Well, that's going to be a tough act to follow...
I remember those words as if it were yesterday. Last spring, basking in the unexpected glow of several weeks in the 70's and 80's in March, I'd been inspired to create what was probably my favorite spring arrangement ever in the huge urn that sits on the stone wall in the front of my home.
I remember it well. My friend and I, standing on the drive on a Saturday afternoon after I'd completed it. Admiring the crazy combination of silk flowers with real branches of forsythia and pussy willows and what we both considered to be a stroke of genius...the addition of a grape vine wreath nest with huge blue eggs.
It's also because I usually put my spring urn together in early April and then tear it apart in the first week of May to fill it with the live plants and flowers that will occupy it until Autumn.
I didn't really think about her words at the time. The arrangement made me happy. Those big blue eggs made me smile...a couple of the neighbors mentioned that they didn't want to be around when the bird that the nest belonged to returned. I'm pretty sure that there was at least one small child in the neighborhood who was watching for the mama bird to be on the nest during his or her daily walk past our home.
Spring turned to summer...and autumn and eventually... winter. I went on about the business of creating new arrangements for the urn, never thinking about my friend's words again...
...until last week when
That's when her words came screaming back....that's going to be a tough act to follow. She was right.
The urn sat empty for Easter. I had no clue what I was going to do but then, yesterday, as I was sitting in the kitchen enjoying the second real spring- like day we've had and the fact that I survived the end of quarter rush at work and would actually get a lunch break, I figured it out.
I dug the bags of flowers out of the storage room in the basement and put them into the urn...yellow and pink, blue and purple. Forsythia and pussy willows...and this year, apple blossom branches (faux) and this year's addition....white bird houses.
Is it better than last year's arrangement? I don't know. But I do know that the neighborhood children and small dogs won't need to be afraid of any birds who may decide to take up residence in these houses. I also know that I love driving up to at least a little bit of color in my front yard until Mother Nature returns from her winter holiday.
Oh...and one more thing....Now that the urn is finished, I need to make something for the back door...
something like the umbrella filled with spring flowers and a bird's nest that I made last year.
Now that's going to be a tough act to follow...
xo,
Linking to:
The CSI Project
