The first day of tulips.  On Thursday I saw showy magnolias for the first time in my town , open and, already falling, falling.  Today in the little city back garden my tulips opened and with them a beauty I have been wondering about for weeks.  Would it survive two significant snowfalls after a couple of mild teaser days in April?  Seems it would….and has!  Now all I have to worry about are the horrid red bugs that attack lilies.  This beautiful brave thing, a fritillia, must be of the lilly family as I have already seen a couple of hungry insects.  I promptly dispatched them to insect heaven.  For beauty to thrive, death must play a part.

On this day before the bear trap that is Mother’s Day, sitting in my sunny kitchen under the mild gaze of Our Lady of Guadalupe and thinking about the miracle of fritillia.