There's no going back

 

The countryside of my childhood.

A few evenings ago I searched Goggle Earth for the countryside of my childhood. But my nostalgic trip down memory lane turned out to be a nightmare. Everything had changed beyond recognition. What I remembered as green fields are now housing estates. Alas, there's no going back.

On my wife's first visit to England, she got up at the crack of dawn and wondered through the countryside shown in the above painting. She came back to my parent's house clutching a bunch of dandelions. My mother pulled a face and told her that there were better flowers in the garden - they're just weeds. But to a West Indian, a dandelion is as exotic as the hibiscus or passion flower.

As a child I remember the "pop man" coming around with Dandelion and Burdock - a fermented drink made from the roots of the two plants - that he sold in returnable one gallon stone jars.