March 7, 2009

• I Have a Dream… Talking To Flowers…. I was reading Fleener’s blog about loving and lost, having lived your dream even tho it didn’t last etc. And it reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about. If I ever run into any sizeable amount of money, I want to open a flower shop with a nice (but small) cafe/bakery attached. I don’t have a green thumb, and I haven’t thought about it much until the last few months. But there’s a beautiful florist shop on my way to work (except it’s 4 minutes from my house rather than 20 where my work currently is).  It’s really a very very large green house, with an attached building. I was thinking how nice it’d be to turn the attached building into a cafe, serving cappuccino, espresso, teas and a few very special and yummy baked goods, maybe some nummy sammiches… classical music playing softly in the background and the smell of the connected florist shop, full of potted plants, freshly cut roses and flowers of every kind. I’d build a small patio that had a delicate cast iron fence around it, covered with Clematis or Wisteria. I’d have my friend who designs iron work build the fence (he’s been in New Orleans a lot helping rebuild the iron work that was destroyed there).  I’d also have him make unique little bistro tables/chairs that had a local flair without being “country”.  I’d cater to retirees that flood this area year round, but I’d be affordable for our local folk who struggle to make ends meat. The flowers would come from the huge green house less than a mile down the road that used to own the shop originally. They specialized in roses. They cut them fresh daily.  The shop has been closed for about a year, and it always made me sad, as it’s a place my mom and I would whenever we need flowers. I bought mom stuff from there as surprises all the time. A few years after my dad died, I remembered her anniversary, and bought her roses there, one for every year she’d been married to my dad, and 2 white roses to represent her and my dad. It was something my dad did for her every year, and something mom continued to do for my dad with silk flowers at the cemetery after he died. The place was special. The entrance of the greenhouse is capped with a VERY large copper oval dome. I remember my mom and I watching them as they put it up and thinking how fancy our little local flower shop had gotten. It originally a cinder block building (the attached building) with a huge walk in fridge out the back door. They built the glass house on to it maybe 15 – 20 years ago then brought in the pretty copper accents. I loved going in there and just walking around. It’s not a HUGE building but just the right size for what I see in my head. It’s not near anything major really, it’s actually surrounded on 3 sides by nothing fields. But I think it’d get a lot of business. I think it would be unique and special enough to get people to drive the extra 5 minutes. I was even thinking we could make specialty cakes. Provide the “Congrats!” cake to go with the flowers… of the Wedding cake and coordinating flowers… the cookies to go with the Valentine’s flowers.  I’d hire my family to work there with me. My nephew will be 16 in just about 6 years, he could deliver for me, and if my oldest niece straightened out, she could work in the cafe with her mom. I’d make the special carrott cake that I stole from Tom’s site too, it’d be our speciality. (one of many of his wonderous creations) I’d work with the flowers I think. My mom loved flowers. They were her best friend the last few years of her life, as I became more of a hermit. She talked to them and they’d come back from the dead. She’d buy the flowers Wal-Mart was about to throw out at $1 a flat.. and bring them all back to life in just a few weeks. I loved hearing her talk to the flowers. I’d sneak to the door or window near where she was planting.. and just smile at her thinking how sweet she was. I’m not sure what I’d name our store. But it’d have her name in it.. Mary’s Pansies and Pastries maybe. Pansies were her favorite. I’d get them for her as surprises and line her easter basket with them each year, instead of candy since she was diabetic. And I’d take the silhouette I have of her (she had it made when she was 14 or so , in school) and I’d use that with a little pansy bloom curled around her cheek. That’d be our logo. I can see it in my head so clearly. And maybe… after a few years, I could learn to talk to the flowers too.

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