This is probably a fairly typical spring day — it hasn’t made up it’s mind whether to rain, be sunny, or, how about some brisk winds? I hope not, as some of the flowering trees are at their most beautiful right now.
There is an ornamental cherry tree that looks (from three floors above) exactly like a violent explosion of white blossoms. If I stand by the window staring down at it, the across-the-street condo-dwellers will be sure I’m checking what they are having for breakfast. I’m teasing as I really could not see even if I had binoculars (or even if I were interested).
I’m sort of disappointed in them. The day after they moved in I took them over a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies as a “welcome to Sidney” gesture. I had seen their moving van was from Ontario and I wanted to assure them that the inhabitants of B.C. were a friendly lot. Luckily I had used a pretty paper plate,because I haven’t seen them since.
Oh well, you win some, and you lose some and that’s just the way life seems to work. Maybe you’ve had someone hold a door open for you and maybe you’ve had someone else let the door slam in your face while you were carrying an armload of groceries. She didn’t help to pick them up either (and she stepped on the doughnut I had bought as a special treat). Beastly person!
But then a nice man held the car door open while I unloaded the cart and even returned it to the store. He was handsome, too! I found I was humming a happy tune as I drove away.
Helen Lang has been the Peninsula News Review’s garden columnist for more than 30 years.
