tulip love

I am stunned each time I go outside- or gosh, even look outside for that matter- to see a new flower to gaze upon. I think this is the first year that I have ever truly appreciated tulips. I have always loved daffodils and I think I just {gasp} lumped tulips into the category of nice-bulbs-that-weren't-quite-as-nice-as-daffodils. Go figure. I mean, I still love daffodils but apparently tulips are amazing in their own right as well. And here- maybe everywhere?- they seem to have their own season too. (Amazing the realizations when appreciation sets in for real.) I realized this today when I walked outside and saw the largest tulip I think I have ever seen growing in our back yard. And the other day when I was marveling at the magical quality of a few of the tulips {out back} who start out white and gradually turn light pink and finally end in a deep fuchsia until their end...

Can't wait for the irises.

Maybe this is the upside to literally being home for about a month now with one sick child, then another sick child and myself feeling sick here and there and in between.

Eva showed me several large green strawberries in our strawberry patch today. I am really looking forward to the upick berry season starting. I can't wait to get outside for a little berry therapy. The berry patch. A place where you can find blissful oneness with the berries. Where there is little else to think about save the next perfect berry. How the berries lead you one after another toward more berries. And when you listen to the birds you can almost hear how they are singing about berries. It's a celebration out there to be sure.

The knitting is progressing. I found that fingerless gloves make an inspired mother's day gift- a holiday that I am embarrassed to say completely snuck up on me this year. There is also a shawl in the process made of this summer cotton/silk tweed blend by Rowan. It's wildly impractical of me and I am already trying to figure out what I will do with it. But the knitting is satisfying and flowing and I know I will go ahead and finish it even if I can't justify it. Enough with the justifying. Bunches of tulips and berries and lovely knit shawls for all. When I think about flies spending at least 40% of their time just flying around for the fun of it, I blush thinking of all of the justifying that goes on in my mind. And when I go ahead and notice the justifying, label it for what it is, it actually starts to melt away. Silly trick of the mind, that's what justifying is.