There comes a time in the life of every expat in Costa Rica when you yearn to go "on holiday" as the Brits say.

Appropriate, as our holiday was to the British Isles. One isle actually, since England and Wales are contiguous.

There are many lovely times of year to visit the U.K. Ours was not one of them. Early spring can be freezing when your blood is tuned to the warmth of the tropics, but we did have a lovely time getting re-acquainted with flowers we can’t grow in Costa Rica. And those flowers were everywhere. Everywhere we looked, the yards were full of flowers.

Even the lawns were alive with drifts of tiny daisies that seemed to hug the ground for warmth.

I think I noticed the lilacs first (Syringa vulgaris), but I almost didn’t recognize them for the depth of their color. If lilacs in the States are the color lilac, then the ones in the UK are just purple – a rich lush purple – or bright white.

Frost may have been nipping at my nose, but the lilacs were flourishing, splendid, and fragrant. I hear there is a type of lilac that may grow in our climate and if that is true, I have to find it.

When we arrived in London, the daffodils were spent but the tulips were still blooming. As we traveled north, though, we found the daffies blooming in many yards and I was able to get my fill of their fragrance.

Then there were the baskets of our childhood friends, the pansies, heaped in baskets and smiling at us at the hotel doors. So many colors and scents just the way I remember them. And the wisteria! Yes, we have the blooms of the queen’s wreath and jade vine, but they have no scent, while the wisteria can scent an entire garden.