St. Barbara Blooms
I am writing this story in the early, early morning hours of December 25th. It is more than an hour before I need to begin my day and several hours before the lazy sun will decide to break the horizon.
I had written about the lore regarding the Feast Of St. Barbara (December 4) and forcing blooms to appear for December 25th. Some years it works, some years it doesn’t. But the ritual reminds me that spring will soon be upon us and the winter (along with the long, dark nights) will become a distant memory.
This year, the twigs I had set in for the forced bloom began to show life just two days ago. This morning one pink leaf of one of the buds has sprung forth. I call that good enough for this year to be a success, and I feel the presence of Aunt Margaret in that bloom as though she is urging the flowers to show themselves.
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Alas, mine did not bloom. I cut both cherry and plum on the day you mentioned it in your blog, a few days late. I discarded the cherry after 10 days because my cherry tree is young and the buds were so tiny. I had hopes for the plum, but no luck. I did read that if there hasn’t been a hard freeze, you should put the cutting in the freezer for two days. I was pretty sure St. Barbara didn’t do that and neither did I. I’ll blame the fact that your cutting bloomed and mine didn’t on my high altitude.