The First Sign of Spring!

My heart gets delighted when I hear the name of spring. It is the season of colors, the season of beauty and the season of flowers.

Talking of flowers, I would like to tell you of the first flower to bloom in our garden, which bloomed as the first sign of spring and so beautifully that I was amazed at its beauty. Yes, I am talking of the Californian Poppy, which literally ‘popped’ (as the name indicates – popped the poppy) in our garden just a few days ago. Its color was yellow and white. Others were purple with a yellow centre. I laughed when I saw the flower clearly. It seemed to be a fearsome cat’s face growling at us. A funny expression, ain’t it? It was introduced to me by my father who explained that unexplainable expression.

I think, you all would like to know the story of how the Californian Poppy came to have that face. Well, the story goes like this :

Once, there lived a cat named Poppy in California with its mistress. It was a very stubborn cat. And the cause of this stubbornness were the colors – purple, yellow and white. Whenever Poppy saw these colors, it would start growling and making weird faces. Their neighbor used to get really angry at the cat’s behavior and so, made a magic potion by consuming which, anything stubborn would turn into a something very sweet. This magic potion was very tasty and the cat really liked it. Poppy drank the whole of this potion and turned into something that on seeing, no-one would be able to tell of its stubbornness. It turned into a beautiful flower. Noticing the change, the neighbor took Poppy with himself and kept it at his home for many weeks. Poppy’s mistress noticed that her Poppy had been gone missing from quite a few weeks, so, she called the police, but, the police also couldn’t find it. At last, she assumed that her poppy was no more!

Meanwhile, the neighbor become so fond of Poppy that he wouldn’t let it go out of his sight for even a moment. He took it with him to the market and even to the hospital, wherever he went, Poppy would accompany him. One day, he had taken it to the market with him, and not noticing that Poppy had, by mistake, been dropped from his bag. Now, it was lying on the floor. At that moment, the mistress entered the place and saw this beautiful flower. It had a face just like Poppy, growling little face, and at once, it reminded her of her cat, and, she shouted – “Oh, my Californian Poppy!” She had no idea that it really was her Californian Poppy. She also got fond of this little, pretty flower and whatever seeds would drop out fro it, she would plant more of them, and, these cute little flowers became popular all over the world by the name - Californian Poppy!

So, my friends, this was the story of the Californian Poppy. These flowers look very beautiful when they bloom at the starting of spring. I just discovered a few in my garden and I am proud that I am the owner of such pretty flowers. From today, I will take care of them, so that, at least, they don’t growl at me!