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Waiting for Blooms


Anticipation   -  Why don’t we celebrate Christmas all year long? One of my kids asked me that once in January when the bloom was off the new toys. I told him it wouldn’t be special if we did it every day. Anticipation is part of the reason Christmas is so much fun. I think the same is true of gardening.



In early February, I found this cranesbill in full bloom in London. In Alaska, mine won’t be blooming until June. The picture below was taken in July. The cranesbill are in the lower left.



I planted tulips under a deep mulch on the north side of the house once, and they actually bloomed on the Fourth of July.


                                            
    










I don’t know if I appreciate flowers more than a Londoner, but I suspect I get more excited about them. If I hadn’t waited all winter, I wouldn’t be so thrilled at the first sign of a rhubarb leaf unfurling, or run outside to take pictures of the pansies in pots on my deck. 

But after keeping us waiting in the dark all winter, the long cool days of summer mean the flowers practically explode into bloom in Anchorage, and the gardeners there go a little crazy.





Writers know all about waiting. I have a full submission, a requested revision, and a proposal in right now, and I’m waiting to hear back from the editor. Waiting is hard. But I’m telling myself it’s like the flowers, that I’ll appreciate it even more because of the anticipation. In the meantime, I’m sowing my seeds and fertilizing my garden, getting ready to blossum.

Are you blooming yet? 


Update 5/20/2016: I heard back on the proposal. They like it and want to see a full. So it was worth the wait. Now to get that manuscript into full bloom.

Comments

  1. I agree, anticipation is an important part of what makes something special. I once told someone I look forward to summer carnivals/festivals because I love funnel cakes; she told me about a restaurant near by where I could get them all year. But they wouldn't be as special if I ate them all year round... and I'd weigh a few more pounds! And it's definitely true with flowers; they are so much more glorious after the long winter wait. I'd imagine that the splendor is even more appreciated after an Alaskan winter... but I don't think I'm made of stern enough stuff to survive the long dark that.

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  2. Exactly. Special foods taste better if you only eat them occasionally. I confess, after twenty-four winters in Alaska, when my husband retired, we've started spending part of the winter in Arizona, and we appreciate sunny winter days more than any of our neighbors do.

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