It's almost Spring, again.

This is my second recent post on spring but it's just so darned awesome. It begs another post. So, forgive me but things have started blooming here.

We've had an incredibly wet winter in the south, okay, more like a SOAKING winter. We find ourselves again this week in a pattern of rain. I'm not complaining as it's helping all the plants, grass and trees but it does make for some dreary days. When my dry winter skin reaches epic proportions I know it's time for things to start blooming. I'll get some relief and the bonus is it will be beautiful and green outside.
February is always poignant in the sense of being emotional, not sad really just moving. Mama would have been 94 on the 23rd and daddy left this earth in February 1978. Joyfully though, I am constantly reminded of them.
Sipping coffee this morning and gazing out over the lake, I see all the forsythia[yellow bells] are blooming. The graceful limbs beginning to pop with bright yellow blooms.
[An early garden lesson from mama- The blooms come first, then the leaves, she would say. But why, I would ask? Maybe God wants you to see beauty in His creation, then the green reminds us He is enduring and forever.] I can still hear her words.

So outside our bedroom window, farther in the back yard and beside the mailbox are reminders of childhood. My mother had yellow bells surrounding our house. They were everywhere, she loved them. When she and daddy built our childhood home, she brought cuttings and sprouts from her daddy's home place. She nurtured them and each year she moved more around her home and into the yard. Then as each of her children created their homes, she shared the cuttings. Each home we've built we always included forsythia from granddaddy's home place and Irises and more from mama.

                                                     

                 
 Not long after we built our current home mama was headed to her car after a visit and she reached into her trunk "I brought you something. Plant it where it will get plenty of sun and it will bloom well." Wrapped in foil and a damp paper towel mama handed me a stick. It was sawed at an angle on one end, about 10" long with a single sprout on one side. Flowering Plum tree? Yep.
It now stands about 10 feet tall beside our driveway with several three foot shooters surrounding it. Early blooms are signaling spring.

As sunny days become more prevalent, the irises will be next. I can almost feel the soft breeze and warm sun on my face, hear her words and relish in her lessons.

Memories come in brilliant yellow blooms today.  Enduring green leaves are just around the corner.