Pansies

(Photo: almanac.com)

This year the weather is predicted to be extreme. Swinging wildly from one thing to another.  There is still so much brown in my garden it looks more like the garden of rust.  I am sadly in need of some spring color.

As a little girl, I remember my maternal grandmother planting pansies each spring.  She planted them in the same place, and always the same kind, although I don't think she had much to choose from then.  I remember asking her why pansies, why that kind...why, why why?  I'm sure I drove her absolutely crazy.  I remember her as a forceful woman, who lined up her cutting garden flowers in regimental rows.

"Why?"

"They make me happy."

There you have it.  I don't think she stopped there.  I think she probably went on about cold, long winters, too much snow.  Pansies were always the first thing she could plant out and not worry overmuch about them freezing.

Recently, my nephews and my brother came to visit, more like to check up on my condition, physical, mental, and emotional (I'm afraid these days...).  One of my nephews noticed a string of tiny silver bells strung over a doorway to my dining room.  He asked me why?  I touched them gently, and they made a happy little jingling sound like music.

"Why?"

"They make me happy."

You could see the sound made him happy, too.

So, all you gardeners out there faced with wild weather, I encourage you to plant something that simply makes you happy.