When we moved into this house more than ten years ago, it
was in the middle of December.
Consequently, we really didn’t have any idea as to what was planted in
our yard. Over the next year, it was fun
to see what popped open in the spring and hung around in the summer. The person who lived here before must have
been a pretty good gardener…something I am not.
There are bulbs that come up every year, daylilies galore and there are
gorgeous white azaleas and rhododendrons that, when they bloom, look like clouds that have fallen in front of our house.
And in our back yard on the edge of the woods there is a magnolia
tree. I fell in love with this tree the
first year I saw it in bloom. So I was
horrified this past October after the freak snowfall when we realized that the
tree had snapped in two under the weight of the heavy snow. But apparently, the loss of a limb, even a
major one, is not enough to have this tree give up the ghost and it bloomed
again this year. The blooms are not as
profuse as in the past years. But the
magnolia did set its buds and brought forth some flowers that are beautiful
even if they are a little brown around the edges because of our dry spring.
I suppose that the tree never had a moment’s thought that it
wouldn’t bloom as I had feared would happen because of such major damage. Such is the tenacity of wild life and my personal
tendency toward despair sometimes. It has
been an uplifting sight looking out at the blooms that are now beginning to
fade and drop to the ground because that is what they are supposed to do while
the waxy green leaves are beginning to emerge.
Nature’s perseverance and persistence always puts hope in my
heart and I stand here in awe of it.
