Blooming Up High
Submitted by My Garden Spot Blog
It’s been hot, hotter, hotter’n Hades here lately. Not much rain either. It’s been a little disheartening to look at the fields and see the light brown, dormant grasses, but more wrenching that that, are the trees you see that were damaged in Ike….but had survived, only to succumb now to heat and drought.
There are a lot of the younger trees that had been planted the Spring before, and blown almost out of the ground by Ike. People were able to reset the younger trees and they seemed to have survived and were doing well, until recently. Now, many of them are just standing. Brown monuments to the harshness of the last 12 months.
No one plants a tree, even those who are paid to plant them, without thinking about what will be growing there in the future. Sr. Medina, who used to be the main help in my garden, was one of those men, and he would point with pride towards the exact trees that he’d placed in the ground. I’ve been watching those trees, and have seen that most of them have made it, so far.
Still, life surprises you. I was going through a hamburger chain’s drive-thru (Whataburger for those who know the chain), getting some tea. I’m choosy about where I’ll buy my tea these days, as too often the owners have put in the (shudder) reconstituted tea from the soda fountain. Y’all…that stuff is horrible. Whataburger brews their tea and brews often. Ahhh, iced tea…the nectar of summer days.
After I’d placed my order, I glanced to my right and followed with the rest of my head. As I smiled in delight, my eyes were treated to this sight:
The palms were blooming, great, extravagant sprays of flowers held out to the passing winds.
As I looked closer, it occurred to me that the palm flowers reminded me of anemones, combing the ocean currents for food, these flowers were sifting through the air, for just the right pollen.
I’m not sure what kinds of palm these are, but I was glad to see them, blooming.
