Such Sweet Hands

Honestly, Monday was a tough day.  I worked hard, felt sick, had one of those identity crisis where one spends the afternoon tallying ones worth.  I worked some more and then I indulged in 3 hours of the final episodes of Six Feet Under.  Damn, that final segment is simply breathtaking and a good antidote to the afternoon’s troubles.  I love a show that kills off all it’s major characters with such grace…

I didn’t feel much like taking pictures, but that’s the nice thing about flowers.  When I moved to Southern California I knew any trying mental state could always get a reprieve thanks to the flowers.  I feel like a spoiled girl getting to live on this courtyard  full of roses and calla lilies.

I love tulips! About this time of the year I’m suddenly struck with a craving. I must have tulips! I walk to my local farmer’s market and buy beautiful tulips from the always enthusiastic and kind flower lady. I take them home, follow her instructions: a tiny bit of bleach, not too much water in the vase, an old penny (tulips love copper). I enjoy every stage of the tulip, standing up straight and elegant, when their stems bend and their blooms open as wide as possible with faces that stare huge and happy at me. Sometimes it feels like they open and bend towards me, such sweet flowers tulips are. I love them too, for being graceful in each phase of their bloom. All of a sudden, petals that now look like some sort of paper made from silk start to fall from a bloom. Whether in clumps, singles or all at once, each bloom finds a lovely way of letting go.