Happy Spring,

I am one of the richest men I know (you know what I mean), one of my happiest treasures (that is, things I treasure, not things I own - well, I do legally own them but they came with the land and all I do is enjoy them) are my Dogwood trees - specially the Spring Blooms. Yeah!

Now, the primary post-winter and certainly most welcome first flowers round here are the Forsythia,
Yeth, Forthythia.

These optimists bloom canary-bird yellow as soon as possible. They all look great shouting "Winter's over!". There may be a snap or two left but the sun has to definately be coming back for these guys to perform.

They are a common yard plant county wide. I like the untrimmed ones best. Bloomed out, they look like still-life exploded boxes of highly buttered popcorn.

Once their announcement has lingered a bit (couple a weeks) the Dogwoods then steal the show bigtime.

If you ain't from these here parts (I ain't but - I've been round long enough to shed most of my halfback yankee-ness (NY>FL>NC)) you may not know about the Dogwoods.

Old legend has it The Cross was made of Dogwood and it was Celestially commanded to never grow stout enough for that chore again.

They are spindly trees with light branches and flowers that can range in color from brilliant white through the "dirty" white range. There's also a rosy pink variety.

What I find neatest is the tiny (maybe a week / 10 days) window of time between the beginning of Spring and the point where all the trees have fully leafed out - their "ghosty" green images slowly, daily becoming more solid.

I think I mentioned before that I feel a "seasonal" change (types of blooms, different hatchings of bugs, etc.) about every two or three weeks so I'm claiming 20 something seasons to the natural year. Them that know better may tell me there's more.

In the current season and at this time of it, there are not many leaves fully grown out and the Dogwood blooms are easy to spot floating midway up the general gray of bare branches and that ghosty mist of tiny green (or red) leaf buds that will soon open up flat and hide whatever DW flowers are left.

Before that happens though, my woods have little floating whites suspended all over - maybe also kind of popcorny looking (I guess everything after a certain distance looks popcorny to old eyes) but not buttered.

Actually, I think I'll call them butterflyish, They look kind of wing-ed from the deck.

I only really see my entire flock at this time o year.

Being not bushy trees, they tend to arrange their flowers in horizontal stratus clouds. I'm sure I have 30 or so of these lovelies on my property. Their spacing across the acres lead me to ask a tree man I know, "How do they propogate?"

Bob tells me they have to go through an animal or bird and have the seed coat striated by the host's digestive system.
OK. Keep it up, you critters, thanx.

*

My Chapel - Wayfarer's Unity is just over the GA line South from NC - about 15 minutes from my place. There's a deck on the South side of the chapel and right beside it - a lovely stream. It has some great twists & turns and the rocks in the water make a nice soothing sound.

I can count up to 5 "voices" at the spot I shot this video. Take 1.11 minutse and breath it in.

This was shot on a Tuesday afternoon before Tai Chi class two weeks ago.
Just click & watch (no downloading needed) Wayfarer's Creek at Sundown

Another video, just a few seconds of a driveby on the way to Tai Chi...
It amused me to see the security fence quits just after it rounds the front corners of the lot. How secure is that?
Questionable Storage

I guess we're safe from frontal attacks that need road to escape. But anyone on foot, avec jeep, horse, etc. can clean the place out without even breaking the gate lock.

Maybe they could have saved a lot more fence $ by putting up just the gate. Don't think I'll stash my stuff there. That's not a squashed bug on my windshield (first few seconds) - it is red tree flower from my yard.

This morning, even though the Dogwoods are still blooming out, the ambient general green obfuscation is going on full tilt. There's way more green than yesterday even. Here we go again!

Last month's blog had me in toboggan hat and featured snow pics. Today I can barely recall the white stuff. Spring is here and present - how quickly we forget (a mercy).

If you have time, write me back and let me know how it's going for your Spring on this lovely earth.

Big Love to All!!
La Printemps est ici!