The consolation of spring
Mar. 5th, 2008 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonOn this morning's commute I noticed that some wild purple lupins had bloomed beside the road at Ballona wetlands, as well as a dusting of yellow oxalis. I'm sure they weren't there yesterday.
I looked up and across the fields to the raised highway embankment where every year the yellow marguerites burst forth—my personal emblem of spring. Sure enough, as if they'd all heard the same alarm, their eyes had just begun to blink open: a subtle wash of yellow. By tomorrow morning, they'll be fully awake, a blaze of gold beneath the highway.
The marguerites lining Lincoln Boulevard beyond the Los Angeles River hadn't woken yet, just ranks of green, thick and crowding. But they're always later risers than those wildflowers nearer the wetlands. Their ranks fade slower, too, those ephemeral few weeks of glory stretching on to a month, maybe more, as the last ragged partyers straggle back into the earth for the year.
With all the rain we got this winter, the wildflowers throughout Southern California promise to be especially breathtaking. Some consolation, I suppose, for those who need it.
I'll refrain from any cheesy concluding metaphor about it being springtime in America.
I looked up and across the fields to the raised highway embankment where every year the yellow marguerites burst forth—my personal emblem of spring. Sure enough, as if they'd all heard the same alarm, their eyes had just begun to blink open: a subtle wash of yellow. By tomorrow morning, they'll be fully awake, a blaze of gold beneath the highway.
The marguerites lining Lincoln Boulevard beyond the Los Angeles River hadn't woken yet, just ranks of green, thick and crowding. But they're always later risers than those wildflowers nearer the wetlands. Their ranks fade slower, too, those ephemeral few weeks of glory stretching on to a month, maybe more, as the last ragged partyers straggle back into the earth for the year.
With all the rain we got this winter, the wildflowers throughout Southern California promise to be especially breathtaking. Some consolation, I suppose, for those who need it.
I'll refrain from any cheesy concluding metaphor about it being springtime in America.
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Date: 2008-03-05 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 08:05 pm (UTC)The next bunch is yours. Unless he's armed.
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Date: 2008-03-05 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 08:06 pm (UTC)An amazing change from the brown of the drought.
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Date: 2008-03-05 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 09:00 pm (UTC)We're still struggling through the last few weeks of winter. The fields are still brown and drab, the trees are still bare and sleeping.
But! I do have yellow crocuses (um, not sure about the correct plural here!) blooming in my flower bed and the snow glories are peeking out to look for the sun. I can see hyacinths just beginning to show through the winter mulch and the daffodils can't be far behind.
There is hope for spring, at least! :)
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Date: 2008-03-05 11:17 pm (UTC)Hooray! I forgot to mention that our daffodils are in full bloom. Spring comes early in SoCal.
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Date: 2008-03-06 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-06 06:13 pm (UTC)