White Geraniums

My white geraniums, brought indoors for the winter, are just about to bloom. I hope they won't be dissuaded by the latest polar vortex and the snow about to come. They are white, after all, and the scene beyond the glass patio doors simply mirrors them. Right now their clustered buds stand on three straight stems that resemble weird green eye stalks.

But these camellias are by Jonathan Koch. And the lemony and the citrusy lantana have been blooming happily in their hanging pots, so I am cheered, though, today, unable to convince myself to go outside. I had promised myself (and others) to mail things, and I still do have time tomorrow, when it will be a little warmer, before the snow arrives around noon.

So I've been doing indoor editing chores today, work I love. And I finished A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore, a writer I love. She can be hilarious, though this is a serious one. With hilarity in the background in the justifiably witty prose style.

January has been hard. Good things in it, yes. But hard things, too. 2014 has begun with lots of uncertainty, most of it lingering from 2013. I'd like some resolution. Of a good sort. Meanwhile, more snow. And this same, sad magnolia. I'm glad it's February.