Welcome Back, Spring. Sweet Gum and Yellow Jessamine

 Clocks have sprung forward, and clouds of yellow pine pollen fill the Carolina blue skies. The first morel has been spotted in the park, and the tulip poplar leaves are about the size of squirrel ears. Last year's sweet gum ball still hasn't loosed its grip, but this years crop will not be denied.

The golden trumpets of yellow jessamine have heralded the arrival of springtime for me as far back as I can remember. The first trip to the coast each spring always traversed a swampy river bottom or two, draped with masses of these golden trumpets.

The ditch behind the house was already filled to brim with evergreen Carolina jasmine when the purple wisteria clusters were still mere hints of a bud on the bare vines of winter. 

Summer's shade unfurling... 

Winged seed of forests future crowned with wreaths of gold.  

Welcome back, Spring!

Welcome Back, Spring! Eastern Redbud and Carpenter Bees

As the boys and I wait at La Dolce Vita for Jules to arrive for dinner, hundreds of humming insect wings draw our attention to this visual feast. 

A single eastern redbud tree, perched unassumingly in the shadow of the railroad crossing at Charlotte and Chatham, appears to have attracted every bumblebee in Lee County. 

Literally immersed in the redbud's sweet nectar, the bees pay us no heed. When the warm evening breeze momentarily stirs them from their feasting, they drift dizzily up into the draft before diving down for another syrupy draught.

  

Spring has sprung. The trees and the bees declare it!

The redbuds have burst into bloom, and the leaves are not far behind. 

The carpenter bees have awakened from their winter slumber and will soon spawn the next generation.

Welcome back, Spring. Welcome back.

More Early Bloomers - Hepatica (Liverwort)

As winter wanes and the weather warms, trout lilies aren't the only wildflowers worth watching. The distinctive three-lobed leaves of liverwort offer a clue to the keen observer that the early-blooming hepatica is here.

Sure enough, lovely lavendar-blue blossoms peer forth a few feet from last year's latent leaves. 

Nearby, another pair emerges. Hairy stalks and three-lobed leaf confirms the call, Hepatica americana,  round-lobed hepatica or liverwort. 

Not nearly as numerous as yesterday's trout lilies, but all the more appealing for their scarcity, these tiny towers arise from the monotony of the forest floor across a quarter acre or so of dry, rocky hillside.

Living amethysts scattered carelessly among the cast off leaves of summers past.

What meaning, this revelation? This tiny explosion of color from a bed of brown? 

Beauty in the eye of the beholder; Joy at witnessing another of life's little mysteries...

Oh, look! Those are a different color! I wonder...