Tag Archives: hope

flowers, Hardware Store Life, Home, memories, Mother’s Day, Natural World, southern living, Spring, Summer

Flower Power

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“The Earth Laughs in Flowers”

The garden centers in May see a frenzy of activity. The Spring season has brought enough warmth and heat to keep those blooms beautiful. Do you find yourself buying the same annuals or planting the same flower seeds each year??? At the hardware store, our flower seeds are selling quickly as well as potting soil.

WCH Recommends: Using a composting soil builder along with a great potting soil mix creates a fantastic base for growing plants and flowers.
WCH Recommends: Zinnias bloomed all summer long with butterflies abounding! Stop by to pick up some seeds now for blooms later this summer.

I began to think about this the other day, my personal connections to flowers and what I plant is deeply rooted… linked to my personal life experiences and memories of those who I love and those who are no longer with us.

Hydrangeas are a favorite flower memory. I have a large snowball hydrangea that I planted several years ago based around my childhood home. These beautiful blooms here are from my granny’s garden.

I have a few favorites that I love to plant each year. The striking colors, the scents, the aesthetics, and durability(long lasting nature) of the plant definitely impacts my purchasing decisions. But, many of the reasons why I pick the same type of flowers each year is due to my associated memories with these flowers.. past celebrations, or memories of strolling through family gardens.

Aunt Mary and Pat always had their window boxes full of red geraniums every year. I always try to have a couple of red geraniums each year.

If you and I did a walk through in my garden areas at my home, it would be a definite literal story of sharing plants.. who gave them to me to transplant, or maybe the why I chose the blooming beauty for my garden and the personal connection to each flower. My question to you today, do you relate and link flowers that you plant to your cherished loved ones too?

My mom always had beautiful roses at home. I love this ketchup/mustard variety in my front garden area. Many of the varieties I have chosen are as a result of our conversations about the care of rose, heartiness of the variety.
WCH Recommends: If you have roses, this is a great product to use!

My final thought to share with you today, flowers hold power… not only the outward beauty for your home, hope, resilience to bloom even in difficult circumstances.., and cherished memories of those you love. Let’s get planting!

Hardware Store Life

Hope

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The Spring season & Easter holiday always brings a sense of hope.

Spring is beginning to emerge in all of its glory, with the grand rebirth of nature. The first flowers bloom, trees are sprouting the first tiny green leaves, & the grass awakens from its winter slumber. Birds are busy nesting, and their chirping can be heard from early mornings to late in the evening.

Easter for many people is a significant religious experience… the love of God and his Grace forever changed the world… bringing HOPE to all.

Spring of 2021 just “feels” very different from Spring 2020, which was fully immersed in the Covid pandemic.

As I recall, this time last year, our reality was very different. As a nation, we were focused on Covid, shutdowns, & finding new ways of doing business. Many businesses closed. 2020 was also spent on how to control the spread of the virus, & let’s not forget the shortages of key products. I think the list is lengthy, so I’ll not continue.

Clorox wipes, toilet paper, N95 masks, and so much more…

Our focus as business owners at Wilkes County Hardware last spring was on “essential business operations”.

When many states across the US shutdown spring of 2020, our state did also. Hardware stores were considered to be essential.

For a few months, curbside service was offered in order to keep our customers & employees safe. We are still offering call ahead curbside for anyone who wants it even still now.

Last spring we dealt with consistent shortages of all types of items. This was a new problem that we had never encountered as a business owners.

Store stock merchandise had always been always readily available prior to Covid. Trying to find alternatives or other venders was difficult at times AND still continues into 2021 spring season.

I will say that finding solutions to living during a pandemic did prove to be a challenge and how to manage a business during it all, felt at times, all encompassing.

HOPE kept us going.

I’ll conclude with one of my favorite quotes concerning hope. “May all your choices reflect your hopes not your fears”. Well done Nelson Mandela…