In Bunches

 

In Bunches

Michelle came back inside early last week, rummaged around under the sink, came out with a tiny bud vase – just enough for one flower.  She put it under the faucet and added a tablespoon or so of water – all that the little vase could hold.  Then she added a single daffodil flower that she had picked from the south side of the house.  We had been watching them for the past few days because you could start to see the yellow of the blossoms stretching out.  She put the little vase on the dining room table,  and summed it up perfectly.  “There”, she said with a smile.  The full beauty of this spring day had simply and suddenly filled the entire house with just a single flower.

Yesterday, Michelle came back inside and went back into the cupboards, and she came out with two glass vases.  She added a fistful of daffodil blossoms to each of them.  With the vases full, she grabbed a seldom-used coffee mug and dropped flowers in there as well.  (The picture for this essay is the bunch of flowers in that coffee cup.  Somehow it seemed more childlike and innocent than the flowers in the more formal vases.)

Some rain and a handful of days in the 50’s had coaxed many of the daffodils scattered around the yard into full flower and Michelle couldn’t resist bringing several bunches of them inside.  And, as perfect as that single flower had been a week ago, even more so was the splash that three bunches of daffodils that had simply and suddenly filled the house with the full beauty of the entire season of spring. 

Two weeks ago, on a morning that made me keep my hands in my coat pockets on my morning walk I saw a single very large white bird on the far side of the big pond.  My thought at the time was that this was perhaps a tardy tundra swan as flocks of them had migrated through several weeks before.  But the next week, as I passed the pond, my eye caught sight of about six of the big white birds; this time only about 150 yards away.  They were white pelicans.  I’m 67 years old and I lived in this area for all but three years of my life.  There were no pelicans here in my lifetime until the last 20 years or so.  The Department of Natural Resources states that the population of pelicans in the Green Bay area grew from about 250 individuals in 2005 to over 3,000 in 2021.  Having a firm foothold now in and around the bay itself, they have obviously begun spreading further inland and further north.  Yesterday, was another chilly morning.  When I passed the pond, the big birds were again way on the far shoreline.  They were bunched up together for safety and warmth.  Even so, I could tell that their numbers have grown to at least 25 or more birds from that single one that I mistook for a swan two weeks ago.  Now, they looked like a large drifted snowbank reluctant to melt.

I have three nieces that live all the way down to the most southern tip of Illinois.  They are all my favorite nieces – just ask them.  One of them, my favorite niece named Shannon, always ends every, card, letter, email and visit with, “Love you bunches.”  That always makes me smile.  Because, whether it is in spring days, or daffodils, or birds, or nieces, or love, it is always best when they come in bunches!

His Peace <><

Deacon Dan