ON A DARK NOVEMBER DAY, SEEKING SUN AND FLOWERS

Any of several popular cultivated violets (genus Viola). Pansies have been grown for so long under such diverse conditions with such striking variations in colour and form that their origin is uncertain.

Pansies with perfect little faces peep from the shadows.

Are you love-in-idleness, Johnny jump-ups or heartsease?

Your family roots reach deep, beyond recorded time,

certainly before the Mayflower parked at Plymouth Rock.

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For all my Florida friends and cousins. On a cold, rainy day in the mountains, I think about your warm sunny weather. I love the beach in winter, want to go there before long. Once upon a time I baked myself in the summer sun on snow white sand, and tanned dark as mahogany. That was before we knew better.
I close my eyes and smell the water, feel the wind, and hear the gulls. Watching the ocean, like gazing into a blazing fire, settles the nerves, sooths the mind, and sends me anywhere I want to go.