In a world where we're afraid to take off our gloves and touch something, here's something you don't have to be afraid of touching: Spring. Plants.
New blooms; no virus.
So I happen to love Aprils. They have their ups and downs, often in the same day. Writing this on Tuesday, the day after Earth Day, we are currently waitng for the sun to shine, as yesterday's forecast said it was going to do, at least for a while, before taking our walk.
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But comings and goings are what April is all about.
It's free, and it's safe. It's safe to put your hands in the soil, to work it, and prepare it for seed. You can also put your hands on on leaves, on stems, flowers. Cut them even. You can pick up last year's dried brown leaves, which is mostly what we do here in the first weeks of April, after leaving them as a natural winter blanket over all the garden, both front and back yards, to cover and hold the earth.
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And when you rake away the leaves, you expose the new growth. That's the season's biggest treat: seeing new growth pop up.
Earth is pregnant, and new deliveries come by the day.
I took these photos at the end of March and the first weeks of April. I love the rough imperfection of this season of new growth.
The first daffodils break the ground and then bloom with signs of the winter still around. Leaves on the ground, dried stalks from perennial shrubs, as seen in the top photo. I enjoy looking at plants in situ, especially if that 'situ' -- situation; surroundings -- is a little wild.
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Crocus, the famously early starters among the common bulbs, are shown in a photo blooming against a curbstone. Others bloom among the dried oak leaves we haven't managed to clear yet.
Another classic early bloomer is the Lenten Rose (hellebores), the fourth photo down.
The Japanese weeping cherry tree I spoke of earlier was just beginning its bloom when I took this photo (the last on the page). That's the way things are this time of year. Things happen fast in April.
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