The Day's Eye

 "To loke upon the dayesie,
That wel by reson men it calle may
The ‘dayesye’, or elles the ‘ye of day’,
The emperice and flour of floures alle."


From the prologue to "The Legend of Good Women", written circa 1385 by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343 - 1400)



The name of the daisy comes from the Old English word dægeseage, meaning "day's eye".  This is thought to allude to both the way the daisy opens in the morning and closes at night like an eye, and also to its appearance - the yellow centre being the sun and the white petals its rays.  I agree with Chaucer that it is the empress and flower of all flowers.

After our lengthy wander around the Freeport Braintree shopping outlet yesterday afternoon, which tired us both out, Mum and I had a quieter day today and only ventured out for some lunch at a local café.  I drove back to my flat after that and spent the afternoon pottering.

The pressed daisy in my "eye-of-the-day" blipfoto is part of a charming picture frame which I found in a charity shop yesterday morning.  I'm going to use it to display the photo of my sister and me with our cousins, which I blipped last week.