When the stretch comes in the evenings in January, primroses are always on my mind and my eyes speed read every possible ditch, in search of that joyous yellow with the velvety scent.
You don’t expect to find primroses on working harbours like Dunmore East, here in Co, Waterford, but lo and behold I found one there yesterday ~ albeit navy and white!
My heart missed a beat when I saw her and then went on to miss another when I found that she was from Drogheda, the town of my youth and schooling in the North-East of the country that is built on the Boyne Estuary.
So, so many times, we went looking primroses back then, especially Mother and me. She would clamber up onto all sorts of ditches, beating back briars, in the kinds of places that primroses flourish. She used to laugh at me and say that I was a pessimist who lived in fear of seeing a dead rat in the ditches rather than glowing primroses. I have to admit there was quite a bit of truth in her opinion of me back then.
But, we can change, especially if led by example!
Spurred on by Primrose from Drogheda, I was fired up to find even the first signs of wild primroses today and my journey wasn’t in vain. Co. Waterford served up her first primrose of my year out on the ‘road to the sea.’
Spring has definitely sprung!
And I must tell you that while I was driving along, I got to thinking about the relationship between shadows and reflections. I still haven’t worked it out fully but clearly the sun has a lot to do with it.
Here’s how Dunmore East was reflecting yesterday with the Lighthouse, built in 1824, looking magnificent both above and below water:
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 
Thank you for taking us down the “Primrose Path”…lovely boats and a beautiful flower…
Lovely tongue-in-cheek! I like it.
Hi Joni, love the notion of ‘Primrose Path.’ I christened a back road here ‘Primrose Road’ many moons ago because it always delivers gorgeous primroses.
It seemed like some nostalgic moments for you! Glad you are experiencing Spring!
I guess most days bring nostalgic moments or am I a bit of a freak?
Not a freak! It is a blessing when nostalgia visits! For sure, daily. tc
That was quick reassurance! Thanks and enjoy your daily dose of nostagia. Love that saying, ‘Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.’
🙂 You are “funny” in a good way!
I’m glad you added the ‘good way.’ Smiling like mad as I write this!
I had to chuckle as I read “navy and white” and was thinking ‘huh, I did not know there were navy primroses.’ 🙂 The photographs are particularly beautiful this go round. Perhaps we just get more adventuresome, or at least, less afraid as we age, because we have already faced so many dead rats in the ditches?
‘Dead rats’ sums up so much doesn’t it?
I’d still run like the clappers if I spotted one!
Lovely bright images of the harbour and the primrose – way ahead of us – snowdrops still in hiding in our garden 😦
It sounds from your weather forecasts of late that the snowdrops are good judges.
Beautiful Jean!!! Thanks for sharing!!
Oh my, I hadn’t stopped to wonder where primroses were natives. My mother and I used to hunt for violets — in the midwest that would have been in April, always so thrilling to find them on the roadside or in the woods after the snow melted. So, you sparked lovely memories – thank you!