Creating with Flowers~Day Twenty Four--Uncle Richard!

My Uncle Richard was a military man.  As a very young child I remember him  coming home on leave and visiting my mother.

 

He was the only person I knew that smoked a pipe and that made him a very interesting person to me.

In the later years of my childhood he was retired from the military and came every year for Christmas Eve.  His pipe always came with him and I loved the smell of pipe smoke.

 

When my Uncle passed away, my Mom asked if there was anything from his home that I might like to have..  I guess he had many antique treasures, but I requested a pipe to remember him by.  Mom brought me his extensive pipe collection from around the world and his rack and tobacco jar set..  One of the pipes, the one sitting along on the table was believed to belong to my Grandfather.  It is well worn on both ends and sits in a magnetic holder.  Mom said it always set on the coal stove when she was a child and Grandpa sit by the stove staying warm and smoking.  He suffered from emphysema in his later years.  Imagine.

 

 

 For this arrangement I used blue and white delphinium, Maltese Cross, and Queen Anne's Lace.  I didn't have enough Maltese Cross in bloom and finally added one red zinnia.  The leaves are from a native  geranium..

One of these days, I plan to request a copy of my Uncle's Military history...

to see the many places these pipes might have travelled from.  A few have country names of origin on them.

 

 

 

Life which I often think is simple (it's not) holds so many mysteries.

 

 

Thank-you Uncle Richard for defending our freedom.

 

 

grannie m