The Spring of Your Life

Living in Wisconsin and when you are in the dead of Winter, you yearn for any little speck of something that indicates Spring is on its way. Yesterday, Jimmy The Groundhog didn’t see his shadow. We are now expecting an early Spring. Yippee, Skippee!! The alternative, which Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania experienced, is six more weeks of Winter. By most calculations, we will more than likely have six more weeks of Winter. But there is hope. Jimmy gave us hope.

For the last few weeks I have been dealing with an elderly aunt who has been hospitalized. She is a spit fire, is 86 but not a normal 86. Until before Xmas, she was still mowing her 3 acres of lawn, shoveling snow, snowblowing, climbing ladders – all the things we tell her she shouldn’t be doing, but she still does. She has just experienced a new Spring in her life and she doesn’t want to head into Winter. After 60+ years, she has reunited with her high school sweetheart. They have both lost their spouses after years of fulfilling marriages. He retired out West but came back to look up an old love; to share some coffee, some conversation. A spark reignited and they had entered a new phase in their life. So he has helped her with tending to her home, leaving the warm weather for the cold. They are the version of an older flower bulb that fights every year to come back bigger, stronger, more beautiful. But now they have a hard time to get through because they both want to get onto the Summer of their lives – just a second time around.

Some cousins of mine and I are looking for our own little sparks of Spring. With sharing the cold days of the Minnesota and Wisconsin Winters, we are searching our recently received gardening magazines in search of the sunshine that comes with planting the seeds and watching them grow. One recently helped add to my gardening addiction by pointing out a company that I had not dealt with yet. It is van Bourgondien and I am now simply in love with this company. The one daylily in particular my cousin Carol mentioned is a reblooming daylily called "Exploded Pumpkin." Now, I love lilies of all sorts so this started to help warm me up. I ordered a book from this company (and a few others) and I could feel Spring thriving in my veins.

We all need something that helps spark the warmth, that brings the sun shining in. Mine started the minute I ordered plants for spring planting. I have some more garden beds in mind and every Spring I undertake a new one here or there. Last year I was too ambitious and planted five huge ones – a huge butterfly/hummingbird garden, a rose garden, a shade garden, a 3-season cutting garden and an endless bloom perennial garden. My husband dutifully dug some dirt up for me out of a composted area that we use for my flower beds and after quite a few skidloader buckets, I had my blank canvases to fill. I ordered plants, I planted, I mulched, I weeded. The first year the plants aren’t always as ambitious as the one who tends them so I have learned to be patient - to wait for the reward. They will come back – a little stronger, fuller, more beautiful than before.

This year, I plan to put in some more beds. I’m feeling renewed with the thoughts of Spring, because Jimmy said it is right around the corner. If my husband finds out what I am planning, I am sure he will start praying for a longer Winter.