A place for everyone

A Place for Everyone #flashfiction

48 Replies

This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that features Lemon Queens. Maybe it’s an ancient fairy tale or a modern brand name. What ideas seep into your imagination? Is there a character or place involved? Go where the prompt leads!

Carrot Ranch - Lemon Queens

I thought it would be easy to write about sunflowers but, alas, I struggled. I finally came up with this story with the theme of diversity, acceptance, belonging and a place for everyone. I hope you like it.

A place for everyone

Rose prickled and turned away from the newcomer. “You can’t blow in here on a breeze expecting to be welcomed,” she whispered to a neighbour.

Sweet Pea belied her name, ignoring the stranger and trailing away to mix with others of her own kind.

Even cousin Marigold wasn’t hospitable, fearing he might spoil their whole bunch.

He didn’t tempt rejection by the glamourous golden Queen outstanding in the field.

Instead, he sailed right by and alighted far from cultivation where his lowly origins wouldn’t raise a brow.

…

“Look! A dandelion! Do you like butter or cheese? Let’s play!”

 

While many consider dandelions a weed, they actually have many positive uses.

Children love blowing their seeds around and, as the video below shows, physicists learn a lot from studying them.

When I was a child, we used to hold dandelion flowers beneath our chins to decide whether we liked butter or cheese. A lighter refection would indicate a preference for butter. A darker reflection would indicate a fondness for cheese. I don’t think our readings were particularly scientific, but we were always pretty confident of our interpretations.

I was also interested to discover that dandelions, sunflowers, marigolds, lettuce, artichokes and others all belong to the daisy family. Now I’m wishing I did my research first rather than leaving it until the last minute.

Thank you blog post

Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

48 thoughts on “A Place for Everyone #flashfiction”

  1. Jules

    One spring while tending to my grand-daughter I took a before and during the blow photo of her with a seeded Dandelion. It is in a collage of photos of the grands that spring where I can see it everyday 😀

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  3. ellenbest24

    Lovely norah. In the Uk it is buttercups we hold under our chins. The petals are so fine and brightly cloloured the sun shines through them and shows yellow under your chin, meaning you love butter. Where dandilions we were told, if picked would make you wet the bed. Unless they had become wishing clocks. I did not know daisy was part of the lettuce family, though Dandilion leaves have been in mixed leave salads for centuries.

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    1. Norah Post author

      Buttercups make sense as the flower of choice for that game, Ellen, but I know we used dandelions when we were kids. Maybe we didn’t have buttercups so we just made do. I haven’t heard the story of wetting the bed. I’m sure it came true for some children. I wonder what the antidote is. It’s interesting how traditions are similar and dissimilar across the globe.

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  7. Patricia Tilton

    Love the ending. Yes, dandelions have their place.

    Have you switched over to the new WP? I’ve held back because I don’t see a need for it with what I do. So I’ve reviewed many books, scheduled them and they are waiting in my draft box, in case I get caught.

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    1. Norah Post author

      Thank you, Patricia.
      No, I haven’t switched over. I keep getting emails telling me I have to but so far, nothing’s changed. I’m happy to keep it that away. I believe ‘classic’ is still a choice, even with the block editor. We’ll see. I hope neither of us get caught. 🙂

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  9. Charli Mills

    Your story is well-crafted, Norah. I appreciate how you used traits as well as names of flowers in your flash, like the sweet peas trailing away to mix with their own kind. Of course, I best like the discovered value of the dandelion by playful children. I’ve never heard of the game butter and cheese (even with a buttercup as D recalls). But I remember older girls at school chasing each other around with dandelions to see if they were boy crazy. Ah, now I think I might better understand what that game was about.

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    1. Norah Post author

      Thank you for your kind words about my story, Charli, and for noticing my use of the flower traits. It was intentional.
      I don’t recall a game as you describe. I wonder how it worked. Seems like the humble dandelion may have preceded the Magic 8 ball. 🙂

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  13. D. Avery @shiftnshake

    Dandelions everywhere thank you for this flash. They are a useful plant, foremost as a object of fascination and delight for children. Here, when I was a kid, it was a different plant that determined whether or not one likes butter, the aptly named Buttercup.(Ranunculus) It’s good to know my lawn is pesticide free, as I have been eating dandelion greens all summer. I have in the past also eaten the blooms and my father used to make dandelion wine from the blooms. The link you shared tells me I could also be utilizing the roots. I did know that it has value as an aerator of the soil, its tap root plowing down and bringing nutrients up from the depths. Yep, there’s lemon-ade to be made from this much maligned lemon queen.

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    1. Norah Post author

      I did read that children used buttercups. It seems to be more fitting, but I don’t recall ever seeing a buttercup and we definitely used dandelions. Children will make do with what’s available, eh? I’m pleased to hear you have made good use of the dandelions in your lawn. I have read about their great nutritiounal and medicinal qualities but haven’t used them myself, other than as described. I guess I’m missing out. I’ll have to start on that lemon-ade. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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