A Monday Meander: The redbuds and the greening

The new bridge to nowhere. I think the deer might use it because there is what looks like a deer path through the marsh on the other side. We use it to watch the tide, the fish, and the crabs come in and out of the pond.  (The old bridge M put up, using the old decking from the house, finally fell apart over the winter.  It was intended to be temporary and we were surprised it lasted as long as it did.)

It is a serious thing
Just to be alive
On this fresh morning
In this broken world.

~ Mary Oliver, excerpted from “Invitation”

At the start of this morning’s walk. (Those pink cones you see are tree protectors, keeping the baby trees safe from rabbits and — theoretically, but not practically — from the deer.)

Almost every spring, since I started blogging in the way-back time but especially since my WordPress days began (2007), I devote a post to the greening of spring, usually titled something about a visit from the Green Man.  It happens every year, this sudden changeover from the browns and grays of winter to the bright greens of spring.  Even though all the trees have not yet leafed out, you can see that they are in the beginning of the process, and there seems to be a green aura around the entire landscape.

Visiting the redbud trees this morning, after last night’s storms.

Today is the day.  After a night of storms, spring is practically bursting at the seams.  The grass is an incredible shade of green, the wild cherries, dogwoods, and redbuds are in the fullest bloom of the season.  The hostas and daylilies have come up, the peonies have buds on them, and a few of the late-blooming daffodils opened this morning.

Before the strong winds came along and dried up the raindrops.

My favorite of the spring-blooming trees is the redbud.  Every year I fall more in love with them.  M and I planted three on the property.  Surprisingly, there were none.  It was a surprise because redbuds are very common around here.  Then again, the former owners were more keen on exotic and/or non-native, species.  That might account for the lack of redbuds.

In the morning light, when the clouds were clearing.

This is the first year they’ve really bloomed.  They had a few flowers on them last year, but nothing like this year.  Still, they are not as filled out as older redbuds in the region.  They still have some maturing to do.  They do appear to like where we planted them, two at the edge of the woods where the woodland trail is found and one out by the flower garden next to a large cherry tree.  Redbuds like being in the company of other trees, especially in windy areas.

So pretty in pink.

M and I worked on the flower garden yesterday.  If you’ve been following me for a few years, you know I used to call it the scrounger’s garden.  I was decorating the area with all kinds of items we found on the property.  Last year I began desconstruction, taking out the path I never weeded and beginning to get rid of or move things that were making it difficult to mow and/or weed.

Beginning to leaf.

It had already rained on Saturday and we had a few light showers on Sunday morning.  That made it easier to pull out the old plants and the new weeds.  With rain on the way, we also planted flower seeds (zinnias, of course, along with cosmos and something else I’m blanking on at the moment.  I’ll let you know what it is after I get out there again or maybe when/if they bloom).

The sage is doing well and the lavender I planted last year survived the winter.  I had some large lavender plants that had been thriving since the beginning of the garden but were killed off by winter last year so I had to replace them.

Clustered together.

The rain we were expecting did arrive eventually.  In the wee hours of the morning, sometime between 3:30 and 4:00 AM, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) alarm woke us up.  Our cell phones are set to inform us and we have a weather radio so needless to say (but I will anyway), we were well alerted to the fact that there was a tornado warning for our area.  Fortunately for us, a tornado did not materialize here.  There was plenty of rain, lightning, thunder, and some howling winds.  Unfortunately for the folks north of us in Delaware, it appears there was a tornado (I’m not sure if the officials who rule on such things have declared it a tornado just yet).  This was the same storm system that brought blizzards to the midwest and strong storms (including tornadoes) to the south.  There were two lines of storms, the second coming through about an hour after the first.  The second line was not nearly as strong as the first.

The April showers were kind to the flowers here at the ranch.

I went out early this morning to see if there was any major storm damage on the ranch.  Everything looked pretty much okay.  There is a lot of small debris on the deck and scattered around, but no trees came down.  We do have a gale warning in effect for today.  Winds are expected to be blowing 25-35 mph.  It’s windy, but doesn’t seem quite that windy to me.  It’s possible I’ve grown used to strong winds.  We see a lot of that around here, especially in the winter.

The flower garden. It’s near the pond and the greenhouse.

When M and I were awakened in the early morning, we turned on the television to see if our local weather guys and gals happened to be on.  They were.  One of them, the guy we watch most often, kept going on and on about how tornadoes are an unusual weather event here on the Eastern Shore.  Historically, he’s correct.  However, there have been a few tornadoes on the peninsula since we moved here.  I’m wondering if the weather folks are going to need to revise their statements about tornadoes being an unusual weather event.  I’m not sure we’re in “usual” mode anymore.  We may be moving towards a lot more unusual events as weather patterns change.

Cherry blossoms.

I reckon that’s about it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch on this now sunny and windy Monday.  Thank you so much for stopping by and joining me on another meander around the place.  Let’s meet at the Point for sunset this evening.  It’s scheduled for 7:39 PM.  You’ll probably need a sweatshirt or a jacket.  The temperature is in the mid 60’s (F) today and the wind off the water will probably make it feel cooler.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Hiding in the daylily leaves.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy:  1,050) The greening time.  1,051) The beauty after the storms.  1,052) Poetry, and a month dedicated to it.  1,053) Root vegetable hash and a curried poached egg for breakfast.  1,054) M, always.  1,055) A chat with the Little Wookie and his brother, the Little Peanut.

Water flooding the marsh. We’re having a super high tide today.

The entire poem I excerpted from at the beginning of this post:

“Invitation”

by Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude–
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in this broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

A cascade of blossoms.