The Awakening

Slowly but surely my garden is waking up. The snowdrops are chiming their little white bells: wake up, wake up, Spring is coming! And many of my plants and bulbs have woken up, there was even one early bird who got up before the snowdrops did.
The winter aconite.

But other sleepy heads are rubbing their eyes and are waking up too, such as
Hellebores,

roses,
tulips,
Verbena bonariensis,
Grape hyacinths,
my daffodowndillies,
Bergenia, that caught the sunshine in its leaves,
the fennel in the kitchen garden,
but also Geranium,
Crocuses,
Clematis and
Lady's mantle and many, many more. I find it a bit scary that so many of my plants have already woken up as it is only January and there is still plenty of opportunity for the Ice Queen to wreak havoc in my garden with her icy fingers and cold, cold breath. If you want to hear what destruction the Ice Queen is capable of, scroll up to the pic of the Verbena bonariensis, look to the right and click on the second ( the best version) or the third picture( the live version) of the video bar. Crank your volume up to the max and enjoy.

Within Temptation is my favourite Dutch band and as Bliss is an interactive blog you're in for a spot of headbanging this time. Oh come on, I see Jodi and Mungus of Bloomingwriter are already in the zone as they love Within Temptation too, so this is especially for them. What are you guys waiting for? After all, what is a little headbanging among friends, right? Ready?

Ice Queen - Within Temptation

When leaves have fallen
And skies turned to grey
The night keeps closing in on the day
A Nightingale sings his song of farewell
You better hide before her freezing hell!

On cold wings she is coming
You better keep moving
For warmth, you'll be longing
Cone on, just feel it
Don't you see it?
You better believe it!

When she embraces
Your heart turns to stone
She comes at night when you're all alone
And when she whispers
Your blood shall run cold
You better hide before she finds you!

Whenever she is raging she takes life away,
Haven't you seen?
Haven't you seen?
The ruins of our world!

She covers the earth with a breathtaking cold
The sun awakes and melts it away
The world now opens its eyes and sees
The dawning of a new day.

On cold wings she is coming
You better keep moving
For warmth you'll be longing
Come on, just feel it
Don't you see it?
You better believe

Whenever she is raging she takes life away
Haven't you seen?
Haven't you seen?
The ruins of our world?

Back to our regular schedule: February has been known to be the coldest month of the year, and it is still to come. And there could also be snow and ice in March or April. One year we even had hail in July which destroyed my waterlilies completely. So I'm treading softly in my garden, that those that are still asleep may slumber a bit longer. I've found one person who is still fast asleep, clever fellow that he is. Can you see him too?
copyright 2008 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Garden and gardener, two words that have the power of transformation that helps us recapture memories of childhood and lead us to a future where we can once again interprete the dream of life.
Fernand Caruncho, The Spirit of the Geometrician, 2006

40 people have voted in my little poll and 19 of them wanted more posts on cats, 11 did not, and 10 who didn't mind either way. So there will be more posts on kittycats, but not to worry if that's not to your taste; the majority of posts will still be about gardening. :-)

Here's wishing you all a sunny Sunday!