On Christmas Eve, just about a month ago now, my lovely daughter brought me a gift of "tulips to be."  It was a wide glass vase, with a dozen or so bare tulip bulbs in the bottom.  There was a little "grate" in the bottom of the vase too.    You simply put water in the bottom, and the bulbs sprout roots, which anchor themselves through the grate, then come leaves, then, in about 3 weeks, voila! Spring!

How cool.  It was fun to watch them grow, inches everyweek, till finally, in the dead of winter, they bloomed — fresh, delicate and flush with color.  This picture shows the pretty effect of the sunlight glowing through the water in the base. 

The next one shows it from the other direction.  The tulips lifted our spirits; we'd take a deep breath, and imagine Spring.  This was a nice gift.


Then, because not all good things can last, they started to fade.

Snow came.  Frigid temperatures.  YOU CAN'T FOOL ME! shouted Mother Nature.   It is Winter.

I should have known better.  I am bundling up in layers, scarf and hat.  Chapstick.  Gloves.  Wrapped in blankets when I watch TV.  Extra Grammy Heiman crocheted blankets on the beds.




I leave in the morning and it is still dark, dark, dark.  Venus still lights up the night when I am driving to my bus stop.  Orion and the Big Dipper still lay around up there in the sky as I trudge through the parking lot and wait, in the cold wind, shoulders hunched up to my ears, for a hulking bus to come take me to work.  The fantasy was nice while it lasted, but it is not Spring yet.  In fact, Lent is starting very, very soon.  So, as I start to feel the ragged edges of the long trek through Winter, so are the beautiful tulips feeling the strain. 

Instead of perky pink on lush stems with leaves, we have this:


Yikes.  They kinda remind me of Bill the Cat, now.  And that's just about how I feel some days too!



   Come ON Spring!

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