Spring is in the air!

Flowers are blooming, trees are turning green again, days are longer, the pollen allergies are following close behind as well. The sneezing and the irritating runny nose are a very small price to pay for enjoying the perfect weather outside though.

Seeing the dogwoods, wisteria and cherry blossoms bursting with color, I felt like I was driving through a painting made by an impressionist artist. Almost overnight, seems like nature has been reborn. The dull brown and leafless trees have miraculously turned into a veritable palette of pastel shades including delicate pinks, lavender and yellow flowers vying for attention among the brighter purples and reds. The tender young leaves are a bright green which will slowly turn darker as the summer sets in. None of the colors seem out of place or garish.

The dogwood trees, with flowers of a delicate off-white shade look so gorgeous, the baby pink cherry blossoms, the azaleas, daffodils, yellow rose bushes and tulips in intense colors are all a treat to the eye but I am most partial to the wisteria. They are draped over a fence or sometimes just droop down a tree. There is something so graceful about these lavender colored blooms, so delicate - although they seem to be falling all over each other vying for attention. Everything about the wisteria spells beauty and elegance, the fragrance is heady. I can close my eyes and imagine how perfect it would be to sit on a bench with a wisteria trellis running over it, the teardrop shaped blooms falling down in a lavender cascade. Just thinking about it makes me smile. I am sure I will be thinking about that trellis for a while to come...

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"