It's Sprung!

Everywhere I look, spring has sprung!  Everywhere there are bulbs blooming, trees flowering, seeds

exploding from the ground.  It's a riot of color and growth and exuberance.  It is SPRING.

I'd never really noticed before how the seeds I start really do spring from the soil.  I made the little seed starter pots out of newspaper, filled them with potting mix, added the seeds, some water....then light and a little time and the little plants just sprang from the soil.  A yearly miracle.

I love how beans just bully their way to the surface and how the leaves unfurl.  Eye catching and amazing, no matter how many times I've observed it before.

Daffodils with sunlight streaming through the delicate cups glow with such a happy, sunny yellow.
And they smell so sweetly.

I don't remember the name of this primrose.  I do remember I first saw it in an English garden magazine and had to have it.  It took some time to track it down here in the U.S., but I finally found it.  And it's done very well in my yard.  I love the white edges to each petal.

This cherry tree is in the parking strip in front of my house.  It's just opened up its blossoms and soon the petals will litter the ground like a late pink snow.  The bumble bees are having a wild time in this tree.  It actually sounds like it's buzzing when the sun is bright and the temperature is warm.

I love how a few branches of the cherry tree have intermingled with my flowering quince.  The colors are so bright and cheery.

This particular flowering quince is so bright it almost looks like it would be hot to the touch.

Has spring sprung for you?

Gentle Beauty and Yellow Ribbons

Cicero Bridge with yellow ribbons, a few miles downstream from the Oso land slide disaster

I am lucky enough to have a wonderful weekend getaway on the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, not too far downstream from the site of the horrific mud slide at Oso, Washington.  The devastation has been well documented in the press and television news media, and I won't rehash the crushingly sad facts here.  I do want to say a little about the effect of this disaster on the town of Arlington.  I shop in Arlington for my weekend groceries and have lunch on Saturdays at the Blue Bird Cafe.  I frequent the Quilt Shoppe and look forward to my chats with the owner.  I buy salt at the Co-Op for my water system and I am always in the hardware store for something.  I've seen some of the victims of the slide around town, not that I knew any of them, but I do recognize some faces in the roll call of the dead.  These missing people have left an aching hole in the heart of the community here.  Arlington is hurting.  Oso is hurting.  Darrington is hurting.  The whole of the Stillaguamish Valley is hurting.  We are all, those who were born here and have lived here their whole lives and those of us who are sometimes residents, we are hurting.  What happened is beyond my understanding.  I just know it is as bad as it gets.

The people who lost everything need help.  Really need help.  

There is so much need.  If you are looking for somewhere to offer help, to donate, may I suggest the Cascade Hospital Foundation Disaster Fund?  100% of the donations will go towards assistance of those most in need.  You can check them out here and make up your own mind.  You could, of course, instead make a donation to United Way or the American Red Cross.  At the very least, please hold these people gently in  your hearts and send them strength and care.

As I wandered around the grounds at the cabin this weekend I was struck by the soft, quiet beauty of early spring in the foothills.  My cherry tree, the lovely cherry tree above, is blooming for the first time.  I never understood why it didn't bloom in years past, but as it seemed healthy, I just let it be.  And now, when my heart is hurting for all the victims, it bursts into beautiful bloom, as if to offer what is has to give.

It is a beautiful sight.  It filled me up with the scent of spring and hope for brighter, happier seasons.

The drops of morning rain really did look like diamonds on my beauty berry shrub.  They glistened and twinkled in the breeze.

The daffodils were a riot of yellow under the maple in the drive.  The sun shone.  The air was washed clean by the rain overnight---but the helicopters go back and forth from the slide site, ferrying those who come to help and those who are found, too late, in the mud.

Please, if you can help, do so.  

Pink Snow

It Was Some Glad Morning

One day, something very old
happened again. The green
came back to the branches,
settling like leafy birds
on the highest twigs;
the ground broke open
as dark as coffee beans.

The clouds took up their
positions in the deep stadium
of the sky, gloving the
bright orb of the sun
before they pitched it
over the horizon.

It was good as ever:
the air was filled
with the scent of lilacs

and cherry blossoms
sounded their long
whistle down the track
It was some glad morning.

by Joyce Sutphen from Naming the Stars (Holy Cow Press)