Our home in Bloom!

While Winter and Spring have been odd this year, watching the world burst into new life has been so exciting - especially since its been so long since I've experienced a true spring.  I have especially enjoyed the Spring bulbs.  Last Fall I was able to put out daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocus, grape hyacinth, and dutch iris.  I was afraid they had rotted with the wet winter we had since they weren't coming up while other bulbs in the neighborhood were blooming, but to my delight they were just late!  Something I've always wanted to have, but haven't until now, is wisteria.  It has amazing, purple, dripping blooms and smells delightful!

Spring really is wondrous to me - it is such a tangible reminder of the renewing power of God, the new life we receive in Christ.  It is also fun to see the whole world transform and don its festive cloak for the fresh new year.  It is not hard to see why the Psalmist spoke of nature as though it had a conscious.  You can see the earth rejoicing as it dons the colors of Spring!  Oh how I hope my joy can be as beautiful and the flowers that bloom today and will be gone tomorrow!

Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy!  ~ Psalm 96:12

In a hurry?

I had a surprise when cutting up apples for Eb the other day! A germinating seed! Usually seeds wait until the apple is rotten, or even longer, before starting to grow, while this apple was bruised it wasn't rotten. The only other phenomenon I can think of close to this is vivipary, where seeds begin to germinate while still attached to the mother plant, I've only seen this once or twice in corn during really rainy seasons and it is devastating to the farmer's yields. I don't think this qualifies as vivipary though, since the apple is not still on the tree.

What do you think? Have you ever seen this before?