blooming

(...things are springing up everywhere!)

the magnolias have bloomed. 

it's funny to me to see a leave-less tree, looking sad and desperate, housing beautiful, white fragrant blooms for days on end. even the few cold snaps and 'frozen mix' showers haven't killed off the beautiful flowers, and they wait on the pokey, bare little branches to greet me everytime i walk through the backyard. 

this spring i was hoping for more flowers... miss l and i planted those 100 bulbs in the front, and maybe 15 have showed up so far. a few green leaves have sprung up in new places since last summer, but no flowers have grown from the green stalks. my southern front lawn is dead, and my backyard is just a mush of dirt and weeds and misplaced mulch. oh, and some trash that blows in from the alley, through the west-facing chain link fence. and, more often there are fallen magnolia petals on the dirt: white slivers of silk just laying on the brown, dead dirt. somehow the contrast is sad, yet poetic.

despite the lack of spring color and budding growth, the magnolia continues to blossom. the crabapple tree on the side is growing pink blossoms, and the trees behind the shed are sprouting little green leaves and white petals. it's a longer lasting display of growth and love and rebirth, and i appreciate it every time i look out my back window, pull into the carport, or walk through the side lawn. something is growing, spring is here.