Fall to Winter to Spring

When we purchased our little box of a house 18 years ago, I had one child...an infant in a baby carrier. I spent an afternoon in our new front yard planting tulip, crocus and hyacinth bulbs with that little one looking on and jabbering at me as I dug and placed them in the ground in groups under our front window.

Over the years, squirrels have dug some up and eaten them, some have multiplied and some have died, but a few of them have struggled on and continue to come up each spring. The kids though have multiplied...and that first infant has gone on to join the Army National Guard.

Last November, while in the local hardware/garden/feed store with our eldest I asked him to pick out some bulbs of whatever kinds he liked the look of.  That afternoon I handed him a trowel and the paperbag of bulbs and showed him the general area where they could go, to augment the few old ones remaining. He placed them in the ground, occasionally exposing where some of the older bulbs that I planted when he was an infant...and he spread them across the area into spots where they had a greater chance of survival and where we'd know they were new ones. I told him that they would be coming up in the spring and that I'd send him pictures wherever he was so he could see his handiwork. I guess I had an ulterior motive.

This morning I went out to take something to the van and I peeked over at the newly bare ground under the front window and saw this:

Look closely. Kind of in the middle. After a long winter. Snowbanks almost to the eaves in the spot where this little piece of ground is. Snow there only a week ago that was high enough to climb. A few of the bulbs that our young Soldier planted have made an appearance one week before he graduates from Basic Training. I sent this picture to him this morning via snail-mail. Made me smile. Will make him smile too, I think. We've gone from snow-covered, frozen earth to new life and new beginnings. In more ways than one. Many more ways than one. One similarity though. He seems to have had a "high and tight" going on when I planted the first ones as well.