Family history across the seas

I’ve been sorting through this year’s desk calendar, a gorgeous one with images of flowers, which made me think of flowers and how we associate them with the people in our lives or our history.

And so to a fairly open-ended geneameme, rather than the usual structured variety. Why not record what flowers (or plants/trees) spring to mind when you think of particular people in your family tree or among your friends’ list. (Please only use first names if their still alive). You can approach it as “Aunty x makes me think of flower y” or “when I see this flower, I think of person xx or place/event ….”. It’s up to you, go with what inspires you at first glance.

Did your father always plants vegetables, or a particular type of plant (rather than flowers)? If so include that as well. This is a creative and flexible geneameme.

You might even want to record which flowers you love and what seasons you associate them with. This could be a supplement to your Book of Me entries (I hope Julie doesn’t have this topic lined up for the future).

And so it’s over to you: let’s bring together our senses of sight and smell and mix-and-match to family we’ve known or read about. Some associations will leap immediately to mind, others will challenge our thoughts and emotions.

So for example: Aunty Emily makes me think of roses in New Farm Park, pansies on teacups and the fragrance of lavender and violets.

Will you join me in this multi-sensory geneameme? I’ll close off the list in a week and consolidate the responses in a blog post. If you’re posting on Twitter, please use the hastag #flowersgeneameme to make it easier to find.

Don’t forget to leave a comment with your link so we can all visit.