Flowers in the Wintertime

We had to turn our heat on today, for the first time -- both at the office and here at home. It's not terribly cold yet, but even the 40s (especially with a biting wind) sure feels cold when you're not used to it anymore!

I love autumn, but I find myself starting to work up to an "inner fret" about the oncoming onslaught of cold grayness that will wrap our little corner of the world as it always surely does between November and March (or April).

So I was happy beyond words to find this excellent post over at the Wittingshire blog: Planning for Paperwhites I've often wanted to try this: forcing narcissus or crocus bulbs to bloom indoors during the winter months. I remember reading a little sidebar article about it in a glossy magazine a few years back and thinking "I should try that." But the article made it seem intimidating and hard, especially for someone like me who doesn't have much of a green thumb.

In contrast, the instructions here are well-written and make the project seem easy and doable. I really think I'm going to try it this year. Wouldn't it be something to have beautiful paperwhite flowers blooming inside when the paperwhite snow is blowing around outside?