March 25, 2014 Tabebuia Tree
or Spring in Central Florida
Hello Again Friends!
My last post was January 6 and my what a winter it has been, yes? Our friends in the North are still going through the blasts of winter but I know spring is just around the corner for you.
It started about a month ago here...that very early subtle shift of how the earth smells when it comes back to bloom again, wherever you live. I was not sure I would recognize it here and while different, I could tell Something Is Going On!
It all started with a little peep of yellow from the blossom of the Tabebuia tree you see above. In a few days, I started seeing blasts of this bright yellow all down neighborhood streets, in front of civic buildings and just had to ask, What is it?
Commonly known as Trumpet Tree, it comes from the family Bignoniaceae and though found more in the southern part of the state in the warmer climates, there are both the yellow and the pink cousin variety found here in Central Florida. I have put Internet samples below.
The pink has a different bloom structure, very similar to the bloom of a cluster of a Crape Myrtle and every bit as lovely.
There are so many things to see and do here, and, as you may remember, I have been getting settled in a new job, new apartment and transitioning myself from having an entire yard to a few small pots of things on a third-floor apartment.
The things I have missed the most are weekly dinners with my group of women friends, playing my French Horn with regularity and especially, walking around the yard to see what bloomed today.
I do not miss weeding, mowing and slogging, however so I guess it is a trade-off for being able to jump into the car and be at any beach within an hour and 15 minutes. I have so loved my time, even when bundled up, rainy and windy, there is never a bad time a the beach. Shorter, yes, but not bad.
Last Sunday, I was waiting in line, for Pete's sake, to get over one of the causeways that open up in the middle for boats with tall masts to pass through, thinking that was the hold-up and the reason for my wait. It finally dawned on me that the reason for the hold up was all the people trying to funnel themselves down to the beaches. Why, it's spring break weeks in America!
Skin on kids and adults so red in the daylight, I started praying for them right then and there. If you can see red now, you are going to be in bad shape later. Oh, my.
I got to park my butt in my little lawn chair, pulled out my book and was ever so thrilled that I am here year-round. It has taken me quite awhile to start feeling at home.
Having traveled back to Kentucky in January at 18 degrees, snow and ice, I was just cold. People layer up and turn down the heat. Loved seeing my dear mother, who is now in a nursing home, and the friends, even my little house. I am thrilled to have a renter who loves living there and who is taking good care of it but I came away knowing that I really do not have to live there any more.
I had wanted more spiritual growth and in the deepest part of my heart, had not given up on meeting a man who was oh-so-sweet and kind and I am enjoying both those things.
I have found a new apartment that is older, shaded with live oaks and Spanish Moss, interesting shade plants and some familiar types of iris, ducks on a small pond. They are all ground-floor so I will be able to feel the dirt, feed the birds, walk in quiet grounds. It backs up to a nursery...maybe they need a summer-time helper?
Life is transition; some of it we choose, like my moving. Some of it we do not; moving my dear Mom to a nursing home. I call and she still knows who I am, though she does not know what day it is or even necessarily, what time of day it is, but she has a "window seat". She can look out on the world past a growing plant on the sill. My sister put pictures up of flowers so she has some color and I put a little seashell so maybe when she rolls over and is a little confused, she can see the shell and know that her Florida daughter was there to see her and loves her, with all of her heart.
This life's transition is harder for me than it is for her. She is ready, I am not.
Until next time, gather some beauty, hold it close, savor the smells and sights of the day.
God has given us much goodness and beauty throughout the earth to remind us of Him.
