This week only! Buds everywhere! My garden has stated that dormancy and hibernation are over and it’s time to create. Create leaves and buds that will burst forth into fruit and flowers. It’s such a delicate time of year. The crossover, so to speak, of stillness and the conservation of energy, to the release, in tiny increments of stored up power. The curtains are going up and it’s showtime.
There is one drama queen in my yard that loves to act up and challenge me. She is the fuyu persimmon tree I named Francesca. I planted her last May. As much as I talked with her, fertilized and watered her, she completely ignored me. Like she couldn’t care less and wanted to die. No new growth, just sticks for arms. She seemed to glare at me, holding her ground and not budging. She stood there steadfast, pouting for almost a year. I was ready to replace her with an understudy, a pretty plum tree. Last weekend while on my garden rounds, lo and behold, she finally decided to make an appearance and deliver green buds! Was it all the rain we received this winter or did her neighbor, Reed, the avocado tree, give her a pep talk? “Hey girl – You’re late for curtain call!” Whatever the reason, I am grateful she has finally decided to join the family.
Besides the visual, there’s the sensory expression of spring. The sweet scent of orange blossoms drifts in the air, five different songbirds serenade me as the mourning doves chime in with their rythmic beat of coo coo, coo coo, coo coo. Hummingbirds shower in the water spewing from my sprinklers and bees pollinate everything they can find. It’s my own live theater production that keeps evolving before my very eyes. Everyday a new song, a new bloom, a new me reacting to the show. And so life unravels one day at a time….
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Ciao for now!
Mary