Great Expectations...

It's a daffodil extravaganza...in March!  Pretty unbelievable for Lake Erie shore dwellers, actually pretty record setting for Lake Erie shore dwellers!!  But here they are and they couldn't be prettier.  So with all of that, I'm enjoying their first bloom and hoping this warm weather levels off a bit so they will stay around for more than two days like the crocus did.

---

Now, I know just about everyone has a few daffodils and that they seem very, how should I say it, commonplace?  However, my daffodils have a history, and that makes them beautiful AND interesting.  


 I did buy a few bulbs years ago and dutifully planted them and that was it.  Mainly because they were a bit too expensive for my budget and you needed quite a few of them to look decent as a planting.  So that ended my spring bulb collection.  Or so it seemed...

Years past and we ended up meeting a gardening friend of a friend named Burt.  Now, Burt was in his seventies and had gardens, I mean gardens, all over his multi-acre lot.  Peony gardens, rare bulb gardens, a couple of hosta gardens, irisis, daylilies and the list goes on.  This is not even mentioning his football field sized garden.  (He would garden only in quarter of it a year, but still, that's huge!)  He offered for us to put a few rows of vegetables in his football field garden and we thankfully agreed.  

It was so much fun to grow summer squash, winter squash and other fun things we were not able to grow in our own small home garden.  And while we were there, Burt would show us all around his flower beds.  It always was beautiful and I certainly learned a lot from him for sure!  I grew only certain varieties and kinds of plants and flowers, I think Burt grew at least one of each.  Perhaps two, making his property a virtual ark of every kind of living green herb.  

One fine Spring day, my husband casually told me that Burt had some bulbs for me for my garden.  I'm sure I absent-mindedly said, "Great!"   After all, Bert had given me a few plants before and I managed to find spots for the few of them.  However, I knew I was in trouble the moment I saw my husband bringing in bags...yes, I'm saying BAGS of bulbs.  I was quiet with amazement and consternation.  BAGS?  Who gives BAGS of bulbs away??  Well, I should have known.  Burt was thinning out the bulbs from his VAST daffodil collections and each newspaper wrapped set contained bulbs from all over the world (which means Holland mostly.)  I think I must have stared at those bags for quite awhile until I numbly went about trying to find places to squeeze them in.  It wasn't fun and I was a bit grouchy.  I mean, I hated to plant bulbs!  But, I managed to somehow plant them all and then I quickly forgot all about them.  Imagine my happiness the next spring when I went outside to find these beautiful flowers blooming?  So many different varieties and different bloom times.  Pure happiness.   

A cup of allergy tea to offset spring's pollen bounty!

The lesson in all of this?  Well, perhaps it was the point that sometimes we hate to go about the pain of investing in something.  It's hard work, tiring and there is no visible sign that it's going to pay off.  Then just when you forget about it, you reap a harvest of blessing.  Just like that...simple faith that what is unseen is going to become something very beautiful.


Thanks Burt, you taught me a valuable lesson again...AND I love these daffodils!!