Daffoldils

There is hardly anything that cheers me like sunshine, but daffodils come pretty close! The first spring in our house was so exciting. We bought the house in the winter and had no idea what flowers would come popping out of the ground. I was thrilled when we came up to work on the house one day and I saw my very own daffodils! I love to have flowers on my kitchen windowsill - it makes washing dishes much more pleasant.

They also remind me of an English class I took in college from a really great professor, Elmer Baker, who passed away a few years ago. I'm not really into poetry but I did enjoy learning about it from him. In his class I memorized this poem (for extra credit) and to this day when I see daffodils I remember the first stanza. It also makes me happy, so I thought I would share it.

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