Waiting for Spring

It's New Year's Eve.  There's a layer of crystal snow covering the yard.  Not a lot.  Maybe 2 inches.  Last year was so much worse.  I realize that if worse comes to worse, we are looking at no more than 8 weeks until spring.   Sometimes March gives us a blizzard or two but never with that bone chilling cold we will have in the next 8 weeks.  If we're lucky, we'll get a January thaw.  Then up through the snow will come shoots of crocus.  Life renewed.


 I pacify myself with memories of last summer.  The scent of 'innocents' mixed with fragrant purple/pink petunia set in pots on the back porch drifted up through the kitchen window. It was heavenly.  I used to pot deep red geraniums.  I love them but they don't have that perfume.  There's a basket of seed geranium on a ledge in the basement, soaking up what light comes through that window.  I've never been good at wintering over geraniums.  Maybe this year.  Purple petunia mixed with innocents cannot be beat for fragrance.  They are inexpensive and put on a gorgeous display. I dream of spring and it's mild weather. Still I realize the minute we see the plantings arrive at the nurseries, the whole season will pass with lightening speed.  Anticipation is the sweetest part.  Just like the anticipation of Christmas, the anticipation of spring give me hope.