Spring Flowers at Home and Away

Spring has finally arrived in winter-plagued Toronto. The daffodils we’d normally see in April are now out and the tulips are following. It’s great to see some colour on Toronto’s streets that have been winter grey for so long.

In honour of the arrival of flowers here, below is a postcard of a floral clock from my former hometown of Guelph, Ontario:

I went through a phase as a teenager of buying local and rather generic-looking postcards and mailing them to friends and family from my various travels. I don’t have any other postcards in the Collection deliberately misdirected.

I thought it was funny and think I should revive this practice (even if it has presented geographical classification difficulties).

Here’s the backside:

Postcard message:
“We have just arrived at Gettysburg. We are staying at Quality Inn. I got a pair of sunglasses today at Corning. I saw this clock here, doesn’t it look familiar? I’m really enjoying the trip so far. Bye for now. P.S. How’s Gnip-purr [our cat] doing?”

Postcard caption:
“Guelph, Ontario
‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow…’ THe all floral clock in Guelph pays tribute to her renowned son, Col. John McCrae, author of the famed World War 1 poem. John McCrae was born in Guelph, 1872.”