08/21/2025
Abundance in Bloom
In a sun-washed village along the Ligurian coast, tucked between terraced hills and wild, fruiting groves, there was once a tradition—simple, sacred, and wholly seasonal.
Each Midsummer, the Figlie di Flora would gather, adorned in sashes and blossoms of rose and gold, to offer the first harvest to the village shrine. Apples and pomegranates, fragrant oranges and damask roses—each gathered in quiet celebration of the year’s turning, each carried with the grace of a birthright. They did not speak during the procession, but the hush of their presence was enough to still even the birdsong.
No one recalled how the ritual began, only that it had always been so. Mothers became daughters, and daughters became the women of summer. They walked in pairs, never alone, the bright red of their gowns echoing the ripeness of the orchards, the blush of the peaches, the bloom of their quiet youth.
Visitors came from far towns and bustling cities to glimpse them—more myth than memory. Artists sketched feverishly in the shade. Poets scribbled sonnets on the backs of envelopes. And children, clutching posies, watched with wide, wondering eyes.
For those who knew the truth, Abundance had a face. Or many faces. And all of them were radiant.
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I’ve been working on Edwardian-styled holiday cards inspired by the poetic charm of turn-of-the-century chromolithographs. They turned out beautiful, but as I do, I took them in a new direction once completed. I just discovered the artist Robert Fowler (1853-1926), a Scottish artist who painted mythological scenes and landscapes and paired his dreamlike figures with the luminous theatricality of Maxfield Parrish. The results, though rooted in Edwardian romanticism and touched by the spirit of the Arts & Crafts movement, transcends these. They shimmer with new warmth and timeless grace.
