that let the water out through the wall outward. At times we had to poke the hole free of some dirt or a fly that got trapped in there, using a knitting needle... We were quite inventive at that time!

Watching Mom do the window treatment was quite something! She used water with vinegar in it, a sponge (a real one from the ocean, which vendors sold door to door at that time!) and a chamois. The geraniums were taken down and were put on the table, making their scent fill the air even more so by the movements. Mom also vigorously did polish the brass handle of each window with Brasso. Yes, Brasso we were accustomed to in the Old World as well - at least this remained the same after immigrating! I still can sniff all these special scents of the vinegar in the water, the sour smell of the Brasso used on a cotton cloth and then the geraniums... oh I just LOVED them!

They will stay deeply engraved into my memory forever and that's why they live with us till today. We also have white geraniums, see picture below and later in the season I will introduce you to some very special red mini-rosebud form of geranium. Pelargonium is their botanical name.

Another proud member of the Pelargonium family though its scent is by far not the same as the above red ones. It doesn't trigger my childhood memories as such and by the way, Mom had RED ones, her favorite color as of today. Bless her heart, she is 86 years now and undergoing three times weekly her kidney dialysis in The Netherlands, for the third year now. We hope and pray that she will remain with us for some more time but only God knows!