“Hope Springs Eternal”
This is dramatic for what I relate this quote from Alexander Pope to, but I had really almost given up.
A few years ago, late spring came and Peleg’s grape arbor – which I have written about before – began to bud up. There are two trunks – two different grape plants. One – the larger of the two by a great deal – started to sprout its leaf buds. The other, I hoped was just a bit behind after a rough winter. Unfortunately, I was wrong. It never budded – it was killed by the winter of bitter cold and warmth and then bitter cold again. I started to worry I could lose – the MMA could lose – the entire arbor. So, desperate to try to ensure its survival, I went to many lengths to try and root the grape which is no easy task based on what I have read. I finally – after multiple attempts – resorted to taking long cuttings and placing them in some soil and then putting them in the window of the Observatory’s Seminar Room where I spend the winter – my “winter office.”
I have been watering them since October and frankly, they continued to look like dead sticks. At the beginning of February, I almost threw them out but then decided that I would wait just in case. Well, on February 7, 2018, I glanced over and – overnight it seems – leaf buds had appeared! I was elated! And now they continue to grow and one has begun to unfurl itself. I hope I can keep them going and can then plant them in place of the old one that died a few winters ago. Let’s hope. This is just another tie to the Mitchell past.
JNLF
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