Dear Customers,
February is notable for a couple of things. The first “notable” happened yesterday in Punxsutawney, just down the road a bit. While it’s sometimes fun to imagine Winter ending sooner rather than later, that woodchuck is about as accurate as anyone else who makes their living trying to predict the weather. Read “not that accurate!”
The second notable thing this month is happening on Friday at the end of next week. That’s right – Valentine’s Day – a holiday completely invented for the selling of flowers, chocolates and greeting cards!
You may recall a few months ago, I mentioned in this column that we would be doing a better job stocking our floral department. At that time, we turned it over to my wife, Heather, who absolutely loves gardening, flowers, and everything associated with it! Since that time, she has increased our offerings both in the fresh potted flower category and seasonal bouquets.
For Valentine’s Day there will be special Valentine Rose Globes, multiple fresh cut bouquets, roses, tulips, carnations, African violets, planters and even some Valentine Teddy Bears! I love to watch harried husbands, boyfriends and even some of those who wish they were – rush in here on February 14th and make a beeline for the floral department. It’s almost as if they believe that one romantic gesture can wipe out the last 364 days. Hah! We all know better!
The final thing of note about the month of February is that, almost without notice, the days have been getting longer by two or three minutes each day. It’s not as dark at 5:00 as it has been. And at least when I was learning to ski at Wing Hollow in Allegany, you could always expect a huge warming thaw sometime in February – coupled with the inevitable blizzard either right before or right after! Ahhhh, weather in the Wilds of Northwest Pennsylvania. . . as they say, “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute!”