Honoring the Island Daffodils

It’s that time of year again: the grass is threatening to grow and need mowing and the snow seems gone for good. Seed catalogs are coming in the mail and the flowering trees are starting to bud out. In my yard I can see the daffodils thrusting their long green leaves through the grass. These hardy and cheerful flowers can often be seen in fields of old farms, next to old homesteads, and in contemporary farms with livestock, a relic of the past. Nothing seems to like to eat the flowers, one of the first bulbs to give a bright face to the formerly grey days. Grazing animals and deer just leave it alone. Maybe they enjoy seeing the fields of flowers bending to the warm spring winds. It’s a Friday Harbor remembrance of those that came before. A reminder of older days and a harbinger of the warmth of spring. The botanists have developed bulbs that will yield huge bright yellow daffodils, even fragrant ones. But what I like best are the pale yellow ones with the smaller flowers that have been around so long. Look for them in the fields on all the islands soon.