Spring is Springing?????

So here we are in March and I'm beginning to see the promise of spring that hopefully is just around the corner.  I've seen some plants that look a lot like poppies and the odd bluebonnet or two.  I've even seen a few plant that I don't recognize as native wildflowers but I'm pretty sure that they will bring forth flowers and that's because I spread a lot of seeds from packets from my best friend of 40 years.  And here's that story.

About 7 years ago at a High School reunion in Myrtle Beach my BFF and I were discussing how we could get together more often now that we had more disposable income and more time.  We talked about going back to England to see our old stomping grounds.  We discussed also maybe taking some time during that trip and getting on a canal boat and traveling for a while like that.  We talked about taking a cruise and we talked about getting together in our two states..her's being Nevada and mine of course Texas.  We also agreeded to continue not to just talk about these ideas but to act on them.  So we each went home to our respective states and began to search the internet for canal boat trips and places to stay while we were in England.  We both came up with some interesting plans but then I began to think that this maybe wasn't such a good idea after all....the canal boat is fairly close quarters and I have a husband who snores....LOUDLY!!!!  I'm used to it and most nights it doesn't bother me but to subject other people to it...not such a good idea.  So I called Candy and asked her if we could change our plans to something else.

We discussed several different senarios and finally decided on a cruise to Alaska.  And then we both decided to invite our parents.  She invited her father (her mother passed away a while ago) and her sister who she is very close to.  I invited my parents and of course we both had our husbands in tow. 

We chose to sail in  late May as we'd been told by many who'd gone before us that we would probably have the best weather then and they weren't wrong. 

The trip was so wonderful in so many ways but mostly in hidsight it was because I got to spend time with my parents.  And how was I to know that just 2 short years later my mother and Candy's father would be gone.  Didn't mean to go down that road yet again but it's the god's honest truth.

On one of the last dockings before we headed back to Seattle we stopped in Victoria, British Columbia.  Bob and I and Candy and her sister decided to do the off ship excurision to Burchart Gardens. 

Burchart Gardens for those that don't know is 45 acres of an old abandoned quarry that have been turned into the most beautiful gardens you can imagine.  And because they have the rain and the soil they are something that people like me, that live in areas like I do, dream about.  Pictures cannot do it justice and if you ever get the chance to go see it....go see it.  A lovely way to spend a day or part of a day. 

Anyway this is just all to set you up for the gift store that we visited on site.  They had the usual tourist trap sort of stuff and I'm not a big fan of wasting my money on stuff that I don't really need or will use.  My husband bought a couple packets of seeds for flowers that he thought we could get to grow and Candy bought a lot of seed packets that she hoped she could get to grow in her gardens.

So now lets return to present day and a couple of days after my mother died I recieved a packet in the mail from Candy.  In it was most of the seed packets that she bought that day.  I kept them in the fridge until this past November when I then spread them far and wide in our gardens.  November is when we plant our wildflowers.  Because the seeds were old (they were bought in 2010) and I wasn't sure how they were kept, I didn't have much hope that they would germinate but I have seen a few little plants that I don't recognize that would seem to be those that Candy sent. 

If they do indeed make it, it will certainly always be a reminder of a wonderful time spent with my parents and best friend. 

Candy is coming to visit soon and I can't wait to show her what I hope will be what she set in motion.