Monday, March 06, 2006

Lottery

Step right up. Get your winning ticket. Pick your entry in the springtime lottery. No, it’s not in the raffle for when the ice goes out on Joe’s Pond.

My mother sent me today a big box of spring flowers—daffodils and forsythia and spiny pink flowers and spiky white long stems. One vase on the television, one on a side table, they do brighten my wintry living room.

One of the shocks of living in Vermont is that the forsythia does not bloom. Before Vermont, I was accustomed to the bright yellow cascades as a sign of spring, and even after I learned that the bush is pretty darn invasive, I still welcomed its annual show. In Vermont, where winter temperatures can drop to forty below zero, buds freeze and there is no show. Not forsythia and only sometimes crabapple.

So it is lovely to have some blooming sticks in my house. It hasn’t been a hard winter, not at all, but spring will still be very welcome.

Still you have to wonder how long I will have these flowers. The puppy circles. I fear we may be looking at hours rather than days. Get your winning ticket soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Cassandra is anything like Tashi the blossoms will already have been consumed leaving only a faint aroma and a few chewed sticks
So my bet is on - several hours!
I look for snowdrops as an indicator that winter is losing its grip...
and catkins on the hazel bushes
all in abundance in Oxfordshire

Unknown said...

Town meeting day is today. It is supposedly the day on which the beard that was grown for deer camp is shaved off.

But, I didn't go to deer camp (but would sure like to sometime), and shaving my beard might just land me in divorce court, so it will stay on.

Surely you need to come our way someday soon; we've got a big kid to show off, and you've got a puppy for the same. It's time for a visit!