May 4, 2026
Good morning!
It’s Monday. I’ve been marking our time here by flowers.
First came the ranunculi, which I assumed would be my only floral indulgence. But they faded so beautifully, I decided to bring in a bouquet of freesia to keep them company.
Then the freesia faded and I indulged in some peonies—les pivoines, as the flower man calls out over and over again at the market. Those peonies turned out to be show-stoppers, with a spectacular display of anther, stigma, carpal, disc, and filament fireworks. (Yes, I had to look those words up.)
But then they, too, began to ask for support—which is when a bouquet of cranberry red double peonies came home with me. They quickly opened and surprised us by fading to peach. With each generation of flowers, I’d check the calendar. Will there be time for one more bouquet? How about now? And…now?
It seemed only fair to give those once-brilliant and now faded peonies some support in the form of a perky bouquet of bubblegum-pink newcomers. And this time, I managed to get a smile out of the flower man, which I’ll take as a victory.
Now the last of the peonies can all say goodbye together. I’ll clean the vase and tuck it high on a shelf for the next guest to fill. And then, I can look forward to watching the peonies emerge from our own soil back home.
“Out of the sighs of one generation are kneaded the hopes of the next.”
—Machado de Assis
Onwards,
Clara
Such beauties!!!! And Clara, the peonies are indeed pushing up thru the cold soil in central Maine…I can literally watch them grow…can’t wait!
The witch hazel has already gone by, the Hellebores are in full force along with daffodils and squill….and the tulips that somehow avoided the deer…and a precious soft pink azalea… the grass is spring green and the trees have budded red… spring has arrived in Maine!
All will be a-bloom when you return.
Oh those blooms! What a brilliant way to tell time. Each one a kiss of color along the way. There are times when I hang on to a cluster, long after life has leached from their stems...not wanting the memory of them to fade as well.