finding fistfuls of flowering hope

Those tulips? They were red ones — our first of the season — and it turns out they weren’t too slow at all. They were too fast: our temps dipped about 5 degrees below freezing a few nights ago and we awoke to clear skies and bowed heads. Those tulips can bow low to the ground but they never quite recover. Luckily, the buds that opened in the subsequent sunny day have stood tall ever since.

The chives burst forth from the soil like green fireworks. It seems as though there was nothing, and then there was a short mound of green, and then SURPRISE!!  Tall green spikes packed closely together, with sturdy purple buds stealthily climbing their way up the middle of the mound.

The Japanese maple outside my kitchen window is slowly unfurling its leaves.  It reminds me of autumn in reverse — the tightly packed tender leaf in spring mimics the desperate clinging of its late-fall predecessor, but instead of falling to the ground in a cool breeze, this new leaf opens to the warmth of the sunshine.

 

I’m also thankful to be honored by Hilary at The Smitten Image.