I like wintersweet flowers very much but have not seen them blossom since I came to the U.S. in 1989.

During the Spring Festival in 2017, I visited Sansheng Plum Village Happy Plum Forest in Chengdu in Sichuan. I stayed in the forest for a whole day after noticing the forest was filled with wintersweet flowers that were fully blossomed. I realized that I needed to see, smell and touch the wintersweet blossoms in person in order to fully enjoy their beauty, fragrance and texture.

I wished my children could have experienced the multidimensional enjoyments of wintersweet blossoms with me in Sichuan. Sadly, they were in school during that time that wintersweet flowers blossomed in Sichuan.

Unexpectedly, my wish was granted the next year and I was overjoyed.

It was in early February 2018 that my children and I saw wintersweet blossoms in Kew Garden, London. There is the Duke Garden, which is known as a mysterious garden, inside the Kew Gardens. The Duke Garden is a quiet small garden surrounded by brick walls and iron gates. Since I like gardens, we visited Duke Garden and were surprised to see a wintersweet blossom leaning against the brick wall next to the iron gate of the garden.

I feel that this old and tall wintersweet, which stood in the most noticeable front of the Duke Garden, must have quietly displayed her beauty both now and in the past. I also remember the wintersweet in the Jingqi Pavilion of Yong’an Temple where Emperor Qianlong studied in Beihai Park in Beijing; two big bushes of wintersweet grew on both sides of the stone stairs in front of the Pavilion.

Then I realized that wintersweet is a prominent flower in both Eastern and Western royal gardens, I was very happy because the wintersweet blossom is also a prominent flow in my hometown. I used to see wintersweet blossoms every year in my childhood in my hometown Zigong, in the Park, in the Salt Administration Bureau where my mother worked, and in front of the kindergarten of Shuguang Middle School.

The chain of thoughts led me to see that people throughout the world agree upon the beauty of the wintersweet flowers, regardless of nations or class rankings.

I think of the couplet in the Jingxi Pavilion of Yong’an Temple in Beihai Park, Beijing: “Enjoying in a calm and quiet state, comprehending without go faraway (悦性适应静，会心何必遐).” comprehending without going faraway is a kind of cultivation; comprehending at a faraway place is a kind of harvest.

Going faraway made me appreciate my hometown more and made my love for flowers stronger.

(I am in front of the Duke Garden, 2018-02-08.)

(Introduction to Duke Garden.)

Postscript

After returning to Germany from London, one day my daughter asked me if wintersweet is the national flower of Taiwan, because Taiwan has adopted the national flower of the Republic of China, the plum blossom. After checking online, I told her that wintersweet is a shrub, plum blossom is a tree, and wintersweet is not plum blossom, thus is not the national flower of the Republic of China.

Wintersweet blossom is a prominent and elegant flower. “Wax: its petals are like beeswax, and its texture is like twisted wax.

My daughter then said that she thought wintersweet was also a tree, since the wintersweet in Kew Gardens looked like a tree (I guess the Western gardeners had done a lot of pruning, leaving only a very few branches to grow), but the wintersweet in Jingqi Pavilion had the characteristics of a shrub.

Chinese Version

The weather report forecasted that tonight’s snow will be one foot deep.

In the evening, after thinking about how I could not go out tomorrow, I started searching through my memory of traveling for entertainment.

I recalled some simple and joyful moments I had never experienced and which I would like to experience in the future, such as when I saw a family of four’s happy time at Walden Pond, I wanted to enjoy that type of private game too. Another simple and joyful moment was at a museum in London in 2014, where I happened to hear a grandfather and granddaughter’s funny and silly conversation. Their conversation taught me that one of the purposes of taking children to the museum is to let children be curious and naive (BTW, I just saw a friend who is around my age sharing the handicrafts she made for her granddaughter).

In an afternoon in July 2014, I visited the very quiet National Portrait Gallery in London and carefully observed the portraits upstairs and downstairs.

In an exhibit hall with many portraits of people with long hair, I happened to bump into a grandfather and a 3 or 4 year old little girl. There were only three of us in the very quiet exhibit hall, and so I could hear their funny conversation without missing a word.

“Grandpa, look, the person’s hair is so long!” the little girl said, surprised.

I thought the grandfather would explain that long hair are wigs, wearing wigs was the culture at that time… However, I heard the old man agree instread: “He really has long hair!”

“This person’s hair is too long too!”

“This person’s hair is too long too!”

The little girl repeatedly voiced her surprise, and I lost interest in her talking, but the old man was still very engaged and agreed with the little girl: “You are right, it is too long!”

Little girl then suddenly raised her voice said: “Grandpa, I think they all need a hair cut!”

The old man said: “Good idea, they all need a hair cut!”

After that they left the hall happily.

I really liked the wise and funny old man. I wish that one day, I can be like the grandfather taking grandchildren to museums, devoting time to grandchildren.

2014, The hall where I met the grandfather and granddaughter.