I am not used to cold weather. Having grown up in SoCal and being an alumna of the University of Hawai’i, I feel the need to bundle up when it gets below 60 F. The idea of a white Christmas escapes me – though it did snow on us once when my family visited the Grand Canyon via RV to celebrate the holidays during high school.
We spent this Christmas in San Diego, perhaps the farthest we could be from the cold and snow-laden village that you could find on a winter scene postcard. And yet, as it was 60 degrees in Southern California and 66 degrees in New York City this Christmas, we were slightly closer to a postcard holiday than parts of the country that would normally expect white to fall from the skies this time of year.
One of the most unique Christmas gifts we got this year? Daffodil bulbs. With them came the promise of what is to come in the form of a painting created by my aunt. The yellow blooms spring from the canvas, inspiring (or daring) you to plant the accompanying bulbs. This is what they could be, planted in the cold, dead winter with only mulch for a blanket until one day it is warm enough for them to peek their green heads out from under the covers like a child pretending to be asleep on Christmas Eve.
The gift threw me for a loop when I saw it under the tree. It didn’t smell like garlic – but, flower-illiterate as I am, that was the most likely scenario to me. When I finally realized they were daffodil bulbs (it took unwrapping the canvas and finally looking at the tag to come to this conclusion), I was delighted. I’ve recently gotten into (and, so far, pretty much failed at) vegetable gardening, and the fact that I can start anew on a flower garden in the “bleak midwinter” is a refreshing thought. When I plant them “deep” in the container on my balcony as per the directions on Dig Drop Done, it will be close to freezing every night. By the time they finally bloom, spring will be upon us and we will have weathered a particularly strong El Niño. It’s an investment in the future, and the perfect thing to do at the beginning of a new year.
Our upstairs neighbor called me yesterday to, among other things, let me know that she had installed a hummingbird feeder on her balcony. With the introduction of daffodils to our balcony, it’s looking to be a busy spring around here!
And now for an unintentionally heavy question: What are you doing to invest in your future?
