Spring Blooming All Over

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain
  
Spring was late in coming this year, but it came in a hurry this week with record warm temperatures after a week of record cold temperatures. That's spring weather for you. But the temperatures rising into the 60s, then the 70s, and today the 80s was enough to convince the flowers to bloom. Forsythia bushes are exploding with yellow blooms in yards along the road. I have a struggling forsythia that's trying to get re-established after being dug up when we built on to the house. We dumped it over on the side of the yard without proper planting, but those bushes are tough. It's putting up shoots and blooming this year. My japonica bush is going red. My peonies have pushed through the ground and are almost visibly growing. All three of those are from sprouts or bulbs I dug up out of my grandparents' yard. A heritage of beauty to be passed from one yard to another, so that not only do I enjoy the blooms, the sight of the flowers also stirs memories of the hands that planted them. 
 
Yesterday on my walk, I saw my first butterflies. Today I ran my face into my first spiderweb. That's spring for you. A constant entertainment to someone like me who enjoys walking on the farm. I've seen it all before but every spring, I'm ready to see it all again. A joy to behold. And maybe this year the pictures will be even better than last year. This bluebell picture isn't. But you've got to understand that I was taking the picture with one hand while holding Oscar's leash with the other. He still has two and half more weeks of captivity. That's how he's feeling about being in the house. A meek and compliant prisoner, but it's obvious he's far from comfortable. I was hoping to make a house dog out of him, but it's not looking like he wants that. He has become a nice companion here in my office. So maybe he can be an office dog.  
 
The front door to springtime is a photographer's best friend. ~Terri Guillemets 

What brings you joy in the springtime?

P.S. I sent the prize packages out today. Sharma, Rita, and Tawnya, you should get them before the end of the week. Congratulations and thanks to all of you who made this giveaway such fun for me, even though your number didn't get drawn this time. Maybe in June. Got to figure out a prize. 

Diane K., I sent you a Facebook message, but if I don't hear from you by Monday, I'll draw a new number for one of the 2nd place prizes - a couple of books.

Springing Forward

This is a wild hyacinth from years past. It's too early for it to be in bloom yet this year, but sometimes we have to anticipate the good things coming. Actually those leaves behind the hyacinth bloom are some of the flowers that bloom earliest - twinleafs. You can see where they get their name. The blooms of that plant have delicate white petals and they come and go quickly. Some years I see them and some years - if I don't time my walks right - I just see the fallen petals and the lush leaves. The wild hyacinths stay in bloom much longer.

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It's not spring yet. We have to wait a couple more weeks for the official start of that, but we're reaching for spring and our eyes are on the lookout for proof - blooming flowers. I almost stopped in the middle of the road the other day when I saw crocuses. That would have made an interesting insurance report. Having to admit I got rear-ended because I wanted to see a flower. Of course after this winter, the insurance adjuster might not have held me at fault.

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We're springing forward to daylight savings time on Sunday. I'm going to have to reset my head to get up earlier. Not easy to do. But I do enjoy the early morning hours when the house is quiet and I can imagine writing a thousand words. It doesn't happen that much. I have too many delaying tactics. But with deadlines popping up all around me like those wildflowers in the woods will be doing soon, I need to come up with get to work tactics instead of the delaying ones.

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What about you? Do you drag your feet when something needs doing or do you jump right in there and tackle the job? I've been tackling an editing job on the page proofs of my next Shaker book, The Blessed, due out this summer. There were some problems I had to work out. Some mistakes I'd made. I hate it when I mess up and don't catch all my mistakes before the book gets this far in the process of publication. But I'm thankful for careful editors and proofreaders who do catch what I don't catch. I finished reading through the pages a few minutes ago. I've made corrections, straightened out some thorny problems, and tried to make the story one where the words will disappear as the characters play out their story in my readers' imaginations. That's the best kind of writing. The kind where you don't notice the writing.

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Thanks so much for reading. And drive carefully if you go looking for flowers to prove spring is on the way. Guess next week we'll have more daylight time for our hunt. Do you have a favorite flower?