Commentary: Blooming forest plant prompts sweet memory

A few years ago when my daughter Eleanor, then in her early 20s, was working in England, I stayed at her apartment overnight and early the next morning walked with her to the little station where she caught a train for London.

We started off alone on a gray morning under leaden skies but people going to the station began to appear from side streets so in the end we were part of a stream all heading in the same direction.

I noticed something she had mentioned before, that they were all wearing dark clothes — gray, brown, dark green — while she was in a bright yellow dress. I told her she looked like a flower floating downstream, the only splash of color on the 10-minute walk.

One day last week in the national forest, the glimpse of a single blossom brought that engaging scene back to mind.