Dandelion Days

It’s 47° this afternoon but feels like 40° especially when you’re soaked. With steady rain falling for almost 24 hours straight, soaked is starting to feel like the default. And rain’s predicted for another 19 or 20 hours. Glum yet? Let’s brighten this gray day with blooms. Taraxacum officinale blooms! Let’s embrace escapism by swapping gray days for dandelion days.

Today was the day that I’d reserved to retrieve my new Vintage Electric Roadster, “the coolest fusion of vintage and 21st century locomotion to ride on two wheels” from Solace Cycles where it was being assembled.

But… rain, rain, rain!

Susan assured me (at least seven times) that riding home from Elizabethtown in the rain would be a death sentence. I’m not persuaded, but the cold drizzly day certainly dampened my enthusiasm. So we rethought the plan. Fortunately my nephew, Christoph, lent me his ebike friendly bike rack (since mine apparently was sold during our yard sale?!) Now my new café racer-esque Roadster is resting easy in Rosslyn’s carriage barn ready for a sunny day. Maybe Sunday?

Now, with the prospect of sunny days ahead, let’s double down on joie de vivre with a few photos of a recent dandelion day. In the photograph above Susan and Carley are winding down after an exuberant ball throwing and chasing session among wall-to-wall dandelions. Carley’s forepaws are yellow from racing through dandelions.

While some seek to rid their properties of dandelions, I celebrate these persistent perennials. The flowers are bright glimmers of joy, spring’s reminder to laugh and turn cartwheels and make space for whimsy… (Source: Spring Greens: Asparagus & Dandelions)

Dandelions remind us that nature is nourishing and vibrant and brilliantly colorful… [They] are for me a welcome harbinger of warming temperatures, greening environs, several seasons of blooms and fruit and vegetables…

[…]

I know that many might consider them an invasive scourge peppering the perfection of an otherwise green lawn.

I do not share this disdain. Rather, dandelions evoke childhood wonder and enthusiasm for spring, a perennially optimism inspiring season for me. Simply put, springtime is seasonality’s metaphorical morning. And rambunctious riots of dandelions are one of the most exuberant symbols of the season. Persistent, yes, but in so many cases we’re able to recognize the merits of persistence. Why not dandelions? (Source: Friend or Foe: Dandelions)

And so on this swamped Friday I offer you joyful snapshots of my bride and beast delighting in dandelion days that they may be inoculated against future cold and damp.

Dandelion Days

Bride and beast caper
on a gold flecked lawn,
rubber boots and 
pollen yellowed paws
parting dandelions 
and May grass
(still succulent
and lime green.)
Our companion
settles — content,
contemplative —
into green and gold,
sod and sunbursts,
a sun-soaked tapestry.
What others despise —
spring's jubilant
rebellion —
we and she cherish.