greaterthansparrows

Before I left for Utah, the cherry blossom trees were finally blooming.  It always seems like they're late, but I think that's just in comparison to the seasons in Washington, D.C. where I grew up. Fourteen years ago, the city had a huge tree-planting program in several of the neighborhoods.  We received a notice in the mail telling us that our block was included in this effort, and listing the ten or so varieties of trees which were being planted.  Steps in the prep process, schedule, phone number for questions.  You could choose to opt out--every address would get one tree, if you lived on a corner you would get one tree on each face of your property.  (This assumed that there was not already a tree or other impediment on your property in the spot--after they marked where the pipes ran--where they would dig you a hole and come a few days later and plop a tree in.) I called and asked if we could choose what type of tree we would get.  The answer was ...

It's spring, and the flowering trees around town are in various stages.  I drove down the old block and the cherry blossoms were barely budding, and I remembered how late they seemed every year, because the timetable of the trees along a stretch of South 12th, where I travel pretty much anytime I go anywhere brings them out earlier.  The Prices' magnolia tree , that was cut back to  such a truncated state two years ago, has brought back branches, lightweight ones, in a tulip shape and they were almost  ready to open; in the week since, I imagine that they have.  I loved that tree across the street, out my front door.  I miss it. The white-blossoming trees that aren't apples are in bloom, and as I've gone walking I recognize that whatever they are, the city must have been responsible for planting them years, decades, ago, because they go up and down many of the blocks in this neighborhood.  The apple tree behind us, that so surprised me last summer, ...

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of our signing the lease here and getting the keys.  We had waited on pins and needles for an extra week for the confirmation that our application was accepted.  We still didn't know what would happen with our house, we didn't know how we were going to make it, but we knew that the Lord had answered our prayers and opened it up. The sale of the house closed two weeks ago when the lease option was exercised by the parents of the mom of the couple living in it.  (Got that?)  The contract provided that they could be substituted if the young, resident couple couldn't get the financing they wanted.  (Well, the contract simply provided that they could be substituted, and we understood why that would be what happened, and then the grandparent couple will sell it to their kids when they get that worked out.)  The house is theirs. I drove through the block yesterday to see if the trees are out yet.  The cherry blossom...

Oh, dear, I knew it had been too long, but I didn't realize that a full two weeks had gonr by.  If I stopped to think about it, though, last weekend I had no computer (translation: see, it wasn't my fault!) for four days, no access to online resources until the night before my lesson, so that was the first priority, and I haven't been on my blog since then.  Thanks so much to the kind friend who was able to find a way in and clean it up without having to take it in to the "hospital." Moving is so unending a process.  The new place looks worse now because there is not time to sort most of the stuff now before pulling it out and bringing it here.  We can see the end in sight at the old house, we're not there yet, but coming closer.   Hubby has borne the vast brunt, and he's my hero. The  cherry blossoms bloomed really late this year, and I have missed them, since that's not the place where I live now to get up, go out and come back in, or gaze out t...

Surprise!  Beauty awaits here, with or without admirers One thing that's been nice in the new place is the flowers.  The yard was so overgrown, and the weeds so out of control by the time our friend's lawnmower was fixed, that we had no idea this rose existed.  The base was bigger once, and just one long dead stick and one not quite dead smaller stick stuck out of the ground.  Didn't know what they were, hadn't thought about it.  This rose budded and opened after the massive attack on the (sort of) lawn.  This spot isn't visible from the front entry, nor the back garden strip unless the currant bush is beaten back. (That's another story.  This supposed currant bush was cut down to stubs the week before we took possession, and grew enough in three months to make the space almost impassible and eliminate the visual corridor, but it doesn't have currants on it.  We don't know what it is.) A lot of our changes seem to have featured flower...

Spring around here is sometimes not very definite.  When we moved here, I didn't think the spring and fall seasons were definitive at all compared to the east coast. This year, when the trees started to bloom and then got snowed on, was a little odd.  Some years we don't even get snow--there's always some farther north, but the bay here in Tacoma shelters the temperature and the topography runs the storm fronts in from the north, curving along the east foothills, and than sweeps them around to the south of us.  This year we have had several snowstorms. But ever since we moved into our house in 1980, Reverend Price's majestic magnolia tree across the street has been one of the great pleasures of spring.  It was probably 12 feet high, and it bloomed faithfully every spring before other trees and bushes made up their minds.  Last fall, because it was so high and spreading out so broadly that he felt it was threatening the house roof, he had someone come and cut a...