May in Maine...

Because several of my loyal readers have expressed sadness now that the April A-Z challenge is over, I thought I'd do another themed month of blogging.  Since spring is busting out all over here in Maine, (despite the temperature dipping into the 20's most nights) and because this time of year is rife with lots of photo opportunities and joyous developments, I am taking my daughters suggestion and blogging about "May in Maine" for the next 30 days.  I hope you will enjoy a peek into the vernal developments here at Fairwinds.
 

Early spring is when daffodils, jonquils and crocus make an appearance.  How they manage to come up through the cold ground, and bloom despite freezing temperatures and sometimes snow, is beyond me.  But never are flowers more welcome than these, bright harbingers of warmer days. Driving around the countryside one can see them coming up in cheery swaths, sometimes in unlikely looking places. They may mark where some old homestead once stood.  The only memory left, blooming for generations past the time some gentle hand planted their bulbs on a crisp autumn day, knowing how sweet it would be to see them after a long, bitter winter.

And so it is with the lilacs. Though they won't bloom until Memorial Day, the wee leaves are unfurling from tight buds, and if you look closely the promise of their fragrant flower is clustered in  small, wine colored nubs along the branches.  They grow riotously here, sending out shoots of new plants all around the base of their trunks.  It is hard to find an older home in Maine that does not have a lilac, or 20, growing around the place.  Some properties have entire hedges of them, perfuming the air with the unforgettable aroma of summer when they are at their peak. But for now they are just a happy insinuation.

The crab apple tree has diminutive leaf clusters springing up along its branches.  Last autumns fruit still hangs, shriveled and tired.  And that is how May begins in Maine.  Greening, growing life insistently pushing aside the remnants of winter.