You were a seed, who turned into a flower, who made me.

British Gas are trying to find out all about bloggers' nostalgic and retro items we have in our homes and the story behind them. You can find out more here and see their infographic about the history of home heating here.

My retro item which brings back tons of nostalgic memories is my mum's little red glass vase. It has one of those bases with small bubbles blown into the glass.

I've kept just a few of her items that were special to me because they reminded me of her. With her Iranian background I have kept some Iranian photo frames, wooden boxes and trinkets. But those things have been packed away in the loft.

The one item I keep out is this vase - Totally non-iranian, just kind of from the sixties or seventies I guess.

Yes it reminds me a bit about my mum as she loved flowers and this vase only fits pretty much a single stem in it. She would often pick a few random flowers from the garden to go in it. Sometimes a just a daisy or some forget-me-nots. Nothing special - but because they would be put in that little vase, they would become special.

I think the reason it is so special to me and the reason I cannot part with it is not so much that it reminds me of mum, but it kind of represents my own childhood and my special memories with my mum. If I had more time, I would dig out photo after photo where that vase is in the background (or mum would make me hold the vase with a garden flower in because she liked photos to have flowers in as well as the person being photographed).

That vase was always there. It was a constant in our lives. That vase was never packed away or thrown out and so I've never been able to throw it out either even though it is actually impractical as it holds so little and out of place as it doesn't match anything else. Yet it is special.

I had totally forgotten about this next thing - but thinking about flowers, it has just popped into my mind. My mum did used to say something a bit mean to be when I was being 'difficult' and whilst we were away recently I found myself saying the same thing to my son. About how when you have a baby it is like you are planting a seed and you hope that seed will grow to bloom like a beautiful flower. You nuture it, water it and look after it, and you want that seed to be a flower and not a weed when it grows. When my mum was at the end of her tether with me she used to say I'd grown up to be like a weed because she was (quite rightly) trying to make a point about my behaviour.

Anyway I found myself rather cross and at the end of my tether with D whilst we were away and I told him the same story and explained that's what my mum had said to me. I told him in the hope that he would realise that his behaviour was a bit 'weedish' and grotty and improve.

When we got home, he spent ages with scissors, glue and sticky tape then gave me this.

It reads "You were a seed, who turned into a flower, who made me." The springy out bit reads "I love you".

It was so beautiful and heartfelt. It just made me cry. We've gone on to have a lot of 1:1 time together as I think he misses out on that because of his big brother's needs and his little sister being at a demanding age. Perhaps one day he will look at that vase with nostalgia and think of me and our special memories together.

This is my entry into the British Gas History of Home blogger competition. I am entering via The Black Pearl Blog.