Easter – And It’s Still Spring!

(left click on images to enlarge)

Time management has been kicking my behind with all this Springtime madness. Thankfully, I now have an interlude from it all. I have more pictures than should be legal, too.  😉 I have been snapping at a fairly insane rate – it has been “that Spring” – just gorgeous and one during which I actually had the wherewithal to do something about capturing all these sights in real time, just the way I always wanted to. This has been a chore resplendent with pleasure and pride. I take landscaping personally……….it is what I am and have been. I have an ideology which feels landscaping and gardening are something other than idle pursuits of the well-off. My take is that it is a life-enhancer, making us happier and healthier human beings. It is soulful and therefore therapeutic.

Having said that, I suppose, compared to the less fortunate in the world, this truly is something less than necessary. Yet we do live somewhere – in real time and with real lives – and I feel we owe it to our own posterity to leave it better than how we found it. As far as the poorer parts of the world are concerned, Lord knows we want them to share our lives and their love on this planet in the best possible ways. I don’t forget them, let me put it that way. On this Easter Sunday, I am saying a special inner prayer for the less fortunate among us all. I like to think I do this every day. I think that is also our job as people.

My recollections of Easter focus on my boyhood, growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky, with all the scents of early roses and the freshly popped leaves and plants. It always seemed just muggy enough to be a sensual sort of weather, made for romance and experience.

Inasmuch as my daughter was born on the unbelievable date of April 1st, I also have another person’s childhood as a memory as well. I recall living in Santa Cruz and hosting a party for about 80 people on an Easter that coincided with her birthday. We went nuts, my fun-loving wife, Alice, and I. We spent a minor oodle of money on candy and other hosting apparatii like food and birthday cake. I dressed as the Easter Bunny – an experience I hope never to repeat owing to the universal derision of my male friends. Typical response: “Wow, that is hilarious, but I would never do that!” In truth, my make up designer did have me a bit closer to Skeletor, Protector of The Universe, than some cuddly bunny. I drew tears from the younger ones, let me put it that way. I only mention it for purposes of full disclosure.

We diligently hid the candies in places entire age groups would appreciate. We hung candy from the branches of Redwood trees, hid them in more outrageous places and the kids managed to find them all. Imagine!! My best friends, Steve Bare and his lovely wife, Jody, helped prepare a Kentucky special – “Burgoo” – 3 meats, celery, Okra, onions, carrots and Lord knows what else in a hickory-fed “smoker” that really did flavor the stuff with a Kentucky sort of cachet. The food lasted hours, not days. Yummy stuff, like a Louisiana “gumbo” in the end. Those Californians had never had anything like it………..but where was I?

Oh, Spring.

The early blooming Spring time here has me agog at the wonder of it all. There is sometimes some sense in the 4 season thing – Spring becomes something more than what it is. The Eternal Spring exists in our minds as an ideal of youth and budding promise. Easter, in the strictly Christian sense, reinforces this with yet another tale of Renewal, and a wonderful story at that. And make no mistake – renewal is the issue – particularly in the plant Kingdom. The budding glories, the flowers, the overall sense of newness and fresh life opening up around us and we watch it take place on a daily basis. It is truly a wonder of Life itself.

From these Rhodies, taken at the Crystal Springs Rhododenron Garden in Portland, to the blooming Cherry Trees below, taken in my own small neighborhood, Spring is bursting out and reminding us to pay attention to the small details in our lives. Nature doesn’t miss much.

Shirotae Cherry Trees – Prunus Shirotae “Snow Drop” – became very popular in the ’80’s and ’90’s locally and I want to thank them for getting popular. They are a favorite of mine, as always. Here is one big sucker, hard by our local library – here is an up close and personal view:

And here is the same one at a bit more distance –

And yet more distance –

Once again, I’ll have to abbreviate a post owing to server capacity or some such thing. No worries – I have more, this time all bulbs and perennials, next. See you then. May you and yours have a gloriously happy Easter.

6 thoughts on “Easter – And It’s Still Spring!

  1. Spring is such a wondrous time of year, truly. It IS that time of year when one can “behold wonder” as Richard Bach said. It always seemed just muggy enough to be a sensual sort of weather, made for romance and experience./i> I like this very much. I know those sorts of days. Your photos are incredible — you are light years ahead of our spring, so this is a lovely Easter treat. 🙂

  2. Thanks Nancy. I bet we all know those days. Like I said, Easter brings back history for me – and it’s a pretty nice memory – all phases of it.

    Plus, doggone it, you made me feel even better knowing we are “light years ahead” of you, lol. That makes someone! I say this because it is back to dreary here, durnit. Rainy day here with more in the forecast.

  3. I enjoyed your ramble through spring, metaphorically and photographically. Your ideas about landscaping as a soul-redeeming experience I think are very true. While it is indeed a good idea to send thoughts and prayers to the less fortunate, I’d also say that landscaping is one of the things that happens wherever there is a permanent living space, no matter how poor – people do seem to ave a compulsion to arrange things, outside and in. To me, this one of the most powerful and ancient art forms – and definitely a type of resurrection.

  4. Well, Steve, it looks like the on-switch for spring just got tripped. Wow.

    I may have a few plants that wouldn’t do well for your, but I have ZERO hope of being able to have rhodies as gorgeous as the ones you’ve shown. Even the low-chill variety I tried didn’t exactly thrive–let a lone survive. (I think it had something to do with watering…) I really like the flowering cherries as well. That’s another plant we don’t have many of. I guess we’ll just have to make do with succulents and subtropicals…

  5. I do feel lucky some days. Then there are the others, lol. The rain makes all this stuff really, really happen. But, to be perfectly honest, I am of the opinion we could do the same with less, if you get my drift.

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