Sunday, April 20, 2014

The certainty of robins and tulips





I'm not sure if you can see the russet coloured chests on these brave little birds, but yes these are robins. The robins who settle here in my city for summer seem always to be rather hardy souls, as it is generally still chilly when they arrive.

I spied my first robin this week, and as always I was delighted. But the week has been terribly cold for spring, and we had up to 1 centimeter of snow, frozen rain, snow flurries, and temperatures as low as -18C, all week. Highways were closed due to icy driving conditions. Poor robins.

Today, is a nice change and it looks like the temperature will be up to about 13C.

 In January, my small group of children at the daycare center, where I work, and I undertook to force tulip bulbs to grow indoors. I had some bulbs at home, which I had not got around to planting in the fall, and they had begun to sprout, so I thought it might be interesting to see if we could force them to grow.

The children loved filling the bottoms of glass canning jars, (Mason jars), with glass marbles, and then we added water, and placed one bulb per jar to rest on top of the marbles. The marbles or gems were meant to act as a wick and draw the water up to the bulb.

We stored the jars under a crawlspace in the building where it would be dark and cool, for about 8 weeks. To keep our interest, I brought the jars up regularly to see any growth.

So, after, about 8 weeks the little bulbs did seem to have some roots, and we decided to plant them in soil, and leave them in the sunlight.

The picture above was taken just after planting them, but since then they have actually grown a few inches, and are beginning to develop leaves. I had hoped they might bloom in time for Easter, but still it's great to see they are growing, and taught me and my small group of children a little about the resilience of plants, I think.

Soon, the earth will warm here, and tulips are sure to grow and I am hoping my children might make the connection from these flowers to their small project over our very cold winter.

Spring does provide us with these reminders of natures' resilience, and certainty. The robins will arrive, and the flowers will come up.

We can be sure of this.

9 comments:

Geraldine said...

How I love tulips Brenda. They really DO say "spring" don't they? We've already seen quite a few here and of course, crocuses too.

I hope you have a lovely Easter and a great week too.

Mr. Cheddar liked the support from the "lads" too!

kj said...

Yes, there is something so reassuring about watching nature's timetable. Light, water, nutrition, and off we go!

Happy Easter, Brenda xo I hope all your snow melts pronto

Love
kj

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Hi, Ger,
It's good to hear about the tulips and crocuses.
It's raining here today, which may possibly mean things will start to green up here.
Thanks, and Happy Easter to you!
Brenda
P.S. Herb and Art say they are always happy to support Ched, and send Headbonks.

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

kj,
It's raining now, and so I think the snow should melt today,
Happy Easter!
Hugs,
brenda

Teri said...

Such a sweet post. I love hearing about your activities with the children. They will remember you for a long time; all the fun and all the learning.

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Hello, my friend,
Thank you for your always encouraging words!!
Happy Birthday this Wednesday, April 31!
Love-Brenda

Anonymous said...

Happy Mom's Day Brenda. I hope you are having a nice, sunny day there. The sun is finally breaking through after weeks of dark days, here in BC.

Hope the kitties are doing good too. Headbonks from the Chedster. Tell the lads that Cheddie will be posting about a new cat product soon. ;-)

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Unknown said...

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