Flowers for a cold winter morning

Today is so bright and sunny that when I first woke up, I had a wild impulse to open the windows and let in fresh air. And then I looked out the window and saw the snow and realized that the thermometer said it was one below zero.

It’s the time of the year when it feels like winter will never end, when even though we’ve had less snow than normal, it’s been bitterly cold for weeks. So it’s a great day to instead stay inside and remember last year’s garden.

I planned today’s activity in advance, way back when the flowers were blooming and the days were long and warm: it’s finally time to look at the flowers I pressed at the end of last summer. They’ve been sleeping under a tall pile of books and magazines for several months.

flowers pressed between book pages — Zinnia, lobelia, and coreopsis after being pressed in tissue paper in a textbook

cosmos from the top and cosmos from the side — Cosmos

calendula from the side and calendula from the top — Calendula

back view of the same three zinnias — The backs of these three zinnias are even more interesting than the fronts because of the layered bracts

This iris (pressed during the spring) has lost most of its color

This pressed pearly everlasting is my favorite because of all of the seeds. Moving it makes a mess!

Looking at these pretty flowers is a great reminder that seasons change and soon 2015’s first plants will be poking out of the ground. Spring officially begins in only 20 days.