A LETTER FROM ALICE
SEPTEMBER Dear boys and girls.— “Oh, to be in England^ Now that April’s here!” So sighs the Englishman who is away from his homeland. But I am sure that if I left New Zealand I would be restless in September and through my head would thrum the words: “Oh, to be in Nelson Now September’s here!” It isn’t that September is a pretty name for a month —April, or avril as they saj' in French/ just shouts of violets, spring breezes and blue skies and seas, and even the Romans many long years ago called their Spring month April is which, for some reason, makes me think of wisteria, but our Spring comes with all its glory (oh hackneyed phrase) in September. I can just imagine that if I were in Canada, South America, or even Norway or England, I would be desperately homesick in September and yearn to be home in Nelson. Oh, for the sight of the first willow leaves, shy and tender in the early morning; for the delicate scent of a white hyacinth as it looks fearfully from its short stem at the side of a tall trumpet; for a glimpse of the big royal blue vase at home stacked with golden daffodils. . . . And that would remind me of the clumps of wild daffies that grow in so many farm paddocks round the district, and look so happy living how and when and as long as they like. Then I would sigh for the sound of the first cicada singing in the blue gums on Queen’s Drive, and the special spring blue of the sea, faintly ruffled by the first sea breeze of the season.
Why, boys and girls, I feel quite desperate in case I may miss all the familiar scenes one year. Shall we have a special Spring Page next week, and you can tell of all the signs of Spring round your home —how the daisies are appearing in the lawn, how the goldfinches are getting ready to build their nests in the apple trees and how you are finding it warm enough to wade in the river to catch whitebait. I should like to hear about •EVERYTHING and then if ever I go away I can carry the Page with me- and 'bring it out every September and remember more vividly how Spring comes to Nelson.
With lots of love from your frjend ALICE.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19450831.2.28.1
Bibliographic details
Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 31 August 1945, Page 3
Word Count
406A LETTER FROM ALICE Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 31 August 1945, Page 3
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