If little things do mean a lot, here's one you might miss if you didn't stop and look.This delicate beauty is about the size of a dime and it might be smaller still.
Stop and smell the crocuses.
Well, easier said than done. See, the crocus, at least the variety we have perennially, is maybe a couple inches tall at best, so only the elfin among us could take a whiff with any ease.
The smell, and I don't believe they have much of a scent, isn't the point. The point is that they're here, they've bloomed again. One of the first legit signs of Spring has emerged.
And these are right there in the front yard. We have a pale blue, a white, and a purple, almost violet variety around the house. Even more fascinating is that we never planted crocus bulbs. These vernal beauties have been surviving and returning for almost twenty years all on their own.
As with most of the beautiful things in life, the crocus is a delicate object. Sadly, I knocked one over trying to get these photos this afternoon. If you look at the bloom above, you'll notice some creature has already had a nibble on the crocus to the left rear. A good guess would be a squirrel or chipmunk chomped the flower right from the plant.
That's nature, where there is no right, no wrong, no fair, no unfair. Nature simply is.
Delicate, beautiful, and they'd don't last long either.They'll soon be gone, giving way to so many other flowers of early Spring, including the daffodil, one variety of which, a dwarf daffodil, is already on the move alongside our house.
Lastly, the lowly crocus is temperature-reactive. It opens as the temp rises, closes as it falls. It can play peek-a-boo almost before your eyes. The crocuses on your left were open when I ran into the house to change lenses on my camera. When I came back out, they'd shut down for the day.
Parade weekend is straight ahead. Spring is here.
