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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Crocus Pocus

I'm watching "Harold and Maude" today for the first time. It's lovely film.

Maude says, "I love to watch things grow. They grow and die and then they change into something else...what kind of flower would you want to be?"

At my grandmother's funeral, one of her oldest friends said that she asked her once what flower she would want to be and my grandmother said that she wanted to be a snapdragon, because they last the longest in the garden.

I've never really decided what flower I wanted to be, but I always thought that my grandmother's answer was really astute.

The flowers are coming again.

This time of year is one of my favorites. While it's still cool enough to wear sweaters, sweatshirts, socks, heavy shoes and coats, it's still sunny a part of the time and you can open the windows during the day. You can walk outside without fear of catching the flu, and the earliest spring flowers are just starting to pop up with their tall and waxy leaves. Among them is the Crocus. Everyone always likes Daffodils, but the Crocus is probably my favorite early spring flower.

The little girl that I hang out with a few days a week has this really feminine coat/pant set that features spring flowers. Of course there's a Daisy and a Pansy, but it also has the Crocus. Adorable

(She wasn't incredibly keen on my taking the photo)

Crocus, in this part of the world, are often popping up through the snow, through the dirt or the old and dingy leaves that have fallen from the autumn before. I usually see the purple or yellow, but there's white, orange, pink and a sort of bluish color, too...that produce lovely and delicate blooms that really seem to be, for me, the harbinger of spring. Even more so than the Harbinger of Spring.

Erigenia  Bulbosa

With the Crocus and the Daffodil, it's only a matter of time before I can start to plant Pansies and Snapdragons (they'll always be a part of my garden from now, on), then herbs and the rest of the plants that will carry me through the summer months and into the beginnings of one of my other favorite times of year: Late Autumn.

I guess if I had to pick what flower I would be, I might pick the Crocus. It's versatile, hardy, lovely, delicate, and a welcome sight by almost everyone that welcomes spring into their homes. That's not such a bad thing to be.

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1 comment:

  1. :)
    I was just daydreaming about spring. Thanks for making me associate that with Harold and Maude. Such a beautiful film. You know yin and yang and all that. Did you know that the Chinese celebrate death at the start of spring? How very Confucian of you.

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