Something I have realised I am looking forward to when I resume London life.

Perhaps it is the temperature, or the transitory aspect of a lot of the people in Tenerife, but shops don’t sell fresh flowers or house plants as routinely as they did back in the UK.  I have friends in London who are so committed to having fresh flowers in their home that they go to the flower market every weekend.  My mother has flowers in almost every room of their house, real or silk or a combination of both; flowers have been a constant for me growing up.  They also trigger very strong memories.

My father travelled a lot with work when we were growing up, so his return was always celebrated – both for us children, I still sleep with a bank branded teddy by my bed, and by my mother; the gift which delighted her the most was when he would fly in from the East and bring a florist box of orchids.  Her peeling off the tissue to reveal the leopard print orchids is a memory I will always savour as if it was just yesterday.  Nowadays, cut orchids are a frivolity few can enjoy, but a potted orchid can feel like a friend, a slightly temperamental friend with a lifespan in the same region as a hamster.

Of course, by tradition, we have wedding flowers; mine were silk and diamante, with the intention that they would be an arrangement I could keep rather than just expensive memories.  I will always love them, however, they will now probably stay packed away with my wedding dress as a facet of my past, a piece of my history.  I don’t regret buying them, they brought me great joy, nor do I regret fighting the wedding planner for the flowers I wanted for the ceremony – thank you, X Factor, for proving that what she said couldn’t be done, could be done – when a hotel thinks they are getting free publicity they need to calculate for the fact that people will see it!

Flowers also brought me a desperate few days; lilly pollen can be poisonous to cats, and the morning before I was due to fly to South Africa for a friend’s wedding one of my cats appeared on my bed with lilly pollen stains on his face. The vet assistant confirmed this was an emergency and he was animal ambulanced to the animal hospital for four days of observation…..  My cat was fine, but I doubt I’ll have real lillies in my house again.

Then I have my vase of silk flowers.  They were a birthday gift from my mother; any apartment I have lived in since has immediately felt like home once they were placed, and I knew they would never wilt, nor would they poison my girls.  I carried them as my hand luggage on the way here on the 1st of July last year.

And I’ll carry them back again in two weeks.