The Crocus Planters

Gentle hands moved over the soil, gently ploughing it, they were human hands, a young woman’s hands, the bulbs placed in the soil. 

I joined in the tilling and tolling, my infant eyes were beginning to colour, seeing fresh light. Two years old, I saw my mother for the first time: short brown hair, impish smile, loving face.

This was spring time, the land was being renewed. After a few months, the bulbs would colour,  sprout purple, yellow, cream. New life would begin.

The dog next door sniffed at the fence, Sam was my first friend, a border collie cross. I still remember Sam. 

As a teenager, I saw a black-and-white picture, an infant patting Sam on the back. Broad Oak Terrace number five. 

An old New Zealand couple, the Mulrooneys, had helped take my mother to hospital in labour. 

January 12^th 1966, I entered the world. I still remember my infant days.