Purple Sweet Peas

Looking through the various entries for this contest, I thought I could easily pick my favorite flower, but then I would go "Oh, but I love that one too!" Any flower, I think, is more than worthy of becoming a favorite. So my entry is a sentimental favorite. My family has for many years planted the simple sweet pea in our various gardens every spring. Their abundant flowering, always made them a favorite picking flower and who doesn’t love their "sweet" scent. My father, being a child of the depression, would harvest the seed pods and sow them the following year. Over time, his sweet pea patch was overtaken with purple blooms. Although it was probably a more-dominant and hardy seed, I couldn’t help but tease him that he had purple dirt. He even tried buying new seed, but purple always seemed to prevail. My father passed away a couple of years ago, and we miss him dearly. But it is always a good day when the sweet peas start to bloom... and still there are always more purple than any other color. It may even be that one day we plant only the purple seeds to pay tribute to Dad and his "purple dirt."