Surprises

"You know why I like spring so much?"
Me:  "Because the rain is warmer.  I noticed yesterday when I went for the mail it actually is."
Frankie:  "Well, that is true but, no".
Me:  "Because we can go outside in our bare webbed feet."
Frankie:  (Snorting) "No."
Me:  "Because we can shake off some of our winter rust?"
Frankie: (Snorting)

I'm trying to ignore her, and have continued typing through this whole conversation.
I've no idea what she's getting at.  She does this all the time.  I wish she would simply get to the point. 

I won't say she's breathing down my neck, but I can tell she's not going to go away.  So, I whirl around in my chair, cross my arms across my midsection, lean back and prepare for whatever the heck she wants to get off her chest.

Me:  "Okay Frankie, why do you like spring so much?"
Frankie:  "The surprises.  You know what I found yesterday, so tiny and close to the ground I almost missed it?"
Me:  "What."
Frankie:  "A Violet, one of the purple ones.  It's nestled back in a corner, next to the down spout and garage foundation.  Oh, it's so pretty and delicate.  I was going to pick it       ....but didn't."

She made that sound as though she had preformed a miracle.

"And", she said, this morning I was peeking out from behind the bay window curtain and discovered tons and tons of blossoms ready to burst on the currant bush, too.  Can you believe it?"

I can, but I want to get back to work.  I've been working on a 'fish' project for days, and can't decide if I'm wasting my time or not.  If I'm not happy with the results today, I'm going to chuck the whole idea.  Frankie, is simply being a big bother this morning.

"Have you seen all the blossoms on the plum outside the morning room window?  Is that gorgeous or what?"

As a matter of fact, I had, yesterday morning.  Late last month when we had the melting snow and icicles had started to form, the tight buds on the bush were covered in ice, and at the time I was so enthralled I actually took a couple of pictures of them.  Yesterday I took particular notice that the buds had turned into clusters of lemon yellow blossoms.  I think this is actually an ornamental plum, although come August a few tiny, bright red, gourd shaped, plums can be seen nestled deep within the branches.  There's no meat on the fruit to speak of and it tastes like I imagine paper might, and inside is a cute, miniature football shaped seed. 

Well, by now I'm too entranced with Frankie's marvels and delights of springs surprises that I'm no longer interested in my project.  Maybe I need to take a break
and a Henry David Thoreau's look around the yard. 

Okay, Frankie and I are back.  It seems that overnight, the marsh marigolds are flowering, the hyacinths in the mailbox garden all have buds, the camellia bush across the street is a mass of pink blooms.  My watercress, wild ginger and wild bleeding heart are up and looking great.  The forsythia should have sunny yellow
flowers soon.   Oh, and the birds...they are happy and singing up a storm.  Now that I think about it, I've started to see all kinds of spring and summer species returning. 

I'm glad I took a little break, not only was the air refreshingly clean, the breeze was indeed a bit warmer and discovering all springs surprises was a delight.  I guess sometimes a person simply needs to see the world through another persons eyes.

Thanks, Frankie.