Peek Into Spring

I can hardly wait for spring, which has yet to come. My hyacinths are already sprouting. Fifteen of them altogether, clustered on the patch of soil next to our doorstep right under our living room windows. Thinking I might never live to actually plant bulbs and see them grow, I grabbed a box of hyacinth bulb at Aldi last fall, and planted them with S. S loves gardening too. In fact, she's a pretty good little gardener. She actually planted the annuals we had last summer.

What do you expect when you didn't have winter in winter, but to have a belated definite dose of it in spring? We were frolicking in exceptionally warm weather in January, when it should have been like this:

So now we're merely getting what we should have been getting two months back. Alas, the weather pattern all over the globe has been going berserk. Yellow snow in Korea. Snow in Arizona. Snow in ARIZONA?!! Subhanallah. Maybe we're in for something unexpected.


Unfortunately, they have cut down all the crab apple trees in our apartment complex, for reasons I can only attribute to disease. They not only chopped it, but they ground it up all the way to the roots leaving only ashes of what used to be hefty trunks and boughs the kids would climb.

So all the beautiful crab apple trees they used to climb are all now gone. No longer will I see the pink tree in the backyard everytime I draw my blinds.

I have fond memories of that particular tree. I have seen it sprouting bright pink flowers in the middle of fall. I couldn't help chuckling at its apparent confusion. It was a nice sight to see in fall though. Bright colors amidst earthly splotches of gold and red.

Blame it on the Indian summer we get every now and then. All the trees had started shedding their leaves, getting ready for the harsh weather of winter, when suddenly, Allah gave us warmth that was unusual in that time of the year. As programmed, the naked trees started to sprout buds which later bloomed into fresh, sweet smelling flowers. Unfortunately they died when our Indian summer left us to shrivel in the creeping cold.

I have to say that spring is my favorite season. Bulbs are my favorite flowers. The first time I set foot in the United States, it was winter, crazy blizzardy winter. However, as S grew bigger inside me, and the frost made way for the fresh breath of spring air, my steps lightened and I actually looked forward going to classes. Just because; I will get to walk past the triangle bed of tulips, bobbing in waves in the light spring breeze, deep, rich purple bonsais gracefully posing on the sidewalks. They're called eastern redbuds ( I found this out by googling last spring). However, the thing I most looked forward to was sauntering into Beardshear Hall for their annual bulb sale.

I still can't decide which one is my favorite bulb: daffodil, tulip or hyacinth. The first I bought was red tulips, the first I tried planting is hyacinth, which I have yet to see bloom into fragrant clusters of pastels. As for daffodil, I just can't imagine spring without them, they grow practically everywhere! Flanking highways, byways, roadsides, you can say: "They're EVERYWHERE!"

The four seasons present a great lesson plan in itself. Collect leaves in fall and make a scrapbook out of them while learning about what kind of trees they're from. Scrutinize buds in spring and observe what kind of fruits those flowers will leave behind.

I would never have actually cared about trees, except that I can't help admiring the beautiful creations around me. It's a real pleasure having these little people to share this beauty with, and learning along with them. If it were not for them, I might have never known the names of these trees I drool over every spring.