spring blooming

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward   

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

                          - "From Blossoms" by Li-Young Lee

The peach blossoms seem to be bigger and more showy this year. I wonder if it's true, or if my mind is just so wonderfully excited to be seeing them again. These are the prettiest thing in our garden. The trees make me happy all year around, but when the bare Winter branches break into bud and then bloom. Oh oh. So beautiful. 

These have been flowering bit by bit slowly over the whole of Winter, due to our funny weather at the moment. One tree in the garden - in a different section - hasn't yet bloomed and is still a week or two away. Which is lovely, having the blooms staggered. Oh yes. Loving this more than I can say. 

And the white plum blossoms will bloom soon - on they are magical indeed. 

I'm loving Winter, but Spring really is on the way... or some days it feels like it's already here.