flower day

This blog may be on its deathbed, but the stories keep coming in our real world. I would like to remember today as the first day Sam picked flowers as a contribution to our dining room table bouquet. We've been having some great floral surprises in our new yard this spring, including my discovery of (gasp!) purple lilacs emerging from an unspectacular bush in the back corner of the yard. Back east lilacs don't bloom until May, and can be found everywhere, making their sweet-scented way into daily conversation and regionally famous lilac celebrations. Here in the promised land, lilacs show up much earlier, in March, but they are uncommon and not nearly as appreciated by the locals. It was certainly in the plan to plant a lilac bush at our new house; how fortunate that one is already here.

So today I picked some lilacs to replace the wilting bouquet of narcissus (another yard suprise and also beautifully scented) for our dining room table. I came back inside, found a vase, placed it on the table, and continued making dinner while Sam played outside. A little while later I hear him open the screen door and walk into the dining room. He's busy with something at the side of the table, and I peek over his shoulder to see what's going on. There on the tablecloth is a pile of red flower petals from our camellia bush. Sam looks at me and announces, "red flowers," as he dashes back to his wagon on the porch to get more handfuls. Some of them are brown and rotting, since he "picked" these flowers from the ground beneath the bush, and I definitely see an ant walking away from the pile (I relocate it outside), but I couldn't be happier. Lilacs and Sam's petals in one day! That's a lot of flower goodness.