Violette

For the first seven and a half years of this blog's life, Heaven's masthead was dominated by this photo of violas - or violette, as I grew up calling them in Italian. Beneath it, a simple strapline, referring to an old belief in their healing power:

Heart's ease - an infusion was said to help mend a broken heart...

And, as I explained in an early blogpost, these particular violette had a strong significance for me, having been heart's ease when my heart was sore and grieving; cheeky, jaunty, cheering "weeds", pushing up and flowering where they weren't supposed to; tough survivors beneath their innocuous appearance.

But then, after seven years I made some changes to the blog's layout and appearance, and in the process had to lose or modify some cherished features. I lost my lovely violette from the masthead, although I somehow managed to hang on to a thumbnail and expand it. But whilst I can cope with Heaven without a word cloud of labels, I really wouldn't want it to continue without violette in all their cheeky glory... so now they get their very own page...!