[thirty things in thirty days, 2/30: street corner flowers]
. . .

our corner bodegas are overflowing with flowers. every monday and thursday they get fresh shipments of beautiful roses, seasonal blooms, and daisy poms in every color of nature (and many unnatural colors as well. emma always asks me to buy a bunch of bright smurfy blue daisies, but i demur). through most of the year, i give myself a $20/month “cut flower budget”, which can go quite a long way, since many of the sweetest bunches start at five dollars and last at least a week…the color and life this brings to our house is worth far more than the price tag indicates. sometimes i put individual stems in vintage bottles around the house; little bursts of life all around.

in the summer, however, we try to stay outside enjoying the local sights as much as possible. the $20 line item on the budget gets spent at the farmers market, but i still make it a point to stop and revel in the beauty of the bodega bouquets every time we pass. emma and i look over the week’s colors and varieties and declare our favorites and try to remember which things are called hydrangeas and which are snapdragons. a few days a week the flower-guy sits by the fresh bunches and cuts the loose petals off the older roses; i have become relatively unembarrassed to pick up the piles of discarded petals to keep for art objects or just tactile joy; i hate for them to be stuck in a trash can when they still have joy to offer.

i love street corner blossoms, and i love walking around a city that has them everywhere.

. . .