At breakfast recently I asked my husband, do you know when to use the word who and when to use the word whom? He looked at me with just the slightest twinkle and said “well, the Barred Owl says “who” and the Great Horned Owl says “whom?” He continued, “we should be hearing the Great Horned Owls talking to each other soon, and pairs will be on the nest in another month or so.” Though we never got around to the grammar of when to use who and whom, this conversation formed a delightful picture in my mind and stirred a faint longing for spring, not long into winter.

Another event this time of year in Southwestern Ohio sends me dreaming about spring and gardening. The seed catalogues start arriving in the mail just when we really need them. In more recent years John tends the vegetable gardening and I concentrate on flowers. Hydrangeas have caught my fancy. Last winter, I was seduced by a catalog photo of a hydrangea bush that blooms white and then changes to pink with the name of “Pinky Winky.” When spring came I went hunting at a local garden store. A big, burly guy asked if he could help, and I explained what I was looking for. What did you call that hydrangea again he asked me?  “ Pinky Winky” I replied. Oh, thanks he replied…I just can’t bring myself to say that name!

I hope my dear Pinky Winky is everything my mind imagines it to be, and I look forward to its beauty this summer. It has taken the place of a Butterfly Bush that I lost to a past year’s hard winter. 

Currently I am musing on the old fashioned white Snowball hydrangeas. Might a few of these be happy in my garden?  I am easily bewitched by colorful photos of new varieties like Pinky Winky, but long experience with old flower friends reminds me of the enduring charms of tried and true varieties

My sister lives and gardens next door to me. As we are artistic types, I concur with her affectionate and fun dubbing of gardening as “slow performance art.” Every winter we compose extensive and expensive lists from perusing the seed catalogues. Slowly we pare our musings into something manageable and affordable.

This is a most pleasant pastime — to wile away winter hours dreaming of the possibilities of our spring and summer gardens!

Elizabeth (Schickel) Robinson has always lived in Loveland, married and raised a family here.

Family, faith, service, community and creativity are most important to her. She is an artist driven to notice and bring beauty to others including creating commissioned works of art for hospitals and churches. She cares about our culture and wants to build opportunities for community and connection to God, each other and creation. She recently retired as a Registered Nurse at Cincinnati Children’s where she was privileged to care for patients and their families. She strives to live with her eyes wide open, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary in life and nature that surrounds her.