Spring?

I smell spring again.

I’m coming out of hibernation not a moment too soon. We are tickling the 70 degree temperatures here in Fresno and it’s been my cue to come out from my cave existence where I’ve been huddled by the fire for the past three months, reading. No, I didn’t abandon my blog, I was just so introverted this winter, I couldn’t write a thing.

So, my first travels this year were around my garden where I’ve been discovering a few emerging bright spots. My favorite— the violets.

They sprang up two years ago on the spot where
my beloved male dog Rusty’s ashes lay— bright reminders of his sweet temperament.

Our orange tree is drooping with more oranges than I’ve ever remembered seeing in the twenty-nine years I’ve lived in my house, not to mention the kumquats.

Fred bought a three inch high magnolia tree at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park, S.F. years ago when we first moved into our house. It remained in a small 4 inch pot on the patio for years and I thought it would never grow up. When I finally decided it needed to be in the ground and found a place for it in the yard, it shot up and exploded into a beautiful tree.

Now, I look out my kitchen window every week after Christmas, waiting and anticipating the dark flower pods that slowly form on naked branches, finally opening to reveal these beautiful white blossoms each year in Feb./Mar. This week the first one opened (with a little help from me).

While visiting my sister-in-law's today, I had to take a picture of her already blooming magnolia, a different variety.

And, I couldn’t resist including this picture of Fred

with his sister’s dog, Mel, (I think he was named that because he is so mellow). He loves to be in someone’s lap all the time--any body’s lap will do, then he’s a happy camper.

Enjoy spring when it arrives for you!