Romantic Tip: Im-Press the Memories

As an incurable romantic, I firmly believe that Autumn is that magical

time when dreams are realized and hopes renewed and the turning of the

leaves brings to fruition all the promise of spring and summer.

My love and I like to collect a leaf to mark the turning of each

autumn, which we faithfully press in a beautiful hand painted heirloom

flower press given to me by my mother-in-law. Our leaf collection

started the year of our marriage in 1979 and has grown over 21 years,

each added leaf marking the passage of time and becoming in a strange,

mysterious way the embodiment of our hopes and dreams.

The flower press has traveled with us around the world, and includes

unnamed exotic leafy specimens pressed alongside those from an ancient

Pohutukawa that clung to a cliff in the Bay of Island, New Zealand, a

frond from a dainty English Willow overgrowing the River Avon and pert

Canadian Dogwood we carefully nurture in our own garden, to name but a

few.

God willing, we plan to gather many more, each carrying part of our

past into our future.