There's always one....

.....in every crowd. That over-achiever. That louder and bolder one.

Look at the marigold on the left. They all came out of the same seed packet.

I grow marigolds every year, those short, pungent French Marigolds. This year, I had a few extra, so thought I'd put them in the window box on my garden shed. Why do I grow marigolds? Well, for inter-planting, but..I grow them every year in memory of Aunt. She always had a bouquet of them on the table at her cottage, just the flowers, a bright yellow-orange ball, tightly bunched into a small vase.

Aunt was a courtesy aunt, who was really a many times removed cousin. We just called her Aunt, with a capital A. She was a small person, with short, curly brown hair, that gradually turned grey, very alert snapping brown eyes and a ready smile. She was a registered nurse and stayed single, married to her career. She owned a cottage in Muskoka, and spent summers there later in life when she semi-retired. Every summer I would go and stay for several weeks with Aunt. We wandered over the hills and old, growing up farm fields, examining plants and insects, and watching birds. A favourite walk was down to a fern shaded gurgling brown creek where there was a spring gushing out of the side of the bank under the gnarled roots of a big old White Pine. We'd cup our hands and scoop up a drink of that bubbling effervescence on a hot day...pure nectar. Every winter during school holidays, I'd board the train, and Aunt would meet me at the station in the big city where she lived and worked. We explored all the tourist sites, went to theaters and attended concerts, traveling on the subway and buses, all a very new experience for a small country town kid. She had a big and wonderful influence on me. So....every year...I grow marigolds and think of her. Thank you Aunt.