Bloom

The flowers are starting to bloom in Ohio. My father-in-law's daffodils are showing their sunny faces and I have pictures of my first hellebores to share with you. My mom has a magic touch with house plants; her Christmas cactus blooms sporadically all year long and show off the most gorgeous tiered flowers (the jade plant is here's, too). She's the only person I've ever met that could keep African violets and orchids alive outside of a greenhouse and get them to bloom over and over again. She doesn't have to wait for spring to see flowers blooming.

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They Make Me Happy

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When Will says "backaroni and cheese, please"

The constellations in the winter sky. Orion is my favorite.

Seeing fields full of Canadian geese resting during their migration

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Warmer days that follow chilly nights

Grape hyacinth buds peeking through the frosty ground

Cuddling in bed with my men, Tim and William

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A coat of fresh paint on an previously dingy wall

Feeling the sun on my face after the frigid weather of winter

Knowing that the cherry blossoms will pop in just a few weeks

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Sheep extra fluffy with their winter coat

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula hand cream - extra soothing for dry, knitty, winter hands

Waking up to find that I'm being held

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Bring on the Rain

It has been raining and cold for a few days here.

It's gloomy.



And dreary.



It's enough to make a person want to stay in bed.

Our lives are like rainy, cold days sometimes, aren't they?

But through the clouds come rays of sun, reminding us that it will warm up soon.



And with the rain comes the beauty of flowers:

anemones



coreopsis



irises



peonies



and hellebores.



And most beautiful of all, rainbows, a reminder that our God is with us.



Bring on the rain.

(Pictures via Beauty in Everything and Photobucket).

Yellow State of Mind

Spring has sprung! I know that we have said it and said it again; after our long, endless winter (which did end!) we are so amazed that spring exists we can't stop proclaiming it.

I don't know about you, but I have been in a yellow state of mind. The color of my favorite spring flower, the jonquil, yellow just keeps me in a spring sort of mind. And looking at it makes me feel warm and happy. Isn't it amazing the power that colors have over us?

Who wouldn't love to run through a field of sunny flowers?

Here's the jonquils!

And while you're feeling sunny, visit this totally sublime post.

Hello, Mister Sun!

Well, hello, Mister Sun! It's so wonderful to see you again!



While I realize that you just went a little further away, it really was too far of a journey this winter. And a bit too long.



But you have returned our way! And flowers and flip flops and giddy birds and bees are soon to follow!



Oh, and I must say that I do enjoy your rays shining down on me. I have been a bit deficient of Vitamin D, which is not really the greatest thing, but you have come back to cure me!



Please stay around for a while - say 6 or 7 months. And do have a chat with Old Man Winter. He really was a bit over the top this year; could do with less of that!



Welcome back, Mister Sun!

All photos from We Heart It

I Love: Redbud Trees

If pressed to name a favorite tree, I'd start with a list of maybe 6 - the thread leaf Japanese maple, ginkgo, and burr oak come immediately to mind. But my absolute favorite, all time and forever, would have to be the redbud.

sallyann53, photobucket

Right after the snow melts and spring is creaking forward, these visions of pinky purple flower. And oh, what a showing it is! Thousands of flowers festooning all of the branches, even the trunk, no room for anything else!



Drive along the highway in Ohio, in a more rural area, and small redbud starts are everywhere. In the forests, red buds make up the lower canopy, shining brightly against the beeches and maples. The forests become a symphony of purple.



And what delicate flowers! Look closely, and you'll see a tree that seems to be made up of millions of tiny orchids. One of God's greater triumphs.



And unlike most flowering trees, where the show ends with the end of the flowers, the redbud doesn't end there. For it's at this point that it unfurls its leaves in the form of perfect green hearts. What could be more perfect?



I love redbud trees.

A Spring Sort of Mind

I've been thinking of the spring trees lately. Magnolias, flowering cherries, peaches and plums. I have been in a spring sort of mind.



I guess I've been in a sort of pink frame of mind. It's better than wallowing in the winter doldrums that have been plaguing me.



Winter has always been difficult for me. Not enough sunshine, cabin fever, all that. But having this to look forward to makes it a little easier.



Because who doesn't love the smell of magnolias, the waft of lilacs as you walk by?



Who doesn't smile and feel a little fuzzy about bees, heavy with nectar from the mock orange, days laying in the grass with the heady spring breeze?



So I will stay in a spring sort of mind - a time of renewal, a time of love, a time of new hope, a time of resurrection.



All photos on We Heart It.

Spring Flowers Under the Snow

More Snow . . .

and more coming this weekend. 10 inches this time, I haven't looked at how much this weekend. I've resigned myself that Ohio has become part of the Arctic. I am also not shoveling as a form of protest against Mother Nature (this will stop as soon as I have to go somewhere, but I feel like a rabble rouser now).

I've been thinking a lot about the spring bloomers, buried under 2-1/2 feet of snow. They are enjoying the cold snap - it's a sign to them that they will be growing soon.



The crocus, first harbinger of spring


con_meo_mun, photobucket

Snowdrops, crocus' faithful companion


stripeyfray, photobucket

Grape hyacinth, miniature signs of Easter


kidspeak, photobucket

The confetti petals of witch hazel, yellow against a field of white

Daffodil's little sister, jonquil

grezh, photobucket

The miniature blooms of the star flower

And a little later . . .

MDCwithJ3, photobucket

Bleeding heart, indescribable blooms

brainardphotography, photobucket

It's woodland cousin, dutchman's breeches

trinimade, photobucket

And the elegant primrose, neon pops of color.

So dig yourselves out (if you aren't joining my protest), look about the yard, and dream about the flowers which will soon be filling it. Winter can't last forever!