Weeding the strawberry patch before tucking it in for the winter, pulling up the last of the bolted lettuce, cutting back faded perennials, planting garlic, with thoughts of the bright green shoots that will appear after the snows…and then there were the daffodils.

Every autumn I consider them a frivolous expense and every spring I deeply regret my frugal decision. This spring I told everyone to remind me that if I didn’t plant at least a few, I would be sad in the spring. And so I splurged (a whole $7.50) on 10 ‘Camelot’ daffodils. Just enough to impart a bit of spring cheer in my favorite garden bed. Perhaps they will thrive and spread. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll consider it a reasonable expense to add to them just a bit next year (I still covet ‘Avalon’ daffodils to go with them. And now I sounds like a silly romantic, don’t I? Well, I can’t very well help it if they are my two favorite varieties!). And perhaps there will come a spring when we are greeted with a sea of golden glory. Now, that is a most pleasant spring thought.

I bought a few more bulbs this morning. It should be illegal to send out advertisements for 50% off bulbs on the grayest of dark days. Had the sun been shining, I would have been completely immune to their ploys. I know that I shouldn’t have, but oh, the dark grayness of everything did me in! Not so very badly though, just one small packet of an interesting looking tulip and one small pack of English bluebells, both destined for the very same garden as the daffodils. I think I’ll be quite glad of them in the spring.

It seems that what started off as a little cold, that seemed to be on it’s way out, has now come back in with a vengeance, in a more dramatic form. I’m so very glad not to have to leave the house in the morning. It sounds wild out there and I am quite content in my little nest. I foresee a day of chicken soup and tea (yes, my teapot came! I’m on quite the spending spree lately, aren’t I?). I think lessons are very likely to be taught on the futon, rather then at the table. I have a good bit of hand-sewing, as well as a pile of library books (for both little people and big) to pass the day with. Yes, a bit of rest sounds absolutely necessary.