英语沙龙：Wild Flowers

Each spring brings a new blossom of wildflowers in the ditches along the highway I travel daily to work.

There is one particular blue flower that has always caught my eyes.

I've noticed that it blooms only in the morning hours, the afternoon sun is too warm for it.

Every day for approximately two weeks, I see those beautiful flowers.

This spring, I started a wildflower garden in our yard.

I can look out of the kitchen window while doing the dishes and see the flowers.

I've often thought that those lovely blue flowers from the ditches

would look great in that bed alongside other wildflowers.

Everyday I drove past the flowers thinking, “I'll stop on my way home and dig them.”

“Gee, I don't want to get my good clothes dirty...”

Whatever the reason, I never stopped to dig them.

My husband even gave me a folding shovel¹ one year for my trunk to be used for that expressed purpose.

One day on my way home from work,

I was saddened to see that the highway department had mowed² the ditches

and the pretty blue flowers were gone.

I thought to myself, “Way to go, you waited too long.

You should have done it when you first saw them blooming this spring.”

A week ago we were shocked and saddened to learn that

my oldest sister-in-law has a terminal brain tumor³.

She is 20 years older than my husband and unfortunately,

because of age and distance, we haven’t been as close as we all would have liked.

I couldn’t help but see the connection between the pretty blue flowers

and the relationship between my husband's sister and us.

I do believe that God has given us some time left to plant some wonderful memories

that will bloom every year for us.

And yes, if I see the blue flowers again,

you can bet I'll stop and transplant them to my wildflower garden.

1 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

2 mowed   

v.刈，割( mow的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The enemy were mowed down with machine-gun fire. 敌人被机枪的火力扫倒。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Men mowed the wide lawns and seeded them. 人们割了大片草地的草，然后在上面播种。 来自辞典例句

3 tumor   

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

参考例句：

• He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
• The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。