The Highland Hedgehog: April 7th

Hi Everyone, I must take a break on the Europe trip to share yesterday with everyone! I hope you enjoy the day as much as I did.

To begin with we drove all day Wednesday down to a farm co-op that Robb was meeting with on Thursday morning near Norfolk. This is what we saw as we drove over 350 miles through Scotland and England.

All along the highways, motor ways, villages, large cities, people had planted daffodils.

I found this poem which describes how I will remember the day forever.

"Daffodils" (1804)
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

There were entire fields that had been planted for bulb production as we drove along.

As the poem said, it something I'll remember seeing the rest of my life. On both sides of the lane were planted daffodils. I walked for over a mile up the road between these two beautiful trees and back again while Robb had his meeting. I had him drive down the road afterwards so he could share in the beauty. I asked the receptionist at this office who had planted the flowers and she said the farmer who owned the fields which were planted with hay. Ask why, she didn't have an answer, but we both agreed just for the joy of it.