You, sweet dahlias, you there in the flower shop on the island-that's-not-an-island -- you are…read morebeautiful, complex, intricate, incandescent, and I leaned in as far as I could to smell your sweet perfume. You made my entire day. Nothing makes a day more beautiful than flowers, and today I'm thinking about you, sweet dahlias.
But honestly, I think about these flowers every day. I wandered through the market looking at the chocolate shops, and the cheese shops, and the meat shops, and all the unique garden vegetables. I made my way up and down the aisles smelling all the things, tasting all the things, and seeing all the things. But when I turned the corner at the end and saw the flower shop, and stepped closer and saw the delightful dahlias, I felt all of the things. I was moved.
You see, flowers are special. They make specials days the most special. That was a special day, there in the market. And today I've been thinking about that again, about those dahlias, and special days, and flowers, and chocolate shops, and travel days, and the picnic I had with things from the market. I've told the story before, about assembling the perfect picnic at the market and walking to Stanley Park to sit and look out over the water and eat my meal of meats and cheeses. But as it turns out, it wasn't the perfect picnic. Something was missing. I didn't have the dahlias with me. That might sound crazy -- who buys flowers to bring them to a picnic? This guy, that's who. V & J has loads of choices, all stacked up, reasonably priced, and they're fresh and beautiful.
So that's my promise that I'm making here today. It's not a dream, it's a promise: I want to go back for another picnic, on a day like today, like the day after spring officially begins, and I want to assemble another picnic and I want to bring dahlias with me. And THAT would make the perfect picnic.