Gather Flowers

Flowers

What better way to brighten your day than flowers, the distillate bloom of the joy of plants?

First rains come in mid-October this year, after six months of crushing drought. The night after the first rain, it is as if all of Nature is exhaling. I stomp the land in tabi shoes, Japanese gardening boots, and the cloth uppers become saturated, my feet grow wet, but it is a happiness. The rain continues. Two days later I meet my wife at the farmer’s market. The dog, who hates the rain, is in my car, cowering. Rain runs in rivulets down my neck, inside my rain jacket, under my sweater.

At the farmer’s market I get a cappuccino, which they make in my mug, and I walk around with it, my hands warm. Farmer Hale, from Hale Farms in Sebastopol, cuts off pieces of Arkansas Black, and Granny Smith apples for us to sample: the flavors explode in our mouths. He discourses on cultivars, and the attributes of heirloom apples.

Walking down the far row we see it, and it calls to us like a beacon: the flower stand. Under a grey sky, the colors of the flowers, vibrant as life, crackle and pop all the more. I can’t resist pulling out my camera. Can I take a picture of the flowers? They nod yes.