Determination

Pandemic or no pandemic, lily of the valley is poking through the leaves at the edge of my driveway; nowhere near ready to release the sweet scent Coty mimicked with its Muguet des Bois cologne, but determined to wriggle its slender self through the unraked remnants of a long winter.

Peonies, daisies, iris in the sun - lily of the valley in the shade. Had we followed my mother's suggestion and enrolled in the summer program at the children's garden several blocks away, I would know the hours of sunlight required by an endless number of plants and not have to look up the subtle distinctions between direct, indirect, and filtered. p. 62