Fragaria

Is not an English summer incomplete without strawberries and cream? To cancel strawberries would be akin to banning cricket, Blackpool rock and sandcastles on the beach. Yet that most delicious of fruit comes from the plainest of flowers. These wild strawberries I saw growing at Egremont Castle in Cumbria. Fragaria’s bloom might not compete with the likes of the dahlia or the lupin, but I know which one’s fruit I would most rather eat. Often, the plainest-looking people have the most bountiful spirits, while the beauty of the beautiful is but skin-deep.

Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3:3-4