Officially it is the first day of spring, but you’d never know it by the weather today. They are talking about snow in the forecast.
I don’t know if you were ever aware of how much I loved the bushes in our yard that made spring seem official, and now I have each kind in my own yard: lilac, forsythia, and spirea—the white variety. The spirea blossom looked like a teeny tiny bridal bouquet—at least in my mind as a child. I would pick the blossom and pretend to be a bride, walking down the isle singing, “Here comes the bride, all dressed in white.” Those were the only words I knew, so I just repeated them over and over. Ruthie and Jeannie would follow behind and we’d take a step, pause, take another step. Little did I know I would be a bride so many times. My husband lovingly jokes, “Always the bride, never the bridesmaid.”
I tell him, “Fourth and final.”
The lilac, forsythia and spirea aren’t in bloom yet, but the hyacinths have unearthed so I took a picture of a few out of the 200 Ruthie and I planted two years ago. They smell as lovely as the lilac.
Mom, thanks for creating the beauty in the yard—I didn’t quite appreciate it the way I do now although I did in my own way… “Here comes the bride, all dressed in white.”
