Spring Bulbs

The bulbs I plant in the fall sometimes don’t make it through the winter, but the potted bulbs I get from the grocery store in January always do. I finally figured out that happens because bulbs with fully grown foliage usually get planted at the required depth.

Most of the hyacinths that dress up the garden year after year have spent a few weeks on the window sill in the kitchen. Two days ago, deceived by the summer like weather, I took the opportunity to plant this year’s batch of potted bulbs in the garden, and I don’t think they are too happy to be there right now, but they’ll be coming back next year. Who knows, with a little luck they might even bloom again before the end of spring.

Yesterday a thick rain washed the garden clean, wiped the skies clear and periwinkle blue and brought with it a rainbow. I took a walk through the garden after the rain and I could already see the tips of violets peeking through the ground, despite the fact that it’s so early still. The drumming of the rain lulled me to sleep and was shocked to wake up to a snowy landscape, my heart still dreaming of summer.

I long for the rain, the morning sunshine in June, the song of the nightingale before dawn, the lightning, the thunder, the sound of the breeze ruffling the leaves, the scent of heated grass on sweltering afte
oons. There is no saving grace to winter, what a pointless season!

Yesterday, for a few blessed hours, I remembered summer, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered it, and I wished it lingered, but it seems one can’t have June in February, no matter how much one might wish.