Freckles

Some years ago, I was very involved in Girl Guides.  One of my fellow Council members knew we had just bought a house and we were stepping into our garden's journey.  Now, Terry lived a three hour drive from me and I had never seen her garden.  But she said that she had the perfect plant for Girl Guides and wanted to share it with our garden.   Meet "Freckles".

She claimed that the flower was a perfect match for the - then - navy and white uniforms that all the adults wore.  But when Terry said she was also a  violet I was hooked.  I think of violets as shy little plants.  They hide in corners of the woods and their blooms peek out from the undergrowth.  Well, maybe some violets do that.  Not Freckles.

She is a very assertive violet, thank you very much.  To our horror, she began to send out roots which became, over the years, big and knobby.  Her flowers were as sweet as could be, though, so we left her to grow.  Her stomping ground is getting bigger every year and she's a flourishing ground cover.  Her knobby roots remind me of elbows shoving the other plants aside and taking over the tiniest bit of soil. 

But, I think that she is the perfect reminder of those early Girl Guides and Girl Scouts:  feisty, strong women who were no shrinking violets.   Did you know that Girl Guides of Canada celebrates its 100th birthday this year?  I have a vision of the long parade of Freckles-type women through those years.