It’s Valentine’s Day, hooray for romantics everywhere.

Mrs Sixwheeler comes originally from the Isles of Scilly, a group of small islands twenty two miles south-west of Lands End in the far bottom left hand corner of the British Isles. For many years the Isles of Scilly were best known for the production of early narcissi; a business originally set up by sending flower blooms to London in a hat box.

Over the year the breeding of narcissi progressed and blooms arrived earlier and earlier and their scent became more and more intense. Much of the breeding work was carried out in a government supported programme on the islands. Today there are still companies on the Scillies who will send blooms to the mainland and their service is excellent but they no longer have a monopoly as early blooms are now produced on the mainland and they don’t have the additional cost of sending them over from the islands.

Our favourite is called Soleil d’Or which have bright yellow petals with a golden central trumpet; and most importantly they smell wonderful.

On the bus coming back from town yesterday I noticed that a local florist had a great bucketful of Sols outside their store so today as soon as Mrs S had gone into town Maude and I walked down there and bought some. As soon as we got home I carefully arranged them in three vases, two for the sitting room and one for the bedroom, and sat back to wait for her to come home.

By the time she arrived both rooms were full of the wonderful scent of the blooms and Mrs S was very happy.

Happy St Valentine’s Day everyone.

14 February 2014