…..that there are kumquats? A few scenes from a Memorial Day weekend wedding.

The addiction gods have been kind to me; so far I’ve not formed any truly compulsive behavior (unless we are counting hot baths and I think I’d rather not). But coming into lily of the valley season after a long winter feels a bit like returning to an obsession after a long break.

Symbolizing sweetness, humility, purity, and the return of happiness, these little beauties are always a sign that Spring has arrived.

Yesterday it was doing this outside,

so I stayed inside and did a little of this…..

With pale yellow poppy, ranunculus, sweet pea, daffodil, and pin cherry branch.

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Spring has come to northern Vermont earlier this year than I can ever remember.  Which feels fortunate for me since I’ve been especially eager for the sun and new growth.

So eager, in fact, that I am fast-forwarding our season with this post.  I am happy to report that the hellebores above are thriving in a local garden.  But the apple blossoms and magnolia?……well, I found them on a recent trip to NYC.

And since Vermont is good at being Vermont (and by that I mean that today, April 27, in an unpredictable but not unprecedented bit of Vermont weather, we have 2 inches of snow on the ground with more falling) we may never, and I mean never, experience blooming dogwood trees in these parts….

Poppies are regal and showy with their arching stems, large crepe-like blooms and wide range of colors.  In the garden they are a late spring and summer bloom, but through the flower markets they come in winter and early spring.

On a recent trip to New York City I visited the flower market and came home with these beauties.  They are simple to arrange as they are so easy to place in vases and the results are always dramatic.  A little reading in The Meaning of Flowers (by Scoble and Field) reveals that they have long been associated with rest, repose, deep sleep, and dreams.

With poppies, seeded eucalyptus, champagne carnation, and succulent.

……garden rose, ranunculus, scented geranium leaves, chamomile, and craspedia, which were all lovely leftovers from a mock-up this weekend.

Karin and Brita with Cactus

I am better than anyone I know at neglecting houseplants.

This winter, though, I’ve successfully nurtured geraniums (helpful hint: geraniums like it dry….yellowing leaves is their cry for less water) and brought an orange thyme plant back from the brink of death.

But still my flowering cactus plant doesn’t bloom. It was given to me years ago with this advice….’it loves neglect, it doesn’t want much water, it likes to be cramped in it’s pot’. It sounded like the perfect plant! One day it may bloom in full glory. In the meantime I admire the beauties in Carl Larsson’s paintings….

And happily so. Finally we are getting our first big storm of the winter and it feels like such a relief. There have been bare spots in the fields for most of February and it has felt so strange.

The kitties are refusing to set foot outside today and I am following their lead. We are lounging by the fire and I’m subjecting them to Handel…..