Do you like butter? If, you’re not sure, a sure-fire way to find out, is to hold buttercups under your chin in direct sunlight. If a yellow spot appears on your chin, then you like butter. Apparently.
Another way to determine whether you like butter is to taste some and decide whether you want to taste some more!
The buttercup or Ranunculus, was a road not taken. I graduated from University with a 2.1 in Biology, way back in 1975. I applied for PhD positions and I was offered two. One was in Birmingham studying the genetics of Ranunculus and the other was Human Genetics in Newcastle.
I chose the latter. It didn’t work out and I might have got on better with the buttercups. But in Newcastle I made life-long friendships and eventually found my way into community development.
I sometimes wonder where Birmingham night have taken me. Maybe I’d still be a research scientist with a mortgage, a wife and an expensive car!
I doubt I‘d have all of those. If I’d stayed with science, I committed to environmental campaigning before University and so would certainly have continued along that road.
It’s impossible to follow the road not taken, it’s no longer there! It might not have been a path strewn with yellow flowers.
What about you? What were the turning points in your life? Which paths did you not follow?
This is the first in a series of stories about flowers. The next one is: Michaelmas Daises.