Planting a Seed
Spring is a lovely time to plant seeds. You can grow some pretty flowers, or sow some heirloom veggies to impress the neighbours. Most kinds are fairly simple – you just throw them onto the ground & spread some soil onto them, water & PRESTO! – fabulous lush posies or crazy big vines full of tomatoes or far-too-many cucumbers.
There are also some finicky seeds that you have to rest in the freezer for a time, or score their edges brutally with a sharp knife. I try to stay away from those, or just buy readymade plants in the nursery.
I have a friend Nancy who loves to say, “I’m planting a seed.”Nancy is a lovely girl, but she’s no gardener. But she is always full of ideas & plans, some many months away. She likes to plant her seeds early. A day after Christmas, she will call & say, “I was thinking about summer holidays & you two coming to the cottage for a week. These are the dates I am thinking of for July – I’m just planting a seed.”
I like to plant seeds in the spring as well, although mostly the non-garden variety these days. This time of year makes me think about shorts weather & losing that winter weight, and about clearing out those cupboards that are overflowing with clothes that I might or might not ever wear.
I think about renewing my gym membership and getting back into a new exercise routine and I think about maybe clearing out some of the excess books that my husband says that I have piled in every room of our house. Or not.
Then there’s always the “Ideas File” in my computer. These are brilliant ideas for short stories that sometimes come to me when the gentle snoring beside me wakes me up, or when I am riding home from work on a crowded bus. I meticulously jot them down with the outline and details that came with the spark itself. And then it gets filed away. I think perhaps some of these ideas are the finicky kind of seeds that are usually marked “advanced” or “professionals only”.
This might be the spring that those ideas actually get planted and watered and
fertilized and sprout some fruit. Then again, I might just stick with tomatoes.
What seeds are you planting this spring?
Catherine Lee (Cathy) is a college textbook buyer in Ottawa, has been a bookseller and book buyer by trade for most of her life, and is a member of 2 book clubs. She became a book lover on her parents’ knees at story time & by flashlight under the bed sheets. One of her greatest pleasures is sharing great books with friends, of course while sipping wine.
