Blossom by blossom...

It was bright and sunny out today, and just warm enough to be wonderfully pleasant. The wind still had a slight bite to it, but nothing so bad as to even warrant a coat. Light hoodies sufficed. So my husband and I decided to get our behinds up off the couch and, most importantly, outside for pretty much the first time in months! We headed over to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is only about ten miles away. Wonderfully and amazingly, the crocus were in bloom! I haven't seen real honest-to-Gaia growing-in-the-soil flowers in so, so long. It was amazing.

And I have always loved crocus most of all the spring flowers. When I was a child, there were a few "volunteer" crocus plants that sprouted in random places in our yard. As soon as the days started getting longer and the sun started getting warmer, I would head out into the yard, carefully inspecting those magical locations for signs of those fresh green shoots and sugary purple petals. And then, one wonderful day, there they'd be! And I would know that spring was really coming back! To this day, the sight of the first crocuses of spring puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step...pun intended, ha!

It was a wonderful day!