The luck of the 4 leaf clover

Since I was young I have always loved flowers . My Grandmother always had something growing in the small little trailer-home she had all winter and outside the rest of the year. She did not have the sense of smell ? She would have us grandchildren to tell her "what things Smelled like by thinking of a taste ! I remember " A rose was sweet like Juicy Fruit gum , the marigold was bitter like spinach ." 

Once in my early twenties, I lived in a big city and did not have a place to plant that Spring . I had some plants inside my apartment but nothing outside but tailored boxwood and grass. Tended by the landlord not allowing anything else.
I often walked down the railroad track behind the prison nearby, a shortcut to many places including the park. I often brought a bag to pick up trash to keep the area cleaner. After a while folks seemed to not throw so much there !! 
So by Spring I scattered seeds of wildflowers on the side of the path. I would buy seeds at the Woolworth's Store and walk the rails . They mowed there every Fall.
 The third year you could see the spread of wildflowers from one bridge to the next. Along with that I knew these seeds had also traveled the rails with the train as I had dreamed of doing sometimes!  

this is the way I sometimes image it to have looked like by now !

This picture reminds me of the patches of flowers the 3rd year

I can't imagine not seeing flowers growing and 4 leaf clovers !
The clovers are truly the first thing I remember pressing.

Funny thing as many clovers as I have picked I have never  took pictures? had to borrow from Flickr

I remember finding one and being told it would bring me good luck and to put it in a book so I could keep it ! I lost it ? 
That was not good luck?
But I kept finding more and that was luck enough to me . I have found 100's in my day , some with as many as 7 leaves.
Well after finding many and hearing other people say they had never found one ?
I decided it would be nice to put them in 'other peoples' books , then that would bring them luck!!
I continued this though my twenties , sometimes spending an hour searching before going to the library . (Hint if You find one there is probably at least 1 more growing from the same stand!)

I remember lying on a blanket at one of my favorite spots to find them. I was going to see how many I could find without getting off the blanket... at one point I was stretched over the ground with one foot still touching the blanket trying to make 100! Then a shadow  came up over me and asked if I was Okay ? I guess I did look strange to the rest of the world crawling around on my belly looking for a four leaf clover ? You should have seen his face when he saw my basket of clovers !

not same basket (smile)

 Now I press everything I can and have recently realized I owe a lot  to the clovers. Yet I have very little here to be found?
So this year I am planting a patch of clover in my yard ! 

I have always tried to grow something where ever I have lived. 
I like the feel and the smell of dirt . I like seeing that first leaf or bloom  ! 

These are a few plants I started last fall and pressing all through the winter too!

 
I would rather walk through the woods than any Mall. 
I collect vines, wildflowers, mosses , mushrooms ,leaves , feathers and sometime bones. 

I also bring an extra bag to pick up trash from the woods , creeks plastic is awful it stays around forever and it is so dangerous for the animals .

and lost balloons . Yes lost balloons , I would not be scared to say I have retrieved 100 Mylar balloons in my days of hiking if not more.


  My middle son did a sit-in protest at his school when his 5th grade class sent balloons up with messages on them for a class project ! His idea not mine ! I was shocked when the teacher told me about it.
Then showed me the research he had found ,telling her he knew for a fact that they float to the woods because "We had found some on hikes and in the river fishing !" 

found this online

1st butterfly of the year !
Wishing you a wonderful Spring