Petal Shock

Flying back to the US yesterday, as each plane landed, I thought Thank you, dinosaur-oil!  Thank you, working people!  Thank you, parents!  Thank you, beings I have eaten!  Thank you, entire world, for making this impossible flight possible.  

Fly across the ocean, and the world changes.  In New Hampshire I found winter again.  Not winter-winter, but the kind of evening where you definitely want the pellet stove on, and it makes sense to wear a light wool coat indoors.  My fingers turned white as petals, and I had to stuff them under Timothy's leg to warm them up.  Tricky, as I was also trying to stuff ravioli in my mouth at the time.  

Above - a stack of ripe tulip petals from my mother's garden in Switzerland, glowing in late afternoon sunlight.  We won't have tulips here for another while.  But, the rhubarb and raspberries are waking up, and all but the most giant snow piles are gone.  Letting petal-shock go, I re-settle this here and now.