Flowers

My life is filled with flowers. I guess it all started last fall when Nate and I went to Monticello with some friends. They were having a big "bulb" sale, so we stocked up on some tulip bulbs. I went home and excitedly dug out a whole lot of dirt and planted my bulbs deep in the ground. I then began to panic that maybe I'd put them in too deep, or maybe the soil was made up of too much clay, etc. Eventually winter hit and I pretty much forgot about about the bulbs. I figured that it was a lost cause.

Until now, spring!!! Nate and I started noticing little green shoots coming through in the flower bed about a month ago. And now, tulips!!! These are not your ordinary tulips. They are "old" tulips, like the ones grown back in Jefferson's time. I don't really know how to describe them, except that they look nothing like the tulips sold in stores. They are smaller, dainty even, with swirling colors. I love it how they open up for the sun, and close down for the night. Mostly, I think I'm just happy that I planted something, and it actually came up.

And, in even stranger news, last year around Easter I took home an Easter Lily from church. I planted it beside our front steps and it immediately died. However, there is a cute little green plant now living beside the steps. It hasn't produced any lilies, but I'm confident that next year... it just might!

Finally, I got flowers delivered to me at work yesterday. Actually, I had taken the afternoon off and was shopping at a mall near the office. My co-worker called me and said, "you've got to get back here, you've got flowers!" So I drove back to work to open the card and relieve the office of its curiosity. Lo and behold, beautiful flowers! All from a client that I did tax work for this past busy season. You know, just when you get really frustrated with clients and taxes and work and life, someone brings you flowers or says something nice, and everything seems okay.