Monday, March 21, 2005

The best time of year

I love days like today. It feels like spring, looks like spring, smells like spring. It's raining, but it's a mere mist of rain. The sky is dark gray, but light around the edges, as though it turn to sunshine at any time. Gusts of wind whistle around the houses and buildings, and the budding redbuds are luminous against the sky...ready to explode into blossom.

One of ee cummings poems about this time of year has a line about how you can't stop spring, "not even with All The Policemen In The World". And it's like that -- an unstoppable renewal, that will come whether you are ready or not.

I think redbuds must be my favorite tree. Smooth, medium gray bark makes up the trunk, which tapers into graceful, long limbs. Flowers that range from pinkish mauve to reddish purple (depending on the tree). The leaves are almost heart shaped, and are a medium to light leaf green. And when it is blooming, I like nothing better than to lie underneath one on a sunny day, and gaze up at the blossoms against the deep blue of the sky.

11 comments:

Rusty said...

I'm more of a cool morning sunshine man myself.

Ned said...

My favorite ee cummings line about spring is "when the world is mud-luscious".

Jodie said...

Don't forget "puddle-wonderful", Ned. :D

I like sunshine too, Rusty, but sometimes rainy days are wonderful (especially since they're not that common here).

Manda said...

I'm pretty sure that winter is never going to leave Montague Michigan. I don't even remember what its like to be warm.

Wyrfu said...

On my trip to Vicksburg it was the redbuds that we noticed. They are everywhere, dispersed through the woods with their splashes of bright color mocking the still-bare branches of the other trees.

It has been a surprise to me to find how much of these southwestern states is thickly wooded. And it was good to see the fabled swamps of Louisiana. Yet there is still relief in me to get back to the open and flat grasslands of western Oklahoma. It is home already...

Jodie said...

Didn't I tell you, Gone? Oklahoma is a black hole...you just keep getting sucked back in. :D

Rhodester said...

Jodie (and gone), I spent about half a day in Oklahoma once in the eighties and haven't been back since. That's not to say it's not wonderful or anything.. I've seen the musical in one form or another probably about a hundred times over the years.

"Oh, what a beautiful mornin'!!"

The new Third Degree Nurse said...

There's not a darn thing wrong with Oklahoma. Some of the nicest people live there. Or at least come from there.

No matter what Texans say.

Jodie, I just want you to know it's snowing up here in KS, and I'm hoping none of it blows your way! It's sad to see these cheerful little crabapple blossoms, crocusi (?) and daffodils get frosted over.

Jay said...

Horray for spring!

dbhayes said...

best. season. ever.

Harry said...

We moved here to the new cave last summer, late. The old place got tore down in the name of progress, so we spent a couple of hours over there "stealing" a few choice plants before the wreckers came, and quickly transplated dozens of mystery lily bulbs out in front of the new entrance. New shoots just appeared weeks ago, but the wild ginger, which I checked yesterday in the tree line out back, looks yellowed and sickly, so their survival looks uncertain so far. Luckily, I kept an experimntal pot indoors. Eventually the large waxy leaves withered one by one, but below them new and strange nodules poked up, so I kept watering. Now if the outdoor ones dont make it, I have back-ups ready to go in soon. Yay.