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17.09.2015
Spring oh Spring, there is nothing as exciting as you. You make every girl happy, because you are full of colours and liveliness. Today is a historical day in my life, because I went wild onion picking for the first time!
I came from a small town in Malaysia. It is always been my dream to live in a farm, grow my own vegetables, flowers and have horses and sheep. Where did I get this dream of living in a farm from? It's all came from story books. Story books are the resources of my imagination, nature is the inspiration for my creation. One day, I know, my children will grow up in the farm, just like Satsuki and Mei in the anime <<My Neighbour Totoro>>. They will run around in the farm, discover the enchanted woods, pick me wild flowers and tell me little secret of their encounter with Totoro.
The place where the wild onions (actually called Three-Cornered Leek) are, is my secret garden. A secret place where I spent my quiet time daydreaming, just staring at the pink/purple clouds during sunset. A secret place where me and Headie would play hide and seek and discover wildflowers.
I have started a series of photographing Spring flowers, which deepen my knowledge on the flowers around me. It's the second week of Spring, white wild flowers are like snowdrops all over my secret garden, and I whispered to them:" Oh hello, I remember seeing you last year! Now you reminded me that a year has gone past so quick." So the next day, we did a photoshoot with these cute little white flowers. I had no idea what they were called. The only thing I knew was that I only see them in early Spring, and the flower petal has a soft velvet texture.
For the past few days, I tried to spend a bit of time each day during my break googling about this wild white flower. No luck at all. So yesterday, I spent an hour looking up on Google again because I had to post the photo on Facebook and write about this flower. Half way searching for the information, I was frustrated because it has taken way too much time:" Ahh God! I gonna give up but I don't want to give up! Please help me! Please!" I prayed and I finally found it at the end!!! And you know what, just because I didn't give up and I prayed when I was frustrated, I was hugely rewarded. It turned out that the whole plant of this wild onion/three-cornered leek, from the bulb to the flowers, are edible. It was like God was saying:" Dig some onions and have some onions, because you discovered it, you paid attention to it and you didn't give up finding about it." Yohoooo!!! Wild onion picking adventure! How exciting are these Spring days!
I was going to wild onion picking alone, but I met Alina, my good friend from Romania last night, who is my good morning walk companion, asked her to come with me and she said yes. I had my scissors and basket ready this morning and wild onion picking we went! We stopped at a Creek Lilly Pilly/Brush Cherry tree, and I told Alina:" Come, have some cherries as appetiser before we eat the fresh onion." She must have thought that I am a crazy girl. But she did as I told.
Just before my secret garden, there was a Golden Wattle tree. We had to cut some wattle to bring home after the wild onion picking. It was drizzling along the way, and the weather was cold. But I didn't mind it, because I was too excited for this adventure! Headie, the bush dog was playing in the rain and exploring the flowers. I plucked a wild onion flower, tasted it, and chewed on the stem. "This is an onion plant but the flower tasted like garlic, so two faced." Alina said. Haha, she is right, as the Three-cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum) is a bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium (onions and garlic). It's stem tasted exactly like spring onion and it's very sweet. Ahhh I can't believe that I am studying and tasting a fresh wild onion in the rain. What a life fulfilling experience.
Here we went, FRESH ONIONS appeared in front of our eyes! I was so so thrilled. The moment I put my cold fingers at the stem, slowly pulled it out and saw the fresh soil on the bulb and my fingers, that was so Jamie Oliver! So fresh from the garden! I pointed at the raindrops on each leaf and said:" Look! Life! Only God can give life. Only God can put colours on flowers and create plants for us to eat. Thank God for the rain! The rain of Spring nourishes all lives." Alina was silence for two seconds and said:" Wei Wei, you paid attention to all these little things that people tend to ignore. You are full of thankfulness." Alina is my art buddy. We talk about art and life. This girl is funny and also a fast learner. Today she said yes to wild onion picking with me, because she trusts me that there was wild onions. I am so glad to have her to share my happiness with.
And I thought, let never there be a reason that make you not to be thankful of your life. From where I came from, I hated myself for 26 years. I wished I was never born. I had social anxiety (still have it now but I've improved a lot), I was teased for my appearance, I had no self confidence, I had a broken family etc. But today, the reason that I became so grateful of everything is because I have tasted real love. Only love can be able to mend a broken heart. If your whole life is free from sorrows and brokenness, of course you don't need to be healed. Just like what Jesus said:" Only the sick will look for a doctor." If you are not sick, you won't be hungry to get healed. The process of opening my heart to be transformed was the hardest part, but I am so proud of who I am today. If it's not because of the love of our heavenly Father, I would not have learn to love myself. I would not have forgave people who have hurt me deeply. And we ought to be thankful when we are in trials, not only be thankful during good times. Because the moment when we are thankful during the hard times, we see things in a different perspective, so different that we will be thankful for whatever season we are in.
