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| Very soggy camillia |
As I walk back home after my trip to the coffee shop, I pass this lovely shrub of camillia flowers, which is just now beginning to open for the season. It's an early sign of spring, which officially started yesterday. On Saturday Melanie and I made two loops around Lake Padden, and for some reason the clouds cleared and we were treated to full sunshine instead of the predicted rain. But last night and today we are back into the rain. If you look closely at the camillia, you can see it's pretty wet. So was I, but I took a shorter walk today, two miles, and I was dressed for the weather, with raincoat, rain pants, hat, and waterproof shoes. Got home in a pretty good mood, actually.
It's not that I really mind the rain, mostly. There are times when it seems to bring me down and make me grumpy, but it wasn't that way today. The puddles are everywhere, still, very full and reflecting the raindrops falling at a pretty good clip. I just checked the weather and it's supposed to keep up for most of the day. Sure wish there was some way we could send much-needed rain to California; they are still in a years-long drought with no end in sight. We could sure spare some of ours.
Yesterday for the first time this year, I heard the song of the white-crowned sparrow, who shows up around now and stays for the entire summer. Robins are ubiquitous and unremarkable these days, but that sparrow's song says "spring" to me. We only have a few more days left in March, and then April's abundant beauty will be here, with tulips galore and the scent of flowers everywhere. It's a time to be grateful and notice its brevity before summer's heat begins. I'm just grateful for it all!
:-)
Yesterday was Sparrow Day - perhaps your songster was alerting you to that.
ReplyDeleteI like Spring. I like rain. And a rainy spring is blissful. I do hope that California does get some of that manna from heaven. Soon.
Spring has sprung, and even though we had rain today, I've already hung my Boston ferns up on the porch. I love rain, the gentle kind not the gully-washer. That Camellia is beautiful, I bet that bush is just stunning when they are all in bloom.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
~Jo
Winter on the mainland seems like childbirth to me. The cold and discomfort are around for just a few months, and then it disappears and the pain of it goes away, and spring appears. We are spoiled here in Hawaii with our warm winters, but we are also missing the joy of spring.
ReplyDeleteEven today's spring rain seems wonderful today as it make the new greens glow.
ReplyDeleteSpring is definitely began in your neck of the woods. Here, dry, dry, dry.
ReplyDeleteI've only seen one Robin of all the spring birds.
ReplyDeleteThe robins stayed on the island this year. One enjoyed the berries on our holly as they were revealed by the melting snow.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could share the rain too. We get our share and more besides.
I used to like walking in the rain. I like the song too! But now I stay in when it's raining.
ReplyDeleteWalking in the rain is really pleasant if it is gentle and you are properly dressed. Wan't there a song by that name?
ReplyDeleteI know as a kid, it was a favorite thing to do.
In a very different environment, we (as in Sue then I) recently spotted our first robin.
ReplyDeleteSome rain would clean things up around here. Camillas are so pretty!
ReplyDeleteBetter the pretty sparrow's song than the cawing of the grackle I saw today--a sure sign of spring at my place--LOL!
ReplyDeleteWe are in that odd cycle between seasons at present.
ReplyDeleteI love the camellia. When we were in Japan I saw a lot of camellia bushes and mentioned how beautiful they were to my mother. She looked at the scattered blooms on the ground and told me they were a samurai flower because like samurai who committed suicide and were beheaded in their prime nobly, the camellia blooms fell when they were still beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up online and found this:
"The camellia is an early spring flower native to Asia. In Japanese, this flower is known as tsubaki. They were very popular with nobles during the Edo Period. Among warriors and samurai, the red camellia symbolized a noble death."