Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Spring has sprung and so have I!

Hi. It's Lenora Worth. It's spring in Louisiana. The dogwoods and azaleas are beginning to bloom. My camellia bushes are heavy with lush pink flowers. The Bradford pear tree (or the popcorn tree as my son used to call it) has bloomed and already shed its pretty white flowers. And my lilies are beginning to pop out of the ground. I always plant the Easter lilies we buy each year at church to honor or remember a loved one. I name my lilies. I have two named for dear friends who passed away, Suzannah Davis and Sandra Canfield, both great writers. I have one named for Shiny (otherwise known as Patt Marr) and I have several others. These original lilies are now producing others so I feel as if my garden is full of dear friends just waiting for spring. That's the good part about spring.

The bad part--the pollen. It's everywhere. And my sinuses don't like that. It's amazing to look out on a pretty day and see a yellow mist falling all around the yard. It's like yellow rain. My patio table is covered with it. I can't even see the glass top. And our cars are tinted yellow these days. Couple the pollen and allergies with a severe neck pain and I've been a bit grumpy this spring! But even with a pain in the neck and a throat that is constantly tickled, I know I am still blessed. Those pretty lilies not only represent friendship and good memories. They also represent God's love and the sacrifice that Christ made for me. I am so blessed to be alive to watch the flowers bloom for another spring. I am so blessed to know so many wonderful writers at Steeple Hill. And I'm blessed to be able to watch the pollen falling because that means life will continue and rebirth will happen all over again next year. A few sneezes don't matter when the end result is a beautiful, wonderful-smelling lily blooming in my garden to remind me that life truly is a blessing in both the good and the bad times.

Lenora :)

4 comments:

Missy Tippens said...

Lenora,

We're in the midst of spring here in Georgia, too! But the pine pollen hasn't hit its peak yet. I'm just waiting for that amazing coating of yellow (that scared me when I first moved to GA!) :)

Missy

Stephanie Newton said...

I've been wearing my glasses for the last week because the pollen's too bad for me to wear my contacts here in Fl! Our azaleas are almost bloomed out--dogwoods, too! Hard to believe...it happened so fast!

I love the way you plant your Easter lilies, Lenora. What a great idea!

Steph

Ramona Richards said...

I grew up in Alabama, and I well remember that yellow coating. We lived in a pine grove and lived with allergies most of my childhood. LOVE the pines and the flowers.

And one of the amusing moments in my marriage came when my yankee husband though Bradfords much SMELL pretty since they looked pretty. I warned him, but he is a stubborn fellow. He walked up and sniffed DEEP in a flower.

Took him 15 minutes to stop coughing and at least that long for me to stop laughing.

Gotta love spring in the South. :)

Missy Tippens said...

Actually, I learned in an immunology class that pine pollen is too large to be an allergen. But it sure does make the throat scratchy! You can feel the grit in your teeth and eyes. LOL