Alright, back to the wild onion! When I shared my wild onion happiness with Hippo, he said:" Wow the rain might be sent from God so that the soil was moisten and soften, and it makes it easy for you to pull the onions!" Oh yes exactly! Alina and I went home with a basketful of creek lilly pillies, wild onions and golden wattles.
As soon as we got home, my 85-years-old neighbour, Jones called me from her kitchen. She brought me a bunch of white orchids:" Wei Wei, I saw that you like flowers, this is from my garden." That is so so sweet of her! I must have done something right in my life to be surrounded by lovely people.
Alina and I made pancakes, listened to early Jazz songs, then switched to old Christmas songs, and we danced and laughed. Alina said her memory about Christmas is orange and banana, because in Romania, they get imported tropical fruits in December. So during Christmas, her mom would buy a box full of oranges and bananas. Thanks to Alina for the grapefruit, our pancakes are so yummy garnished with fruits and flowers that are in season. Now I understand why the top chefs in the world have so much passion towards fresh produces. I started to watch Jamie Oliver when I was 18-years-old, never understand his excitement when he picks the herbs from his garden. Now I know exactly how it feels like. God has created a garden for us to govern. He asks us to be fruitful and productive. He doesn't want us to be lazy or complacent. Thank God for the wild onions, tonight we are going to have chicken cooked with these onions wohoo!
This month is the month of Alina's mom: she was born in September and she also passed away in September. Today we celebrated her. And I know that she would be smiling watching us from heaven.
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Here we went, FRESH ONIONS appeared in front of our eyes! I was so so thrilled. The moment I put my cold fingers at the stem, slowly pulled it out and saw the fresh soil on the bulb and my fingers, that was so Jamie Oliver! So fresh from the garden! I pointed at the raindrops on each leaf and said:" Look! Life! Only God can give life. Only God can put colours on flowers and create plants for us to eat. Thank God for the rain! The rain of Spring nourishes all lives." Alina was silence for two seconds and said:" Wei Wei, you paid attention to all these little things that people tend to ignore. You are full of thankfulness." Alina is my art buddy. We talk about art and life. This girl is funny and also a fast learner. Today she said yes to wild onion picking with me, because she trusts me that there was wild onions. I am so glad to have her to share my happiness with.
And I thought, let never there be a reason that make you not to be thankful of your life. From where I came from, I hated myself for 26 years. I wished I was never born. I had social anxiety (still have it now but I've improved a lot), I was teased for my appearance, I had no self confidence, I had a broken family etc. But today, the reason that I became so grateful of everything is because I have tasted real love. Only love can be able to mend a broken heart. If your whole life is free from sorrows and brokenness, of course you don't need to be healed. Just like what Jesus said:" Only the sick will look for a doctor." If you are not sick, you won't be hungry to get healed. The process of opening my heart to be transformed was the hardest part, but I am so proud of who I am today. If it's not because of the love of our heavenly Father, I would not have learn to love myself. I would not have forgave people who have hurt me deeply. And we ought to be thankful when we are in trials, not only be thankful during good times. Because the moment when we are thankful during the hard times, we see things in a different perspective, so different that we will be thankful for whatever season we are in.
Alright, back to the wild onion! When I shared my wild onion happiness with Hippo, he said:" Wow the rain might be sent from God so that the soil was moisten and soften, and it makes it easy for you to pull the onions!" Oh yes exactly! Alina and I went home with a basketful of creek lilly pillies, wild onions and golden wattles.
As soon as we got home, my 85-years-old neighbour, Jones called me from her kitchen. She brought me a bunch of white orchids:" Wei Wei, I saw that you like flowers, this is from my garden." That is so so sweet of her! I must have done something right in my life to be surrounded by lovely people.
Alina and I made pancakes, listened to early Jazz songs, then switched to old Christmas songs, and we danced and laughed. Alina said her memory about Christmas is orange and banana, because in Romania, they get imported tropical fruits in December. So during Christmas, her mom would buy a box full of oranges and bananas. Thanks to Alina for the grapefruit, our pancakes are so yummy garnished with fruits and flowers that are in season. Now I understand why the top chefs in the world have so much passion towards fresh produces. I started to watch Jamie Oliver when I was 18-years-old, never understand his excitement when he picks the herbs from his garden. Now I know exactly how it feels like. God has created a garden for us to govern. He asks us to be fruitful and productive. He doesn't want us to be lazy or complacent. Thank God for the wild onions, tonight we are going to have chicken cooked with these onions wohoo!
This month is the month of Alina's mom: she was born in September and she also passed away in September. Today we celebrated her. And I know that she would be smiling watching us from heaven.
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