Overnight...almost.

The last time I visited the blogosphere, I had just returned from a mini-retreat to the beach.  This time, the retreat was practically in my backyard.  A little over a week ago, I hiked through the gardens, looking for signs of spring - a bud here or there, or a tender shoot of a brave tulip or paperwhite testing the possibility of coming out of hiding.  The tree in the photo above was full of buds, but they still seemed fairly tight and fearful.  I took pictures of a few little perks of green to share with my preschool story-time charges for the week ahead, and thought we might still have a bit of a wait for the glories of spring.  Then on Tuesday, one of the staff on site sent pictures of the very same trees in full bloom.  Practically overnight,  everything had awakened in an absolute explosion of pink.

That means that today, on my weekend time with no duties to distract me, I will return to the gardens with my camera, as I always do in the spring, and record the exuberance of the tulip magnolias, and their rain of petals down to the gravel pathways of those treasured 9 acres.  And I will say to myself, "This is what my hard work is about," and I will be ready to take on the challenges of the new year.

Thanks...

I started this little blogging project a few years back, and though I really have enjoyed the writing part - the reflection, the finding-the-words, the sharing-part-of-my-world - I had no idea that anyone beyond a few family members and close friends were ever stopping by to see what was going on.

Enter, a little tab on the "navigation" bar to Tunes 'n Twine - the one that reads "Stats". I had never noticed it there before, but it tells me that there are people on the other side of the world from me who have visited this page, for whatever reason.

My hope, of course, would be that, there would be something here of substance to each one, even if it were only a picture or a link to a bit of the world that I love. You never know. Today, I leave everyone who has spent even a few moments here with a "Thank you!" and a bouquet of spring flowers. It may not be spring everywhere. In fact, in some places, there may be deepest winter still in force and very difficult times and suffering to endure. But I do wish an instant of beauty to be in your day, and a glimmer of hope that spring can bring.