No one knew who put up the sign, but when the garden fairies woke up shivering, they saw it, set at an angle so the snow stuck to it.
Honoria Hellebore wiped the snow off and read it to everyone gathered around.
“The celebration of the end of winter has been cancelled due to snow.”
When word of the cancellation reached Granny Gus McGarden out in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral, she nodded knowingly.
She had told the flower fairies to not get too excited by the warm weather. She knew. All the old garden fairies knew. They knew what happened after warm days in winter. Those early warm days were always followed by cold days and sometimes snow.
But not getting excited wasn’t something the older garden fairies could easily teach the young ones for they shared in the excitement. That’s why so many of the early spring flowers were already opened. Crocuses, snowdrops, irises, even some of the early daffodils.
Everyone, from the youngest garden fairy to the oldest garden fairy, got a little carried away by the warm weather. Before the snow and cold weather returned, there was even some discussion about opening up the forsythia blooms.
Granny Gus McGarden had seen this happen before. She was just happy the gardener hadn’t come out to the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and planted peas. Granny would not have liked that. She believed in following a proper schedule when it came to the vegetable garden and that meant the peas would be sown on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day.
Granny of course heard the rumors of the gardener planting a few pansies in containers in the front. She understood why and admitted that even she would be tempted to plant earlier in the vegetable garden this year, if the warmth returned.
In the meantime, she hoped the gardener would return to the vegetable garden soon. She saw her out there a few days ago, when it was warm, setting up a second compost bin next to the new one she set up last fall. Granny nearly swooned with excitement when she saw the gardener actually turn the compost from the first bin and pile it up in the second bin.
She couldn’t remember when that had last happened, it had been so long ago.
Now she just hoped the gardener would come back and tear out the old compost bins. Granny had heard talk of that area being turned into a cut flower garden, an idea she approved of in its entirety. Those old bins were fine for their time but it was time to add some more room for flowers.
With the end of winter party cancelled, Granny returned to her usual spot in the vegetable garden to wait for the real spring. She knew it was just weeks away but tried her best to keep herself calm. She wanted to be well-rested and ready for the new flower borders and new compost bins. But rest wouldn’t come easily, as she hadn’t been this excited about the prospects of the new growing season in quite some time.
To take her mind off the coming spring, she decided to write in her diary.
Love those garden fairies!
We are not celebrating the end of winter yet even though we have astonishingly warm temperatures for the past few days. 60 degrees here in Massachusetts! We remember all too well last year's February heat wave, and the arctic weather that came later blasting all the prematurely swelling peach buds. No local peaches at all last year. And, of course, we always hope for slightly warm days, but frigid nights so that we can count on a good maple syrup crop well into March. I do send my sympathies to the fairies, though.
My Hellabores and crocus are blooming. I hope it's the end of winter.
Thank you for your many Garden Fairies stories. They really fill a void in my blog reading list … always fun and imaginative and so creative. Just wanted you to know that your fun writing is appreciated. 🙂
Reaaly love those garden fairies stories! Keep up the great work!