Friday Five ~ hyacinths and more hyacinths

Today's Friday Five comes from 3dogmom:  "Here in Nashville the annual Antiques and Garden Show is getting underway.  The temperatures are more cold and windy than is typical, and the garden displays with colorful spring blooms are going to be tonic for many of the souls that visit the show this weekend.  Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted another six weeks of winter when he saw his shadow, but spring is on the minds of many!  With that in mind..."

1)  What do you anticipate with the coming of spring?

I'm not close enough to spring to be anticipating it yet.  For spring, all I anticipate is the usual:  warmer, greener, and sneezier.  Yep, I'm allergic to spring's pollen.

2)  Is there anything you will miss about winter?

Not that I can think of right now.

3)  Is there an occasion on the horizon to which you’re looking forward?

I must be really down today, since I'm not even looking forward to anything except finishing the novel I'm reading.  Maybe I should just chuck this Friday Five exercise.

4)  Do you have a favorite spring memory?

Hmm, all my children were born in the spring, technically.  My twin daughters were born on May 3rd, and my son — three years later — was born four minutes before it officially became summer on June 21st that year.  Does that count as one or two memories?

5)  Do you have a favorite spring flower/bloom, and if so, what makes it special to you?

Okay, here's one I really can answer.  Hyacinths, seeing them or (especially) smelling them, takes me back to my childhood.  After my maternal grandmother died, we moved into her house.  Our sandbox was in the back yard beside the free-standing garage, and hyacinths grew all along the side of the garage.  My grandmother had a green thumb, so flowers were everywhere — in the side yard, in a brick-edged garden beside the back door, in a rock garden in a corner of the yard.  Everywhere.  But it's the smell of hyacinths that take me back, reminding me of that yard where — later in the year — I climbed the plum tree and ate the warm plums right off the tree.  Now that I'm "into" hyacinths, I think I'll cover this post with them.  Move aside, words!  Here come the flowers!