Tuber roses

Funny how a smell can evoke old memories and feelings so precisely......

A whole lot of years ago when my husband was just my boyfriend I arrived home from Addis Ababa to find my sink filled with tuber roses and their fragrance filled my flat. That was the moment when I knew I loved him and wanted to grow old with him, knew that I would swap my restless feet and wandering ways and traipsing all over the continent for a settled life with him. To my surprise I found I wanted to grow old with him. Took a while for us to get our act together but we did ... and by and large I have not regretted the right hand turn my life took.

Yesterday, apologising for the fact that he has to travel suddenly and leave me facing Small's teachers - I so loathed school that even now the exercise is fraught - he brought me a bunch of flowers that included of all things tuber roses which are no longer commonly grown here. This evening I smelt them as I arrived home and their heady fragrance reminded me of how I felt that afternoon some twenty plenty years ago.

I never thought the ride would be so extreme, so filled with highs and lows, such joy and such sadness.

Loving and being loved by this man...... absolutely worth the journey.