Blooming premonition & inspiration.

THE PREMONITION:

Ogre and I have been married for 8,632 days, as of this writing. When a pair has been together that long, strange, magical things can happen … even if one of the pair doesn’t believe in strange, magical things. (*Looking at you, Husband.*)

Things like this:

 

Those flowers are called Peruvian lilies, aka Alstromeria. They are inexpensive around here, and readily available in floral shops and grocery stores. Usually, there’s nothing particularly magical about them. If you look closely at the bouquet, you’ll notice a few branches of pussy willow tucked among the blooms. It’s spring, so those aren’t difficult to come by, here in Minnesota, either.

How is this bouquet magical then?  Let me tell you its story.

When I was working at the nature center on Friday, one of the naturalists cut a posy of pussy willows branches for me. (Apparently the bush needed pruning.) When she brought them to me, a stray thought popped into my mind, “These will look pretty with the flowers Ogre is bringing home tonight.”

It was an odd thought. I don’t get flowers every Friday, or every holiday weekend, or every Easter. In truth, I don’t get flowers with any sort of predictable regularity, nor do I get them particularly often. I mean, he does do it a couple time a year, I suppose, but it’s not a big thing for us.

I noted the thought, brushed it aside, then got on with my critter tending.

After finishing up at the nature center, I did some other errands and got home later than usual … late enough so that Ogre had beaten me there. He greeted me with a kiss, took some stuff out of my hands, and said,” Oh. I got you some flowers.”

I think that’s pretty cool.

I did confide what I’d thought earlier, btw, and reminded him that this kind of thing is happening between us more and more often. He thinks I’m cute. He always thinks I’m cute.

Oh! Now that I look at this snapshot, I’m realizing the flowers seem to have another magical property. The cat hasn’t chewed on them, or knocked over the vase, as we both expected him to do. (Perhaps that behavior pattern explains why I don’t get flowers more often. Ogre is certainly inclined to spoil me, but the cat has been terrorizing living with us for about thirteen years, which has made it difficult when it comes to flowers. And THAT probably explains why I do get *pharmaceutical-grade chocolate on a regular basis. The cat has no interest in that.)

*Pharmaceutical-grade is Ogre’s term for dark, intense chocolate.

THE INSPIRATION:

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that we’re trying very hard to put ourselves in a position where we can move permanently to North Carolina. Our daughter moved there almost six years ago ans we want to reunite our family in a sane climate. (Long-term readers also know that I despise Minnesota winters.)

Right now, I’m recovering from this last season pretty well. It was a mild winter here, and spring is springing.  All the ice is melted off the pond out back. We got our first thunderstorm of the year just last week. On the warmest days, the birds actually sing a little as they bask in the sun. A few blades of grass are turning green.

How much more spring-like could it be? I mean, here’s the forecast–with NO below-freezing temps in sight:

 

Well, on Easter Sunday, my daughter sent me some snapshots of what she was seeing a she strolled around, texting me.

Here’s how much more spring-like it could be for us:

We gotta get out of this state.

UPDATE:
Thought I’d share a quick video from today, Thursday April 9th.

Not long after I put the camera away, I tried to navigate one of the hills around here and failed. I’m going to go put an ice pack on my shoulder now. Bleepin’ winter.

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