We’re excited to finally see a new store front around here in the Okanagan. It’s small, but we have big hopes for it’s growth in the coming weeks.
There isn’t much in the way of merchandise yet, some tiny green shoots, a scant few blossoms, but we can be patient a little while longer. When all that has been available is brown stalks, grey days, and cold… along with the white stuff… seeing anything beautiful for sale gets your heart pumping faster. If you have waited for over 7 months to see flowers, every day is a long one until they show. But since Spring moved into town, there is renewed hope that there are going to be some changes in the landscape. It’s a robust store, we remember the last time it opened up here, with fanfare, and birdsong, sunny skies. I think the town even held a parade, and so it should, it’s not every day that spring opens up. But when she does, it’s worth making a visit, because she does it with class, and showmanship. She flings open the front doors of her shop, artfully arranges the merchandise on the lawns, spilling over into the fields, the gardens, and the hills. She’s a master at tweaking a branch here, and a bud there. Encouraging even the most stubborn of plants lazy in their dormancy to produce something to showcase in celebration. Each day there is something new to see, it’s not all revealed at one time, and it keeps us coming back. Spring’s a savvy business person, a shopkeeper who has developed the eye for what pleases the heart, and knows who will be willing to purchase it.
With the opening of Spring’ new shop comes a busy time for everyone, it’s inspired us to tackle the cleaning, tidying, and pruning. There are neighbours popping out of their hidey hole houses to rake the lawns, some are even mowing the grass. Branches are cut, plants are transplanted, trucks scurry back and forth to the dump with garden waste. The sweet tweets of the birds call from the branches, there are more feathers and fusses to watch. Territories are won and lost in minutes, when the bigger birds come and take it over, king of the castle until a larger bird shows up. The deep ribbet of the tree frogs, so tiny they fit on your fingernail, echo across the lawns. Babbooom, bibbet, Babbbooom, bibbet, you can search and look, but you can rarely see them.
It’s spring, time to finish your indoor chores as fast as you can, and hurry out the door. It doesn’t last long here, soon it will be hot, and summer will have moved in. There are gardens to be cleaned, branches to be trimmed, grass to be thatched, leaves to be raked, water hoses and gardens to be prepared. It seems as if there are more chores then minutes in a day, and we always feel like we are falling behind. The fresh air is delightful, the sun shines beautifully against the “oh my they need a good wipe” windows and everyone is enraptured by the beauty of Spring’s wares. I hear that She is having a sale at her shop… I have to get some new flowers to spruce it up around here. I want to check out her shrubs, maybe she has some early flowering ones, the violas should be out now, and the seed potatoes are coming in soon… .