DAFFODIL DAZE Candor, New York

We would like to send out a huge thank you to DAFFODIL DAZE Candor, New York for their incredible and fragrant donation. Last week, Daffodil Daze donated 2,000 ...GORGEOUS daffodils to Racker! We were able to distribute these wonderfully smelling flowers to our residential homes, preschool families, and staff to brighten their days. Thank you to Nancy, and the whole team of volunteers that picked and delivered these bouquets of joy.

I ended up picking about 900 daffodils yesterday. The Swartz family took 700 to bestow on unsuspecting people. I am keeping 200 to give away. That makes the total given away 40,620. This year I am leaving Pheobe Swartz in charge of the daffodils when we leave. She will pick any late varieties and give them away, so if you haven't had enough daffodils, sidle up to her and you might get some more. I have had a great time these past 3 weeks, and I have Kim to thank for taking ca...re of everything non-daffodil related so I could spend every day completely about the daffodils. Thank you to everyone who had anything to do with any of those 40,620 daffodils, obviously I couldn't have done it without you, and I wouldn't want to. Lots of work and lots of JOY, not just for the receivers but us as givers as well. I want to leave you with 2 quotes the real Joy had taped up in the kitchen (they are still there). The first is by Iris Murdoch: "People from another planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." And the second is by Grandma Moses: "Life is what we make it, always has been and always will be." Thanks for helping me make our little corner just a little bit better for awhile. It sure felt good didn't it? I can't wait to do it all over again next year. You in? See more

Just a little note. The rain did what the snow and freezing rain could not, it pummeled and destroyed any daffodils with delicate petals. Which there were a lot of. One variety has about 15 flowers, 6 of them were viable yesterday, today I am lucky if one is. I picked more than three quarters of the pond bank and got 216 daffodils, in 3 and one half hours. I was starting to wonder if we would get the 280 needed to break 40 thousand. I decided it happened to get me off the un...important things like records and back to focusing on what it's all about. It's about making people feel the JOY if only for a few minutes. A chance to make everyone in need, a little more loved and cared for. We are all suffering from something or someone and need to remember how special we are. I am reminded of the phrase about if God takes care of the birds, surely he will take care of us. Sometimes it's hard to remember that in the midst of our new Covid 19 world. Our mother saw the good in everyone, and everyone deserved her flowers, as they do now. We will hit 40 thousand, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that a whole bunch of strangers came together and worked hard and long to give a gift to others, often strangers, for no other reason than to make some lives a little easier, to share the beauty, to show some love to fellow human kind, and to make ourselves useful. That my friends is time well spent. PS. Very few daffodils left, you are welcome to deadhead, or pick the straglers. Not likely to be any tomorrow.

At this time yesterday I had roughly 4400 daffodils picked in the garage and no idea who could put them to good use. Thanks to you Greg Houck for volunteering to take 400 for the Ithaca YMCA food give away this morning. Thank you to Lila Hall for volunteering to drive to Elmira, which I didn't really want to force anyone to do. I called Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira and the women didn't believe we were willing to send them daffodils for free. Sue Fenton, Lila and I pac...ked them 2050 daffodils and away Lila went with them. Denice Ahart had suggested the Racker Center, which was excellent. Did you know they have 9 thousand employees? Me neither and serve 3500 people? Me neither. They use 35,000 daffodils alone. Next year we are jumping on them earlier. The women there was so happy, you'd think they won the lottery. I love that, when we connect with some organization that is so in tune with what we are trying to do. So I put out the word for a driver to Racker. Wouldn't you know my neighbor, who I didn't know, was leaving for work at the Racker Center at 1 PM today. Perfect. Kendal Perry took 2100 daffodils to work with her. Deana Houck, Sabrina Slater and Diane Craig took 50, 70, and 50 for shut ins they know. And then there were none. So I went to work picking and by the time Kim and Pheobe Swartz showed up I had 300 to give them for their mission. Again there is none. And the rain storm hit, so I called it a day, since it felt like 10 PM and was only 4:30 PM. Sooo long story short, today we gave out 5020 daffodils making our total a freaking amazing (If I do say so myself), 39,720!!!!! You can bet we will top 40 thousand, if I have to pick and hand out the 280 daffodils myself. As for inventory, just some odds and ends on hand. Left to be picked, I estimate there are a thousand to 1500. Just the pond bank and below the driveway, both of which have been picked once. This is it, two more days (if we don't pick them all tomorrow). Have a good night and I'll see you on the pond bank. See more