The flower hunt - a Dolly story

"Help me make the music of the night"

from A. L. Webbers The Phantom of the Opera, song: Music of the night

 Remember when Kiki said she'll tag along the first time we do something together? And her idea that we should go and visit the garden? We did it. But it was more like Kiki dragging us along than she coming along and retreating into the background. If it wouldn't be about me, I would think it funny. From an outsiders point of view it is a good idea. I'm not sure why this turned out like that but it wasn't exactly what she imagined. It wasn't bad just...  well, I best start at the beginning.
Victoria arranged the whole: She chose the day, she invited Vester, she suggested that we look for flowers outside. And so we found ourselves walking by her side, on our way to the garden on a fine spring morning. Like two obliging dogs taken for a walk on the line.

"Isn't it a perfect day?" Kiki exclaimed "And look, the first flowers this spring!" The weather was indeed perfect, not too much sun or clouds, very little wind and a pleasant temperature.
"There are other flowers around. And I've seen those daisies weeks ago through the window."
"Yes, between patches of snow, right?" she laughed and ran ahead. I coud hardly keep up with her.

"Look! There are leaves over here, there will be some tulips soon! Let's check for buds!"

But neither the tulips nor the narcissus a few steps away from the tulips had any buds.

And I have to add, Vester actually seemed to be bored.

Looking for springflowers wasn't what he would have chosen to do, I guess.
"Hm." was all Kiki could say.
"I remember up there, next to the shed there were some narcissus, too. Maybe we can find some there?" I offered.
"Oh, yes!"
She went ahead, wanting to leave the two of us alone but Vester obidiently followed her, more than ever like a dog on the line.

I felt a bit sorry for him but at the same time I really like spring flowers. And he had an unexhaustible source of patience. (I know that since he put up with my extremly untalented self and taught me to dance.)
"Look, a little sun!" I screamed when I spotted a small yellow flover. "It looks a little like the one in my hair."

Kiki came back to look at it.
"Another early flower! Meritre says there are hundreds of these along the street." she remarked. "But we are not going there and look for them!" she added as soon as she noticed my enthusiasm for those kind of flowers.

"They are really lovely."
"They sure are but we can't jaunter about the whole town. Look, these violets are just as lovely. And there are so many of them! Not here but over there."

I nodded. Sure, violets were pretty.

Plus they have a nice smell.

"And see, there is something yellow there. It is the first blossoming narcissus. Or daffodil. Or whatever they are called."
"Flowers."
We laughed.
"So beautiful!"

We completely forgot about Vester for a while, from that point it was more like a sister garden tour. We hd a lot of fun finding many different springflowers, here they are:

We call that one simply 'cluster of grapes', it looks a lot like one. Lots of violets and daisys too.

Some other additions by Meritre, she was kind enough to make a picture of the little suns she was talking about.

Lots of little suns... or stars

More 'clusters of grape'

A little further, behind the house we found a reddish tulip already blooming.

"It's even redder than your hair."
"Redder then Margarets, too?"
"Even redder than Mireben Meridas hair!"
"But not as red as Susanne Ariels hair."
"Maybe we should have brought them with us, too."
That made my sister remember that we actually did take someone with us. And that we haven't seen him for quite a while. We simply forgot about him. We ran back to the daffodils where we had last seen him but he wasn't there anymore.

Gone!

Looking around didn't give us a clue where he might be and calling him would have been.. let's say, not the wisest thing. The people around were not deaf, even if they couldn't see what's going on in the garden.
"If we could look around from above..." Kiki said thoughtfully.
"Of course! I'll climb a tree."
Victoria  decided to stay on the ground. She didn't want to rip her delicate cape.
"You go and look around, I'll wait right here." she encouraged me.
So I climbed the closest tree. I found a nice spot and sat down to look around.

It took less than a moment to find the lost  member of the little group. He had climbed the very same tree I did.
"So there you are we thought you're lost." I exclaimed.
"Just looked around a bit. Kept an eye on you two as well."
 I didn't need to turn around to see that from the tree he could watch what we were doing without us noticing it. And no wonder we didn't see him when we were looking for him on the ground.
"You were nowhere to be seen so we got worried."

"I'm sorry. Supposed you were hunting for more flowers. Thought to join you two on your way back."
"Oh, that's fine now. Come!" and I just hopped down from the tree. Perhaps I should add that the tree in question was a quite young cherry tree and we were not very high up. And I jump down from Meritres desk every single day. It is part of my adventurer skill set, so to say.:)
Kiki cast a disapproving look at me, she always thinks I'll break a limb or something. But she didn't say anything. For one thing, she's already told me a dozen times that I shouldn't do it, second, she didn't think scolding me in front of others the right thing.
Vester came down from the tree, too and landed just next to the flowers.

 "Let's just enjoy the sun for a bit."
We formed a triangle laying in the grass.Sunshine, bees, butterflies... I think I even dozed off.

 No more words were spoken untill it was time to go back in.

Note by Kiki: It didn't turn out the way I wanted. I should have checked what outdoor activities he likes but the thing is he's never been outside in the garden before. (Unlike Dolly, who even camped out there with Barbara) I wonder what they said to each other up on the tree. It doesn't look like anything significant was said but still. I wish I could help these two. With so many machmakers this should be easy but it just doesn't work out they way it was planned.