Tuesday with Tulips

Well here we are with one week of March behind us.  I'm searching for spring everywhere.  Oh there it is...

In Lemon Chalets, chocolate and peanut butter Tagalongs, Thin Mints, and buttery Shortbread. Tis the season for Girl Scout cookies and a sure sign that spring is inching closer!

What's your favorite Girl Scount cookie?

Yesterday was a sunshine day, one of those days that just brings smiles to faces as snow ebbs away like a low tide.  And then, there are yellow come orange tulips...

 A fistful of soft yellow tulips purchased for five dollars bloomed molten orange, warm and stunning.

 The aging beauties returned to the yellow of their youth. 

Ethereal in orange, one beauty stands alone fading gently or as A. E. Stalling put it,

"And do not wilt so much as faint."

May you find a bit of spring on this March day.

I almost forgot...today is Fat Tuesday! Have you had your paczki today?

Not sure what paczki is?  First, it's pronounced 'punch-key' and it's a sinfully delicious fried dough filled with jams, jellies, or creams brought to the US by Polish immigrants. There are strong Polish populations in midwest cities like Chicago, Detroit, and the one closest to me, Toledo. The treat has spread across the countryside until every small town with a bakery offers freshly fried paczki on Fat Tuesday and the days leading up to the feast before lent.  If you want just one order a paczek pronounced, 'pon-chek.'



Fading Beauty

 Like the broken wings  of angels, petals fall gently 

Morning light smiled on a pink cup creating a youthful peach complexion

Aging with grace and beauty

The tulips have lost their bloom, but even as the soft colors fade there's beauty to be found.  

Purple tulips?  Red roses?  White daisies tied with with a ribbon?  I wonder what flowers are waiting to be discovered.?  

Have a joyful weekend!

Last year I began a winter photography project called Flowers for Five.  I picked up flowers or a flower for five dollars and photography the daylights out of the bouquet or stem. The project brought together two of my passions...my long-standing love affair with flowers and a new found infatuation with photography.  When my world is clothed in monochromatic winter white, flowers paint my soul with all the colors of a rainbow after a spring rain. Photographing the ephemeral beauty that embodies flowers is a joyful pursuit.  

I found a small bunch of pale, pink gossamer petals that whispered light, love, and tulips and resisting was simply not in the equation.  

 

What is more romantic than pink tuplips, soft and vulnerable in the dead of winter?

"You agree--I'm sure you agree, that beauty is the only thing worth living for."

~ Agatha Christie





Talk of Spring

I took a break from the Cottage for a few weeks or didn’t you notice? Anyhoo…I’m back and ready to march into spring with a trowel in one hand and a camera in the other. While I didn’t post, I did read many blogs and commented here and there. I look forward to getting back into the swing of blog posting, reading, and commenting.

So what was I doing over these last few weeks? I was getting my ducks in a row, working on writing beyond blogging, and dreaming. I basked in a photography theme I called Flowers for Five. I purchased flowers for about five bucks and took loads of photos. The pink roses from the Pink Roses or Undies post got me started. The next week I picked up a fistful of red tulips and then it was creamy, edged-in-red mini carnations.

I went looking for spring on a beautiful sunny-so-warm-I-didn’t-need gloves March 1st and did I ever find it! No, I didn’t find shoots of spring green emerging from the inches of snow, but I found buds!

I came home to a pile of seed catalogs, a plan for the front flowerbed that has been sorely neglected for who knows how many years, and a cup of hot coffee.

Yes, I’m ready for spring; for planting, rearranging, photographing, and sharing my passion for growing. I did a little spring cleaning in the Cottage with a new header and white background. I have a bit more to do, but it can wait.

Kathy Sue Loudermilk, a Lewis Grizzard character, said, “Spring is the land of awakening. The march winds are the morning yawn.” I can feel that open-mouthed yawn that lifts the shoulders to the ear lobes, clears the head of cobwebs, and gets the day going. Bring it on, March; I’m ready for kite-flying, starting seeds, cleaning up clay pots, long walks as the sun sets in spring pinks, lavender, and blues. I anxiously await snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. It’s time to plant a pot of Johnny jump-ups and primrose. It’s been a long winter and spring can’t come too soon.

What a silly question to ask, but are you ready for spring? Is that a roar of yes I hear? My but it’s good to be back.