Tomorrow is the first day of spring! With a high of 84 degrees today, it seemed the seasons shifted a day early. I couldn’t resist the siren call of the outdoors. I made my first trip to Lowe’s Garden Center, one of my favorite happy places, and purchased flowers for containers on the front porch.
After my Aunt Annie passed away two years ago, my mom, sisters and I spent time with my cousins in their mother’s home. Together we sorted through items and photos and memories. My cousins graciously invited us to select keepsakes to take home.
My aunt was a gardener. I wandered through her backyard, thinking of her and appreciating her talent with flowering plants. In her gardening shed, I found the items that I wanted to keep…a rustic wooden box with chippy red paint, and an assortment of clay flowerpots.
This is the third spring I have welcomed, by planting flowers in those clay pots, and arranging them in Annie’s Box. At Lowe’s this afternoon I was drawn to yellow and white blooming flowers. Okay, I was drawn to everything growing in the garden center. I LOVE this season and it awakens my desire to garden!
I selected tiny white begonias and butter yellow pansies for my arrangement. Back home, I got my hands dirty for the first time this year, transferring the young plants into the vintage clay pots, and smoothing fresh potting soil gently around them.
Although I lingered over the task, enjoying the warm sunshine and fresh, cooling breeze, in a short time I had all the plants tucked into containers. I had enough flowers to fill extra clay pots, creating a charming little Welcome Spring vignette.
Welcome indeed! Ellis Peters wrote, “Every spring is the only spring…a perpetual astonishment.” I love that quote. And that’s exactly how I feel, continual delight and astonishment as I meander through my awakening garden, exclaiming over tender green shoots that are appearing everywhere.
Tomorrow promises to be a duplicate of today, with the bonus of actually offering spring’s first kiss. Guess where I will be spending most of my day?
