Ah, April. It's here, finally. Next to October, it's my favorite month of the year. It's the month when the forsythia, daffodils, and tulips bloom. The iris are getting ready for their May appearance, as are the lilacs and lilies of the valley. It's the month when almost every morning I can enjoy my coffee on the porch/lanai/veranda/deck.
I read a book once entitled April Gold, it was written by Grace Livingston Hill. It was written back in the days when nice was nice, and evil was evil. A black and white time. You knew what was good, and you knew what was bad, and the two didn't meld as they do these days.
Anyway, this book is about poverty -- most of GLH's books are -- and rising from desperate straits to a new life. The title, April Gold, is because of the April flowers. The children of this widowed mother moved her bulbs and clippings of her forsythia when they were forced out of their home after their father died. And when the following April comes, even though the house in which they now live is a shack, the flowers bloom and make the home lovely.
That's not why I love the April Gold, though. It's because it reminds me that the gray of winter, the cold of winter, and the precipitation of winter are gone for another year, and now comes the sun! Yeah!
Did you know my mother disliked forsythia? She had a bush in the front yard next to the porch and no matter how many times she trimmed it back, it still took over the whole side yard between the porch and the neighbor's fence. She liked to look at the flowers it produced, though, and therefore would never tear it out completely, thus eliminating the "take over" problem.
My mother loved tulips. And every year, when the Jackson and Perkins catalog came, she'd pick out three new kinds of tulips and order the bulbs. She was always to happy to see which tulips came up each year. I'm looking forward to seeing what colors the tulips here in our community are this year. The past two years they have been all colors of the rainbow (except green and blue.
I see the leaves pushing up, so I know it won't be long now, and the April Gold and May flowers will be profuse and beautiful.
I read a book once entitled April Gold, it was written by Grace Livingston Hill. It was written back in the days when nice was nice, and evil was evil. A black and white time. You knew what was good, and you knew what was bad, and the two didn't meld as they do these days.
Anyway, this book is about poverty -- most of GLH's books are -- and rising from desperate straits to a new life. The title, April Gold, is because of the April flowers. The children of this widowed mother moved her bulbs and clippings of her forsythia when they were forced out of their home after their father died. And when the following April comes, even though the house in which they now live is a shack, the flowers bloom and make the home lovely.
That's not why I love the April Gold, though. It's because it reminds me that the gray of winter, the cold of winter, and the precipitation of winter are gone for another year, and now comes the sun! Yeah!
Did you know my mother disliked forsythia? She had a bush in the front yard next to the porch and no matter how many times she trimmed it back, it still took over the whole side yard between the porch and the neighbor's fence. She liked to look at the flowers it produced, though, and therefore would never tear it out completely, thus eliminating the "take over" problem.
My mother loved tulips. And every year, when the Jackson and Perkins catalog came, she'd pick out three new kinds of tulips and order the bulbs. She was always to happy to see which tulips came up each year. I'm looking forward to seeing what colors the tulips here in our community are this year. The past two years they have been all colors of the rainbow (except green and blue.
I see the leaves pushing up, so I know it won't be long now, and the April Gold and May flowers will be profuse and beautiful.
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