Tag Archives: Redbud Trees

Like an orchestra warming up, the exquisite period of spring is just about to lift the baton for the opening crescendo.  Nature gifts us with a few achingly beautiful days every year: a December snowfall, a flutter of yellow leaves in crisp November.  But, for me, the most breathtaking time of the year comes in a few days in March when spring quietly tells you it’s on its way.

Close your eyes and smell deeply of a Texas spring.  It comforts you with the humid promise of drenching rains and crackling thunderstorms.  The sweet grape Kool-Aid perfume of Texas Mountain Laurel drifts by. Black compost, filled with earthiness, crumbles in your hand.

Listen for signs of a Texas spring.  The red cardinal sits up on top of the bare branches of a cedar elm, sings for a mate.  The mud from today’s rain sucks at your shoes. The white wing dove coos. 

Finally, look for a Texas spring.  Not in shoulder to shoulder tulip blooms. Rather, one can find spring in native redbuds bursting out in vibrant pink branches in a field of deciduous brown.  Or in tall spiderwort thrusting their hot pink flowers high above a mass of foliage.  Or in the Mexican plum’s first white blooms, pretty as the lace of a bride’s dress.

A Texas spring.  Savor it this year.

Elizabeth

Thank you, Steven Schartzman, for use of his pictures from the blog: Portraits of a Wildflower