It's Blooming Time

 There is a knock on the door, and when you open it, there is a bouquet of flowers. What a delight! We bring them in, read the tiny card and have the pleasure of placing the container in a location where we can enjoy the blossoms and greenery for a long time. Most people attend their gift flowers from time to time but when I am fortunate enough to be sent flowers, they become a daily, delightful routine. I learned from a florist that very warm, not cold water is going to perk up your bouquet more. Add a touch of hydrogen peroxide if you have such. Most of us are gifted with flowers on special occasions and when I am so lucky, I adore them more than any kinds of hard goods, well, other than herbs and spices. In the mornings, I take the vases to my kitchen sink and there commune, my flowers and I. They are temporary just as we humans, another form of living biologic, but we are not over, we need only tending to continue to offer our beauties whatever they might be. I take each little arrangement from its container and snip the bottom ends, cutting the branch type ones on a slant for better absorption. Next, I change the water and add a little of the package of chemicals provided by most florists, not the whole package. I want to have more for the next day's tending. Recently, I bought  a sack of clear glass marbles into which I can stick the stems to hold them in place if necessary. The marbles not only look pretty, they are always on hand and easily cleaned and stored. When I am given a large bouquet, after a few days of tending and clipping away spoiled foliage and blossoms, I tend to divide the remaining items into smaller vases. That way I can see flowers, like being in a garden, from many rooms or places in a room. Using interesting found vases such as mugs or little bowls, anything that you like, into which you can poke some stems, makes it even more fun. If you do this, making your zen of the day, as you fix your flowery gifts, you will lose any or all stressful thoughts. Your mind has on it, only lovely fresh natural things instead of negatives. Your thinking is a complement and compliment, to those who gave you these pretty and inspiring plants. On a day last week, when I had come in from outside where the gardeners had been practising their arts, I decided to add something special to my life. I called up a florist who tells me they acquire their florals from Equador as well as locally. I made a standing order for myself, with the owner. Yourself, you say? Yup, I did it. The florist and I worked out colours and kinds, with no provided vases or ribbons and came up with what would work in my house, aesthetically and economically.  It is time we treat ourselves more often, and that includes buying ourselves, our wondrous selves, flowers. We spend money on all sorts of other  distractions, but what could be more lovely than flowers?