I grew up believing dandelions to be annoying weeds. Hours of my life have been spent yanking them from their plot in an effort to prevent any kind of invasion. Yet, my first memories of dandelions was picking a bouquet of them to gift to my mom. They were always received with a smile and appreciation. As children we also would smear the powdery yellow pollen under our chins — didn’t all children? And, if the bright yellow heads weren’t picked — or yanked — the flowers transformed to feathery white orbs ideal for making wishes. To send the wishes off, we’d take aim and blow the orb so all the individual seeds would take flight like a platoon of parachutes. It would be years before the realization we were simply blowing seeds all over the yard, ensuring their return.
Decades later I’d come to protest any attempt at chemical eradication. I’d learned to accept their beauty and even their benefit — dandelion salve, for one. Butterflies and bees rely on dandelions as an early-season source of nectar plus many song birds rely on those air-borne seeds. I’d also come to admire how they fold up for the night, only to unfold and emulate the sun each day. Even the dogs would luxuriate in their golden carpet.
Despite outside influences, my attitude toward dandelions sashayed as if in a dance. I moved through the dance, sashayed forward and back, sideways, and came out more at ease with them and even loving them a little.
such a delightful array of dandelions and so beautifully photographed. i’ve always felt in my private thoughts that they were so beautiful, but as a child, i can still recall the shame i felt when my parents would scold me for blowing the dandelion seeds. as if the wind weren’t going to scatter them anyway.
Your Australian sheppherd is really magnificent. I love dogs, I habe 2 Border collie
Wonderful set of flowers, especially the last one with the light coming through the dandelion.
“We must hold still in the midst of our burning thoughts, our anxieties, our fears, and our emotions. We must remember to settle into our bodies and allow them to do the knowing, the resting, the connecting to the earth beneath us. We have a chance now, while the world has stilled, to feel the wind and the sun, to walk outside in the rain, to notice the small, yellow faces of dandelions emerging from the mud. We have a chance to remember what matters in this fleeting, fragile life – our connections, our loves, our families, friends, communities and our host, this endlessly beautiful and constantly changing Earth.”
—Elizabeth Monson
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And that colour, such a clear rich yellow! We eat the greens from about March until June, on pizza, in wild greens pie (our version of spanakopita), a few leaves added to salad for their slightly bitter tonic. Your photographs are so beautiful!
I always enjoy your posts! So refreshing.
My question is … would they be weeds if no one had told us they were weeds ?