A Bloom Day Promise

There's a foot and a half of heavy packed snow on the ground. Anything potentially able to bloom at this time of year like snow drops or the beginnings of helleborus are buried. Right now the best I can do is wait for the Bloom Days to come.

There is hope and it can be found in the big fat flower buds of the rhododendrons that dot the ridge top garden from one end to the other. Rhododendrons set their flower buds at the end of the summer growing season. You can tell now if it will be a good rhododendron year by seeing how many buds are on the shrubs. At least I could tell if I was willing to walk through all that snow and have a look.

But I've been spending so much time as a human snow plow of late, walking through more deep heavy snow is of limited appeal. I need to get ready for a truck full of appliances to drive down to the cozy cabin mid-week so I spent a few hours shoveling.

When I got tired of shoveling - I can shovel more tomorrow - it was pleasant enough outside to actually get some wood working done. Beams for the peak of the ceiling were cut to length. Spacer boards were cut, stained and nailed into place for covering the plumbing vent pipe in the bathroom. Boards were cut for a frame to raise the cabinet that will sit next to the stove up off the floor. The kitchen itself was emptied and cleaned in preparation for the arrival of appliances.

I have plans for the Bloom Days of May "when the sun is warm, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and the garden is all new again!" By then the cozy cabin will be done. I will be moved in and it will be time to have a garden warming party. I'll be doing another open house garden tour for the rhododendron show and can show off the finished cabin at the same time.

I'm going to call it a garden warming so people won't bring me any stuff for a house warming. I have no closets. I have no shed, yet. I have little room for stuff.

I will have a beautiful new home and a mountain top covered in rhododendrons and hundreds and hundreds of spring blooming perennials in a wild cultivated garden that needs to be shared. That promise will get me through the snow days yet to come. And before the rhododendrons bloom I have to get through the Bulbapaloozathon. I think I'll make it.