You Can Tell It's Spring When....

There are lots of ways that spring announces itself here in the Ozarks.

There are the cherry blossoms, blooming forth one at a time.

There are the pear blossoms, opening up in clusters.

There are the dandelions that spring up on the lawn.

And there are the Weigela blossoms in all their glory,

But one sign that invariably heralds the arrival of spring is the appearance of Jehovah's Witnesses at our front door.

 Bow was relaxing in the outer pen today, when there was a knock at the front door. It was two women, and they came bearing pamphlets and an iPad. The pamphlets are an old tradition. The iPad was a new twist. They handed me a pamphlet and invited me to an event celebrating the death of Jesus. The pamphlet they handed me said that at the event there would be an explanation of how "his death can benefit you and your family."

I thanked them for the pamphlet and offered to give them a free book, too, But they declined. They wanted to show me a video about Jesus on their iPad, instead. When I said I didn't have time to watch a video, they said that was okay, I could watch it later on their website. They've gone modern on us!

We parted politely, and I hurried back to Bow with the pamphlet. At first, he looked it over intently, but then he decided to nibble on one of the corners. I highly discourage eating literature, so I took it away.

Anyway, it's definitely spring. No doubt about it!

Grapes and Bees

Spring is definitely here. Yesterday afternoon it was eighty degrees out. In the grocery store, grapes are suddenly affordable again. Bow and I are taking advantage of the opportunity,

He was grunting with pleasure when he had his bunch of grapes for breakfast yesterday.

Bow also spent many hours outdoors on his bench, while I roamed the grounds spying all the sudden transformations that the warm weather has wrought.

The hyacinth by the front door is blooming.

The peach trees in the orchard have opened their blossoms. And no sooner had they bloomed, than they began to attract busy little bees.

Bees began to swarm by the fruit trees.

They seem to know exactly what flowers are available.

Some flowers, however, are more popular than others. For instance, though the new trees that were planted only last fall are also blooming, they do not attract any bees.

And although we might suppose that all the flowers growing on the same tree or bush are equal. no such equality is to be found in nature. Even on the forsythia bush, which is now in full bloom, some flowers just seem to stand out.

What is it about this particular bloom that makes it dance in front of me, as if shouting: "Look at me! Look at me! I am different from all the others!"

No two mountains have the same height and no two stalks of grain are equal, as the great Russian writer, Alexei Tolstoy, once wrote. (No, not the author of War and Peace. That was somebody else) There is no such thing as absolute, factual equality. Which brings me to my new book, Our Lady of Kaifeng: Courtyard of the Happy Way.  It has been published, and people all over the world are receiving copies even as I write.

Order from Amazon

My friend Julia just recently got her copy.

This is a good time to order my new book. And if you do, it will make it that much easier for me and Bow to buy more grapes to have for breakfast!

The Time of Daffodils and Religious Tracts

It's that time of year. The single daffodil that survived the fire has bloomed. It seems a little lonely, but we are lucky to have it. Nature preserves hardy survivors even in the face of destruction.

It is possible to mark the seasons by the things that happen every year around this time. But sometimes Bow and I are taken off guard, even though in retrospect we realize that what just happened was perfectly predictable.

I thought the elephants were a nice touch

A little while ago, we got our annual visit from the local Jehovah's Witnesses. They are always very polite, and I am also very polite, but it bothers Bow that people just show up unannounced. So after they are gone, I  share the tract they leave with Bow and let him know they came by just to give it to us.

Bow looking at the invitation/tract

Bow was not really all that interested this year, merely glancing at the invitation to their Easter event.

I like how they try to modernize their message so that it sounds like a benefits package: "You will hear an explanation of how his death can benefit you and your family." Bow, however, by now is quite unimpressed with all these promises. I think maybe if they had invited us to an event where we get to hurl rocks at trees he would have been more excited.

The First Spring Flowers

The snow did not stay for long. By Leap Day, it was quite nice out.

Bow enjoyed sunning on top of the bench in the outer pen, as well as a rare treat: a tangelo.

It was warm, it was nice, and at dusk you could hear both the birds and the coyotes.

The burnt field began to turn green.

