The Time of Singing Has Come!

My beloved spoke, and said to me: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:10-12

I wanted to start today's blog with those verses as I reflected on the beautiful weather we've had for the past few days, serving to drastically change the look of the land in Michigan. Things have suddenly become very green and everything is beginning to flower and flourish. We actually experienced a couple of days in a row that could almost be called, "hot." If it hadn't been for the wind we've had, a very stiff breeze, our temperatures would have been what I consider uncomfortable. I actually got pretty warm yesterday as I worked in the gardens. It rained rather hard midday and then the sun came out making the afternoon rather humid.

I was thankful for the rains that came yesterday since just a few days of sun and wind scorch my predominantly clay soil making it into pottery in record time. My poor exposed English garden, though largely made up of amended soils, suffers in that kind of weather, drying out very swiftly.

It's amazing how many things have begun to flower in the last few days. I have violets, paperwhites, daffodils, phlox, and several other flowers making their first debuts. As I was just now walking through the English garden, checking progress; I became a bit concerned at not seeing an abundance of my favorite flower--the hollyhock. This garden was once largely made up of hollyhocks. The same was true of the vegetable garden where I had sown three rows of them a few years ago and they flowered profusely last year. Yesterday I re-spaced the ones that had appeared this year, and it's only a fraction of what was there last year. Even the ones around the chicken coop did not reappear. This is disturbing to me and tells me that somehow the winter was very hard on everything. The same is true of other flowers in the English garden. Kori and I spent quite a bit of time splitting and replanting perennials last fall out there and many empty, desolate-looking spaces seems to exist in the beds where flowers once were. I am hoping that they are just late in poking up through the soil. Even my flowering pear tree that is a focal point at the far end of the garden appears to have succumbed. It's as if only the hardiest of the hardy made it through the awful repeated blasts of sub-freezing temperatures and heavy snow we had this year.

The last few days I purchased and planted several new perennials. I am hoping for the best with them. I can't remember the names of all of them, but they were inexpensive and healthy-looking plants. I think I'll be buying more to fill spaces here in the next short while.

After church today we went to one of the county parks and met with Kori's family. It was so lovely there in the low places where the river runs through and splits the land. The flowers were blooming profusely and the cool breezes were refreshing. An old 3-4 story mill is there and makes a serene picturesque setting. Sundays seem so relaxing and this was the perfect place to do just that!

JT is feeling better after a bout with strep throat and my mom got healed right during the church service this morning! She had been experiencing numbness in her left arm and one of the elders went and prayed for her and immediately it was gone. Praise the Lord!

I cut out a dress yesterday from fabric I got while on vacation in Tennessee. It is a yellow printed voile type fabric. Very light weight and flowing. It was on sale and quite a bargain. I decided it needed to be made up in one of the '70's style patterns I purchased when they were "revived" in the pattern books a few years ago. The pattern is almost identical to my favorite prom dress from 1979! It has a high collar in the back with a sort of "keyhole" front neckline that laces up from the high waist. I am making the sleeves long with a puff at the elbow that falls into a long, tight cuff (will make that out of lace). The dress is floor length with a flounce. One of my favorite patterns of all time! Can any of you remember the basic pattern I'm talking about? If I was more efficient at posting pictures, I'd post an oldie but goodie of me and Clint going to the prom and I was wearing a dress of this pattern! Let me know if you remember this very popular dress based just on my description. I recently checked on line and found several originals for sale in various places! Not being able to readily find laces to compliment the fabric, I purchased a light green lace curtain at a second-type store in Nashville to go with this. I plan to cut my laces and cuffs out of this curtain. It will mean extra work, but it should look pretty good. Wish me well on the construction!

What is my second favorite flower? Clues: They are just beginning to poke their green leaves up through the soil in my garden. I had a perfume in the '70's that was this scent--maybe you remember some of those older perfumes? The flower has a definite, recognizable scent.

I am thankful today for the return of spring. I loved the very poetic verse from Song of Solomon that describes this season. It's as if we are reminded of new life at every turn. There seems to be hope in the air. Well, there is. For the Christian, every day is a day of hope! Blessings, LORI