What a lovely moment, the exchange of small, loving gifts, with Golding and his friend receiving a bunch of fresh picked garden flowers. 

We enjoy such exchanges with one of our neighbours in the form of food gifts – when either of us bakes, something gets taken over to the other.  It means random rings of the door-bell, and even in socially distanced times, a warm loaf or bun stretched out in a basket. 

We exchanged small gifts as we left.  For us there was a bunch of sweet-smelling wall-flowers, these late blooms from the garden of Alcinous.  

Source: Louis Golding, Good-bye to Ithaca (London: Hutchinson, 1955), p. 187

Photo credit: _Alicja_ at pixabay