Every winter comes with its own set of hardships and difficulties. Following the Christmas bonhomie there is often a let-down and a few weeks of despondent regret, when recent excesses are suddenly regrettable with the arrival of credit car statements and such. The weather of late has been a bit of a roller coaster, with temperatures that have swung from the 60’s to the 20’s in a few quick days. Not ideal for the seasonally affected among us, but we must trudge on. One of the ways I make it through the winter wilderness is by making weekly pilgrimages to Faddegon’s Nursery. When the nearest botanical garden is hundreds of miles away, it’s what you have to do.
Luckily, plants are plants, flowers are flowers, and beauty may be found in a local greenhouse. I still remember a little gift shop in Chicago, during a rather cold and trying winter, and one of its rooms was a tiny corner made mostly of windows, where the light, gray and dim as it was, filled the space. A few pots of paper white narcissus bloomed and scattered their divisive perfume in the air, while pretty scenes made up of up cycled metal and wood, along with a few other touches of green foliage, made for an impressive respite. I was having a difficult day, but this brief brush with beauty calmed the turbulence of my heart, and I clung to whatever balm I could find.
That same sense of peace, however fleeting or momentary, is what I try to capture during the winter. It eases the soul when the outside wind bangs and rages. Our houses can only barricade us from so much, eventually some of the winter will seep in. Beauty, however, is impenetrable. Its essence goes right to the soul and cannot be felled or destroyed, no matter how strong the gusts of wind or how high the fall of snow.
I felt such power the last time I was at Faddegon’s. It started in the face of a Lenten rose, careened off the curves of a pink spath, and winked at me from the gorgeous painted plate of this orchid. In the tranquil stillness of a greenhouse, where the only sounds came from the distant hum of a fan and the dripping of a recent spray of water, there was peace to be found in the winter. Peace and beauty, and for one moment all was right with the world.
