Petunias

On Christmas Eve "visions of sugarplums" dance in my head, but when the snow melts away "gardens of beautiful flowers" captivate my thoughts!  It must be spring! Those gardening catalogs, filled with stunning pictures that lure me into believing, "Yes, my garden can be that breathtaking too," have been pouring into my mailbox for weeks.  I've getting the bug again.  It never fails.  I can't prevent it from happening.  Each year I exhort myself saying, "I just know it!  This will be the year!", that my gardens look as glorious as those in the catalogs.  And every year, despite the fact that the previous year may have ended in disaster, I believe it to be true - with all my heart.

I'm not quite at that point yet because spring is not really here.  The warm weather this March has just been a tease, an illusion.  The calendar says spring.  But we long time New Englanders know that these balmy days can just as easily (and cruelly) fade into cold, wet and windy days.  And what's worse is those dreary, depressing days can, in turn, drag into weeks!  April will come soon, but will it be warm and renewing as it should be?  Or will it usher in the March weather we escaped?  Only time will tell ...