The Event

You may recall that I have been anxiously awaiting the first blossoms on my fledgling magnolia tree - 'Rose Marie'. More than two weeks ago I worried that it would bloom during the weekend that we were out of town.

What Mother Nature gives with one hand, she often takes away with the other. And, in this case it was my blooms. The cold snap - remember the snow? - caused the bloom to slow down and wait for me to return to watch it open, but it damaged the blossom. It should be a deep rose color, not the washed out pink, and you can see that there is considerable cold damage on nearly all of the petals.

There is a second blossom that is nearly a week behind the first in maturing, but we are due to have mid-30's tonight, so I fear a similar fate for that one.

On the other hand.... what is it that keeps us gardening? It's the promise of a better crop next year! This tree is only three years old and these are her first two blossoms. [Clearly she is a "her" since she is having babies!]

I can only imagine what she will be like next year with maybe a dozen flowers - and maybe no late cold snap!

Country Boy

He was born on the waters of eastern North Carolina, raising horses and cattle and letting them roam the outer banks to feed in the summers. Having moved to the "big city" he worked his dad's dairy farm and spent all his spare time on the beach. His family lived off the land during the Great Depression.

He and Mother first fell in love when she was fourteen - what was my Grandmother thinking to let her date a 16-year old with a driver's license? Life and war intervened and they went their separate ways - each marrying too young, but raising five children between them before divorce left them alone again.

There are too many stories to tell of his younger days. As a merchant sailor he helped break the ice floes to open up the port of Murmansk during WWII and to save the lives of untold numbers of people. Fifty years later the Russian government sent him an honest-to-goodness medal for that. He cherished it and showed it to anyone who would look. Later he joined the Air Force and learned to repair diesel engines - a skill he would later use on fancy European cars.

He was a partyer and a drinker; the teller of outrageous stories. He knew - or was known by - everyone in town, and not always in a good way. In retirement he lived on his beloved trawler - the last of a long line of boats he had sailed. He docked her at friends' piers or in marinas, but was never far from her.

And then he married Mother. In their seventies, they rekindled their love and decided to take the chance. A decade of love and companionship followed and they seemed to relish their time together - until dementia began to rob him of reality. Gone was her love, her companion, the one who shared her memories, the man who had made her laugh off and on for 70 years. The man who never knew she had gone before him.

After six years in a nursing home, he will join her one last time today - lying side by side forever. We were happy to have him in our family - even for a short time. Rest in peace.

Surprise!

I buy many pots of tulips every spring, and faithfully plant the bulbs, but this ain't a good place to grow tulips. As much as I complain about the winters, we just don't have the long sustained cold period that tulips need. So imagine my delight when I discovered these this morning! Thanks, Mom!

Monday, Flower Day!

Dear Ms. Jane,

Please excuse webb's lateness in completing her assignment. She went out of town this weekend and did not make arrangements to complete her assignment until she returned. As a result she found that there was precious little blooming in her garden that was ready to cut for the house.

The Tete a Tete daffs were nearly done, but she scrounged around and found enough to bring in a handful. The little pot she found to put them in looks nice, altho she stole the idea from many of the other participants who had pretty little white cups and pitchers. I do think you could give her a bit of extra credit for spotting candy tuft and purple vinca to give a little pizazz to her mini-arrangement, but overall I think she should have planned ahead and gone to a florist for some better materials.



I provided plenty of hellebores to last her until May, so she gathered a lot of those - including some from a wide variety of colors. She still hasn't figured out how to arrange them, so I would subtract points for that.











And, finally, I don't know how to tell you to grade the pot of hyacinths. They are one of the prettiest that I make - 'Purple Sensation' - and the container looks particularly good with her wall color, but really! This is the third time she has posted hyacinths for Flowers in the House Day. Take ten points off for lack of originality, but add five for fragrance.

Overall, I think it's a poor performance, but she did try. I shall continue to get her to improve her performance, but am not sure there is much raw material with which to work.

Yours truly, Mother Nature.

PS: I have already looked at most of the other posts for today and found them lovely.