It is nicer now that we are in the month of March. Bow sometimes asks for his blanket, but it is not because he is cold, and not because he needs a blanket.

Sometimes Bow is just reluctant to defy genre expectations and talk about something other than his blanket.

The sunrises have become especially lovely in the last few days -- even nicer than sunsets.

And today, we saw the very first flower bloom by the lagoon.

Its leaves had been singed by the fire, but this crocus pushed through undeterred.

The next flower getting ready to bloom beside the crocus is a daffodil. But a stray dandelion on the lawn has beat it to the punch, already open in bright yellow splendor.

Fair weather is not promised to us, of course. It may yet snow again. It certainly does seem about to storm.

But as far as the flowers are concerned, spring has sprung

Springtime Snow Flurries

Yesterday, it was cold and wet, as we had had rain and a little hail the night before. Nevertheless, Bow was happy to go outside and enjoy the slightly cooler but still fine spring weather.

Everything was in bud or was blossoming, and many of the flowers still dripped with the recent rain.

The forsythia was in full bloom.

And the cherry trees were budding.

But this morning there are snow flurries.

While the snow is not sticking to the ground, you can see it accumulating a little on the trunks and limbs of the oak trees.

See that white stuff hanging on the the lichens? That is snow.

There is a small accumulation of snow on some of the limbs of the oak and of the pine trees.

I hope that this unexpected snowfall does not prevent us from having cherries and peaches and pears this year. It's been a few years since we last had peaches like this:

The trees used to be loaded with peaches, more than we could possibly eat.

Both Sword and Bow enjoyed the peaches. They were juicy and picked only once they had ripened.

 But for the past few years, whether due to a late frost or for some other reason, we have not had peaches.

Let's hope this year will be different and that the snow flurries we are experiencing will not affect our future fruit yield.

Spring and Daffodils

It's spring. One way to tell is that the daffodils are blooming.

And then there's this other flower.

I don't know what is is called, but it looks so frail and small and rare, that when picking a flower to bring home to Bow, I decided to leave this one alone. Instead, I picked a daffodil, as we have plenty.

I normally don't pick flowers, but I wanted to bring a bit of the spring back to Bow.

Bow was happy to receive this gift, but right from the start I felt that he was sniffing the wrong end of the daffodil. The flower held no fascination for him. It was the stem that he wanted.

He took a bite and yet another bite of the green stem.

All the while, the blossom was still there.

Finally, when he had eaten all the stem and all that remained was the bloom, he handed the yellow flower back to me.

At first, I thought this was a generous impulse, so I gave it back to him, saying it was his flower. But he gave it right back to me. Finally, after several repetitions of handing the flower back and forth, Bow took the flower and deliberately threw it into his potty. Then he took my hand and spelled that he wanted to go outside.

Bow always throws things that have no value into the potty. It is his trash can. I was stunned. Who knew that the stem was the most valuable part of the daffodil?

The Art of Listening

I wrote before about how Bow enjoys going outside to express himself and to hear the sound of his own strong voice. But there are other times when Bow stays very still and just takes in somebody else's music. He is old enough now and wise enough to have mastered the art of listening.

What are the birds saying? What does their song mean to them? What does it mean to Bow?

We are lucky enough to live out in the country, where the birds can actually be heard to sing. There are places, including those institutions where chimpanzees are housed, where one cannot hear the birds above the din of traffic, if indeed there are birds out there.

Here, almost as soon as the snow thawed earlier this month, the birds could be heard planning their future together. Bow has mastered the art of listening. He appreciates what the birds have to say.

Enjoying the Weather

Bow had been cooped up for such a long time  that when the weather changed just recently, he immediately took the opportunity to sun himself out of doors.

Can you see how relaxed he is?

This is his favorite pose, lounging outside on his bench.

Meanwhile, this gives me a chance to explore what is going on outside.

I take the path down to majestic twin cedar.

As I get closer, I can see it better.

Closer still and other details emerge.

The birds are very active in the woods behind our house today.

And on the mossy ground right next to the woods, there are many nuts.

Some of them look almost edible.

But when I take the nuts in and crack them open ...

... there is nothing much there to eat, so we have oatmeal for lunch, instead. Oh, well.