I love a garden full of colourful flowers. When I go for my runs through the neighbourhood and see gardens full of flowers, I’m a little envious. You see, our garden, unfortunately, does not get much sun, so we have been unable to plant any flowers.

When we originally moved into our house years ago, we were so concerned about blocking our neighbours from peeking into our garden that our landscaping was more focussed on big trees and bushes. Nine years later, we have the most beautiful trees full of bird feeders and nests, but lots of shade. It’s lush and green but lacks the colour that only flowers bring.

But a few weeks back, my mother-in-law changed that. Starting with just a single water lily, she “planted” this colourful flower to float gently on top of our water feature in the corner of the garden. Viewed from the kitchen, it was lovely to see not only the birds splashing themselves in the water, but a dash of colour. I requested she buy a few more and now have almost 8 of these beautiful flowers to view. I love them.

The water lilies are fake. They are plastic. But they look like the real deal and they bring me joy. In life, that’s what counts.