Welcome home comforts

Two weeks after arriving back in England, I finally found a weekend to head back to my childhood city of Winchester to see my mum. It worked out rather nicely actually as today (Sunday 18th March) turned out to be Mother’s Day (all part of my plan, naturellement).

Although my new life in Brazil is rich and wonderful in countless ways, it has been tough to be away from my lovely family for such long periods. This time it had been more than 8 months since I’d seen my UK people so it has been great to come back and reintroduce myself. And one of the most comforting things about coming home is comfort food cooked by my mum:

Ah this takes me back to my childhood. In our house we always called this Shepherd's Pie, though a lot of people call it Cottage Pie instead. Whatever you call it, this is utterly yummy and delicious and uncomplicated. Perfect for a chilly winter's evening with a warming glass of red wine. Thanks mum!

Before I left England for my 4 month trip (the one that turned into a new life in Rio!), I left quite a few of my things back to my mother’s house for storage (sorry mum!). One particular thing was a plant that I had grown rather attached to.

I had come into possession of this plant back in 2005 when I moved into a new rented apartment in London. The previous tenant had left a few things behind – you know the kind of thing, used disposable razors in the bathroom, a couple of chipped mugs in the sink, a pair of grey underpants on the kitchen floor (why?). Using rubber gloves and a stick, I managed to get these things bagged up and thrown out in a few minutes. But one thing remained – a drab, dried out, semi-dead looking plant.

The friend who was helping me move in was just about to chuck the plant out too, but I decided to attempt to revive it. I gave it a good watering and a new pot and within a week it became clear that it was going to pull through.

Sure, it wasn't going to win any beauty contests, but it was alive and well!

As you can see, it was an unremarkable plant – plain, strap-like leaves growing up and out, gathering dust. But I rather liked the fact that I had brought this dying specimen back from the brink. I even started to feel a little affectionate towards the poor abandoned thing. I had no idea what variety of plant it was, but the dark green leaves kept coming and it seemed fairly happy.

So when I was preparing for my trip, although I got rid of a lot of furniture and junk, the plant went back to my Mum’s for safekeeping. I didn’t realise at the time that it would be such a long time until I would see it again.

I didn’t really think about my rescue-plant while I was travelling (that would have been a bit weird wouldn’t it?), but I was really pleased when my mum mentioned that it was still going strong. She went on to say that it seemed to have known that I was coming back because it had a little welcome home surprise for me.

Here’s the surprise:

Didn't it do well? A big ball of bright orange flowers started to appear a few weeks ago, but only really came into full bloom the day before I arrived home.

Now call me a sentimental old fool (I know, I deserve it), but it does seem like a rather strange coincidence that it stayed dormant in 'leaf-mode' for so many years and then put on this display when I came back. The scientist in me knows that it's easily explained through a combination of day length, fertilizer mixes and lack of plant stress. But c'mon! It is clearly a psychic, sentimental plant that wanted to please its old master/rescuer. It's the only sensible explanation.

Pretty isn't it? It turns out that it is a Kaffir Lily and a rather magnificent one I'd say.