The Snow Gypsy

by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

rockroses, with wrinkled pink petals and yellow centers. This flower was on Maria’s list. She intended to extract oil from it, which she said was good for nervous complaints, and make a brew of the petals as a gargle for ulcerated throats.

prickly pear. Maria wanted the flowers that sprouted from the leathery green flesh to make a cure for amoebic dysentery.

Sierra Nevada violet—more like a pansy than the violets native to Britain, with pale-pink and yellow petals. Maria said the crushed leaves could be used as a poultice to treat skin cancers and growths.

trumpet gentian, with intense blue flowers shaped like the musical instrument it was named after. It was the root of this plant Maria wanted. She used it to neutralize the poison in snakebites and scorpion stings.

Because every individual being, from a flower to a child, is of concern to the creator of life.

children fostered by goats grow up to be noble adults.”