So, this week in sunny Charlotte has been the highest pollen count (and temperatures) in a long while. Funny how we seemed to go straight from Winter to Summer around here. Or at least that’s been the joke around here. But it really is beautiful here in the Carolinas - and so many times as I bustle from place to place, I forget to look around and just enjoy it. Spring can happen seemingly overnight here. One minute there are bare trees, and then - every branch seems to be budding with green.
So for me - it’s not spring until I can see the first buds of green on the trees and the dark tone the dirt gets after a healthy rain. I just love that.
What about you - what’s your first happy sign of spring?*
*yes, this is a happy thread. So please leave the debby downers at the door - thanks!
We have some kind of maple in our yard that drops these cute little red…not berries, but more like buds. Anyway, my car is parked directly underneath it. So the whole car gets covered by these little buds. I don’t mind, because it washes off.
But the neat thing is, when people in India get married, they decorate the car in such a fashion with flowers. And the buds seem to fall in sort of a pattern, too. So my car looks like a bridal car, and it just looks lovely.
I hadn’t realized it since this is only my second spring in this house, but I noticed I was looking forward to it.
The other sign I look forward to and groan about are the birds. Now every morning I hear the birds singing madly, desperately trying to get a mate.
Robins don’t count anymore. Those bastards hardly fly south nowadays, it seems!
My daffy’s and hyacinths are blooming! And smell wonderful!
The daylilies, iris, lilies, peonies, and other stuff are all poking through. The strawberry beds are greening up. Hell even my blueberry experiment will be continued for another year!
Our neighbors take their desert tortoise for a walk around the block. It’s always good to see him lumbering along, looking for tender dandelion shoots. People come out of their houses to greet them. My dogs sniff at his shell with great interest; their eyes shine with excitement. You know it’s spring now. Tank’s going for a walk!
Wow, a tortoise on an outing, that’s a new one! Around here, we only have new doggies. And new babies born in the winter… I have to say the same old, same old here - tulips, buds, chirping birdies. The purple violets under the maples are revving up, just need a few more days of sun and warmth before they explode into a carpet of purple. (Yesterday it was in the 80’s. Today it’s in the 40’s.) They get to bloom before the leaves on the tree block out the sun for the next, oh, 6 months.
See, now I’m hating on you for making me be homesick for the Carolinas- spring is awesome there!
As for here in the desert, my brain refuses to acknowledge the true arrival of spring until I smell orange blossoms when I go outside. That is the one true sign. Mmmm, smells so good.