The Tulips are Up

 

    When we bought this house, it came with a garden. The garden had been planted by the original owners of the house. One of them was a master gardener and her fine work had been left to grow wild by the group of young men who bought the house from them. When we came to the house after the closing, one of my new neighbors came to me and told me they hoped I'd do something with the garden.

   I'm not much of a gardener, but I do my best and most of the time it looks pretty good. I tore out a lot of what was there before because it was overgrown or I wanted to make room for the things I wanted to plant.

   One thing I left alone was the tulips. Every year they come up sometimes in places they have not been before. It's fun for me to see where the tulips will show up. Most of the time there are yellow and red ones. I have also seen pink ones and once we had a purple one. I'm starting to see yellow tulips with red on them. The number of pink tulips is starting to increase.

   With the cold weather lasting so late into the year I wondered what would happen to the tulips. A few weeks ago I saw the leaves starting to emerge. Every day I would see more and more growth. I swear sometimes they looked taller in the morning than they did the night before. The recent warmer weather we've had has caused the buds to come out and to flower. 

   It always makes me happy to see all the tulips in the garden. No matter how big of a mess the garden is those tulips are there standing tall (or short in the case of the pink ones) and proud. I can't help but smile when I see them. They just come up every year no matter what I do. I like that.

   The only downside is that when we plant the garden we have to plant around them if they are still up. I don't have the heart to cut them down if the are still standing. This makes for a lot of frustration on C's part. We manage.

   That's a small downside when compared to the joy I get when I see them. It is one of the signs that spring is here.