A Garden and A Love Story

“Will a marriage survive a partner who asks a flower fanatic: “Can you eat flowers?”

Writer Paula de Ronde reviews Twigs in My Hair – A Gardening Memoir

 

THE PROVIDER AND THE BEAUTIFIER

Photos courtesy of Hamlin Grange

Cynthia Reyes, author of A Good Home, An Honest House and co-author of the Myrtle the Purple Turtle series of children’s books, has now written Twigs in My Hair: A Gardening Memoir.

Anyone familiar with Cynthia’s previous books knows that the underlying theme is her love of home and family.  In Twigs in My Hair, she invites us to enter into her passion for gardens, her own and those of friends with whom she shared that passion.

In writing that is almost lyrical at times, Cynthia takes us on a tour.  She is the guide that shows you how it is done.  Building a garden takes time and patience.  Cynthia is the artist, the earth is her canvas; Mother Nature is her helper, and sometimes not. 

The text is beautifully enhanced with the photography of Hamlin Grange, Cynthia’s husband.

Cynthia painstakingly guides us through the creative process of making a beautiful welcome mat into her home.  She is the creative master of all things blooming while Hamlin, ever practical, tends the produce. 

What a great combination: the provider and the beautifier.

Twigs in My Hair: A Gardening Memoir,  is an analogy for life itself.  The garden evolves as the seasons do and as we do. 

The garden has late and reluctant bloomers as we humans do.  Will that wisteria ever bloom? 

The most lush and beautiful gardens require hard, sometimes backbreaking, work. But oh, what beauty results and how satisfying to see your efforts rewarded.   That is the same as in life itself.

The book is laced with Cynthia’s warmth and humour.  How do you get a fox to pee in a bottle?  Will a marriage survive a partner who asks a flower fanatic: “Can you eat flowers?”

I found something extra too.  As an accomplished author, Cynthia is able to say a lot with just a few apt words and phrases.   

 

This is a memoir that goes beyond the passion of two gardeners.  It is also shines a light on the love between two people who grow with their gardens into a deeper unity with each other, with their family and home.

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The photos above may be used only with the express written permission of Hamlin Grange.

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Paula de Ronde  loves books. After a career as a librarian, she now writes a blog — stories about her 51 year love with her husband Bert.