Today the Skies Cry, I Smile

I have to thank all of you for your comments, your support, your friendship. It always amazes me, that warmth of the bloggy world. It’s something you know is there with family and real-world friends, but that there is so much love in the blog world is astonishing! A wonderful reality check in this world where sometimes, when we watch the news and hear of the tragic events occurring, we wonder if all of the good is gone.

Writing is my release. I have always done this – I just have not always had that digital “publish” button to push and share those words. Yesterday was not good – in an attempt to deal with my feelings – and because the grass was becoming a jungle – I had gone out to mow the front lawn. While I was mowing in circles, my brain was also racing – in circles, straight lines, many directions. The words were pouring through it and I needed to get them down. On paper, albeit digital paper. So I took a break, came in for a cup of tea and poured my heart out on the iPad. Then shared with all who cared to read. Your responses were, as I said, stunning and heartwarming.

Today is raining. It’s a nice, steady rain, something that is needed here in our part of the state. Something that will make that grass grow, yes – and need mowing again soon. But it also makes the flowers grow and bloom and brighten our days. I am glad the sky chose to cry today – happy tears, I’m sure – because yesterday, I would have not viewed them as happy tears and the gray skies would have been suffocating.

I did go out earlier when it was more a sprinkly rain and fill the hummingbird/oriole feeders as well as the thistle seed feeders. All the feeders seem to need it, but those are closer and can be taken in the house or to the lean-to where the seed is stored to be filled. The tray feeders require standing outside. They will wait. Those birds will need to be patient.

Sitting here, I can see one of the feeders the orioles prefer. Never do I see two orioles at one feeder at a time. Is sharing not in their vocabulary? Then again, sharing is not in the Rufous Hummers vocabulary either – at least not in the dominant male’s vocab. I have been seeing a hummer this year that does not look exactly like either a Rufous or a Calliope, but could be either because it lights for such a short second and I do not get a good look. Today I caught a glimpse of it as it lighted, very briefly, on a bush outside my window and it looked a lot like a Xantus’s Hummer – but they have a very limited range and it is much further south says iBird. I hoped it would come back and stay just long enough to capture it with the camera, but it has not.

Yesterday the crabapple trees that were full of buds a day or so ago were full of blooms. I saw the blooms as I went past on the mower, but did not come in and get the camera. If the rain does not knock them all off, maybe tomorrow. The lilacs are bursting open, and I have cut enough to have two bouquets in the house, one next to my morning room chair where I can enjoy their fragrance with my morning coffee. Why is it I love the scent of the flowers, but once bought lilac cologne and thought it dreadful? Perhaps it’s just that nature does a better job than man.

Now to share a gallery of spring – more spring. It’s an ongoing thing. It makes me smile, just as I’m sure it makes you smile.

The newly planted foxglove

The very first blooms of the weeping cherry we planted two years ago

The-I’ve-forgotten-the-name-of-these-early-spring flowers that fill the back half of the old wheelbarrow

The new hydrangea, looking even brighter