Highways and Byways: The Autumn Crocus

By Maik Strosahl

While recovering from my surgery late last fall, we made a trip back to Indiana to take care of some business. We stayed at a very nice Bed and Breakfast in Anderson, near where we used to live and our favorite Mexican restaurant.
    The morning we were leaving, I found some purple flowers just blooming. After doing some research, we identified them as Autumn Crocuses.

My heart leaps up at the greening and blooming of Nature

Ah, Spring! I'd long thought that Autumn was my favorite season, but this year Spring is affecting me fondly. My wife and I drove to the Mebane Public Library yesterday. The early evening sun lit the front yards along Fifth Street, their stunning display of dozens and dozens of fully blooming Dogwoods and Red Buds. (The two photos aren't mine, but they were identified on the web as having been taken in in North Carolina.)
    My heart this year gladdens at the barest hint of green returning to our wintering Bermuda grass:

    And the blooms, the blooms!

    (That's Siegfried in the distance.)