Rain and Wind and Paperwhites

As anyone who watched the Rose Parade on Monday knows, we had a sizeable rain storm that day, although nothing like the doom and gloom that the media might have have predicted. They still tried to make the most of a few rock slides, flooded streets and, worst of all, many downed trees.

While a large number of trees lost branches of varying sizes, several found their roots saturated enough that wind and gravity took over and drew them to the ground, on top of cars and homes. No one was hurt and property can be repaired, but the tree is gone forever. I always hate to see a stately, mature tree succumb to a relatively small ailment, but they are much like us as we age. One small injury can start a rapid decline and then we too are gone.

I spent an anxious day watching the dead willow tree in the back garden, figuring it would shed limbs or topple over with the next gust of wind. Oddly enough, though, it survived. I thank my lucky stars for this as much as I cursed my procrastination in calling the tree company to come out and remove it. The tree could do a significant amount of damage if it fell as one piece as it is within easy reach of our old, decrepit garden shed, the cable television line and, worst of all, the electrical line to the house. I have scary images of the wires being ripped from the room and sparking their way across the garden.

Now that the rain has stopped, though, we will get someone out as soon as possible. There is no sense in creating your own anxiety when there is so much already around.

Today, taking a tour of the back garden to check for any damage, I noticed that the paperwhites have started to bloom. The foliage has been up for weeks, arriving immediately after the first rain, but then we received no rain for almost 2 months. They held and they waited, and now that we had several inches of rain yesterday, they have decided to continue in their yearly progress. We should be see snowbells soon, too, as I noticed them rising up in their usual patch under the trees. I have seen no evidence of our daffodils yet.

It seems to odd to have bulbs blooming in January, but that is the norm for us. I noted in my calendar that in 2004, I spotted the first blooms on New Year's Day, but the first Daffodils didn't arrive until January 16th. The pink azaleas in the front garden bloomed that same week, but I have not seen any indication of a bloom yet this year.

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See also: Books on bulbs -- Previous posts on paperwhites

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