Daffodils

When we first moved here from Richmond, BC, I wanted a flower garden similar to what I had there. I planted lots of daffodil bulbs in the fall, but when spring rolled around I ended up with only one or two blossoms. I was disappointed, and since my tulips and hyacinths did well, I concluded that daffodils simply do not grow well here.

But obviously I am wrong. This is what I came across yesterday as I rode through town:

 

Now in the lower mainland, we would have seen this display in late February. But better late than never, right?

My afternoon ESL students, the more-or-less advanced group, really love poetry. So this week I plan to introduce them to this one:

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. 

~ William Wordsworth