Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Do you have a favorite flower?

Flowers.

Kind of an extravagance?

I mean not always.

I do stop to smell the roses.

Or take the pictures.

Sort of.

I am not a photographer but I do love to take photos of flowers along the way. And so what this really means is I've used my iphone to take like 5 photos of flowers in the past 5 years, probably over 2 or 3 walks, with some combination of husband, one child, two children.

Sunflowers. When I was (ahem, much) younger, I went through a small obsession with sunflowers in the way little girls go through obsessions with things. For a while, my step-dad and I took pictures of sunflowers almost everywhere we went. I recall his pulling over on the side of the road more than once when I shouted from the back seat that I needed that one.

I just came across one of these photos recently and hung it on the fridge.

We walk a lot but it's sometimes hard to smell the roses. I prefer the smell of the ocean anyway and my boys love the beach, so we're all good there. In fact, we're off to Maine today - our first vacation as a foursome!

I often wish I could stop fretting about the photos. We don't have many with the combination. One child. Two children.

But this isn't about that.

Flowers are kind of an extravagance for me. I do love to order them, when I can, for dear people like my grandmother, for example, and I do splurge at the grocery store on occasion. I'd love to hear my grandmother's voice - that moment when the person gets the flowers. And the moods of the flowers. And the smells of them. The way their leaves dangle.

When you order the flowers you want to get them there quickly.

If you've ordered my chapbook from Finishing Line Press, thank you -- for making room for a flowers kind of purchase. For making my poetry that thing on its way.

I'm sorry it's been on it's way for so long. I hope that when this small bouquet of flowers arrives, you will enjoy them for some time!

What's your favorite flower?