Wishful Thinking

wishing it's summer rather than winter *sigh*

Wouldn’t it be nice if the white powder on the photo is sand instead of snow? The grey bleak days we’re having can really bring the blues. And the current winter is definitely a freezing one. Oh, we have intermittent days of sun, but they don’t last long enough to dispel the general gloominess and chilly atmosphere. I just keep telling myself it’s better to have snow and frigid temperature now followed by a “true” spring and summer than to have a mild winter that seems to drag on forever (for the past years, there seems to be little difference between the warm and cold seasons).


And to add to my dwindling spirit, our oldest indoor plants, Agave (Agave Americana var. marginata) and Yucca (Yucca elephantides) died. They’ve been with us for around five years and to see them now, water-logged and rotten to the roots, is quite depressing. I keep berating myself why this winter I decided to let them outside (we usually place them on our porch during the warm months). We didn’t have enough space inside the house to accommodate their bulk now since they’ve grown big both in height and diameter --- especially with the sharp-edged leaves of Yucca and the needle-ridden ones of Agave, so I decided to let them on the porch with a sheet of protective wrapper around them to keep the cold temperature at bay. I thought both the plants are sturdy enough to withstand the cold and the cover is sufficient to get them through winter.


Now I realized I was wrong. For sure, this winter is a lot harsher than usual. But I thought the winter wrapper and the plants robustness will keep them from being frozen to the roots. As they say, regret always comes in the end. I have really high hopes for them, especially with the Agave --- I was able to have four more medium sized plants from the one plant we originally had. Now, all of them are dead (*sniff* sniff*). And I don’t have anything except myself to blame for their untimely “demise”. I know I’m probably making a big fuss about it, when there are more serious things to think about and many things to be thankful for. But I just couldn’t help feeling sorry for the plants and for myself. As I said, they are, or rather, were our oldest plants. It’s a shame I didn’t bother to take a photo of them when they were still “alive”.


But thanks to Molly of The Bumbles, I have something that kept my spirits up. The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon that she recommended has been my company these past wintry days (and nights). And reading it made me forget my disappointment about my plants, the biting temperature, the overcast sky and the howling wind outside (it was quite strong on several occasions creating a lot of mess in the garden). It was an enjoyable read, transporting me to eighteenth century Scotland --- not only because of the narrative but because the notion of time travel is a central theme (maybe I should try to write a sort of “review” about it *winks*) Now, not only is my wish to visit Scotland has been intensified (both for the landscape and the culture, especially about the druids), but my curiosity about botanical plants and old cures has also been piqued.


Tsk, tsk, it seems my head is full of what ifs, should haves, would like tos. I guess when there’s nothing much to do outside, one tends to spend a lot time thinking things over, daydreaming or searching for reading materials about things that spark one’s interest, no matter how trivial or important it is. Well, at least that’s what I’m prone to do. And one thing I’m really wishing for right now is to wake up to a bright day, with the sun lording it over the blue sky *sigh*.