And we wait

Each year, with bated breath, we wait

To see the crocuses yearly fate

Which weather condition settles

The destiny of the mauve petals

I kid you not. This is only 6 year’s worth of archived WP crocus photos. I finally stopped at 27, yes, 27, photos. I am sure I could have gone farther back and pulled even more, but you get the drift. I absolutely adore the crocus that adorn the native prairie that I am blessed enough to live on.

But it’s not a new love. I can remember, as a small child, going out into the pasture and picking my Mom a bunch of crocuses every spring. We would check every day to see if they had finally bloomed. Even decades later, my brother would go walk the pasture to find them and bring some in for Mom.

Fast forward to my city years. I don’t recall seeing them while living in Calgary, although I suspect they existed on Nose Hill. The prairie version doesn’t live on the coast, so the Vancouver years were a bust. The wonderful thing about Saskatoon is that, along the riverbank, there are many areas of natural prairie, and so once again, I was in 7th heaven.

Then fast forward a couple of decades and a move to the country. We looked for a piece of property that fit our criteria, and once aspect of that was native prairie. What a bonanza we hit! It was sparse in the first couple of years as the pasture was very overgrown after not being grazed for a few years. But once the cattle chomped on some grasses and exposed the ground, the crocuses came out in full force. Weather and moisture conditions definitely play a factor, although I think it is more of the latter than the former. You can see above that they will survive a snowfall and still keep blooming.

As to this year, still waiting. A few have popped their silver heads up, but despite the warm weather, they are still hanging back. Every day, we walk and wait. But soon, my heart will sing with each blossom, and I will lay on the ground and take so many photos. Big A and Little Man C will come over and be so excited to see them, Baby J won’t be as excited by them, but his Nan will take him out there for sure. The bees will buzz, and friends will come for walks to marvel at this sure sign of spring.

Until then, we wait…

April is poetry month, and so I challenged myself to do something other than a haiku. It’s short, and hopefully, you will all think it’s sweet!

Do you have a favourite flower that speaks to your heart?

Bernie