Resilience

Day 165: My snowdrops had already formed buds when our mild winter turned suddenly cold and snowy a month ago, and soon found themselves buried beneath an 18" thick blanket of white. While I expected them to survive almost anything Nature could throw at them, I wasn't too sure if their resilience would carry them through the additional insult of having the driveway glacier shovelled onto their heads. I hadn't thought about it when Kevin and Daniel appeared unexpectedly in my yard to dig me out; I was too grateful to think about anything beyond being able to get to the grocery store before June. It wasn't until I went out to get the mail later that day that I saw where the driveway snow had gone, i.e., into the mostly-barren flower beds and over the tops of the budding snowdrops.

Well, the glacier has finally retreated after a week of summer (our foretaste of things to come), and even the shadier spots against my neighbour's woods show no lingering patches of ice. Nighttime temps have again dipped into the 20s, but there they are, happy as Larry, little snowdrops demonstrating that delicacy doesn't necessarily preclude strength in adversity.