dreaming of tulips

Tuesday, February 5, 2008


LuLu and the tulips

I had to stop at the hardware store yesterday because we were out of Niger seed, the seed of choice for all our little avian friends that flit merrily around on the other side of the large flat screen kitten TV we've installed in the kitchen. Niger seeds bring the sweet small birds to the feeders, a variety of finches (goldfinches, purple and house finches ) and the rose crested kinglets, little tiny birds who chatter to each other non stop, occasionally squabbling with a dramatic flurry of wing flapping and beak pointing. We've been out of seed for over a week and if there is no Niger seed they disappear, they go off to find some other feeder. The TV's been dead, someone unplugged it.

While in the hardware store I noticed that the gardening section has arrived at the front of the store. Moved to the back are the snow shovels and ice scrapers, the bags of salt and sand for walkways & roads. Replaced with racks of seed packets and big bags of potting soil, and my favourite, flattened tiny discs of peat that you simply pour water on and they magically rise up and turn into little pots of earth. Like those kids toys, the little blob of orange sealed in plastic - Grow Your Own Dinosaur - just add water.

I miss my dog, I miss my boy, how weird will spring and summer be without him, how weird will it be to stroll the beach in June without the Senior Stick Fetching in Deep Water trials in full force. I still have three of his favourite sticks on the floor in the back seat of our wagon. Sticks that were always carried by Jake back to the car, sticks that were saved for the next day. Perfect wood, smooth and rounded and light in colour so they were easier to see in choppy waves. I want to hold those sticks, and hug them and kiss them ... it's one more thing for me to treasure. And now I have a whole year of days and seasons ahead of me, to try and get used to my life without Jake in it.

And yet ... I am still dreaming of Tulips. Of Cosmos and Sweet Peas and trails of Morning Glories. Nasturtiums and tiny blue blossomed Lobelia. I plan to buy a small tiller this year, one that's easy for me to handle and I will till up a storm ... I will garden with abandon or that's my plan ...and you know, I do love a plan.


tulips

1 comment:

  1. What a sweet picture of your silver pitcher and lovely Lulu!

    ReplyDelete

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