Flowers:Amaryllis/bella donna/ naked lady

Every time I see this flower, I think of the late Elaine Turner. When I first arrived back to New Zealand and started to teach ESOL at Mt Albert Baptist church, she was my helper. One year, I went to visit her and she told me why this lily is called naked lady, and she gave me a bunch, She showed me a section of her garden where this Amaryllis lily grew.

I cut my bella donna/naked lady lilies to show my grown up students . One student remarked, you do a lot of preparation to come to teach us. My dad used to say ," one picture is than 1000 words." My students were pleasantly surprised I gave each a stalk.



I am very proud of Kate Sheppard. Her image appears on our ten dollar note. She is mainly responsible for New Zealand to be the first country to give women the vote in modern times.

Katherine Wilson Sheppard (10 March 1847 – 13 July 1934) was the most prominent member of New Zealand's women's suffrage movement, and is the country's most famous suffragette. Because New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage, Sheppard's work had a considerable impact on women's suffrage movements in other countries. During one of the protest movement, she led a whole group of ladies to lie down on the road and the police couldn't do anything. Elaine Turner,  told the ESOL class about this.

Sheppard played a considerable part in getting the women's suffrage bill was successfully passed, granting women full voting rights. Sheppard herself was widely acknowledged as the leader of the women's suffrage movement.

Elaine  Turner,  told the ESOL class that when she was growing up, the girls wanted to be like Kate.

It was a coincidence that I saw Elsie's daughter-in-law. I told her what Elaine told me. And Sharon from UK knew this family story.

Sheppard is considered to be an important figure in New Zealand's history. A memorial to her exists in Christchurch.

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/