Dogwood Sunday: Week One

When I lived in the South, dogwood blooms usually opened by Easter; often in advance of Easter Sunday, and Southerners saw the blooms with the x-shaped color in the center as a symbol of Christ and his rebirth.  In my experience, Southerners often see poetry in the otherwise small details of everyday life and I always found that characteristic charming.  It was in the South that I first learned to appreciate the beauty of seasons and dogwood blooms always jog those memories.  Easter is next week and while there are a handful of dogwood trees in bloom on my daily travels, most aren’t quite there yet.  My dogwood is working toward flowering, but from a distance it retains the stark appearance of Winter.

Up close, the promise of flowers is present in the tight buds.

The week ahead has a forecast for sunshine and warmth; an explosion of blooms and blossoms are on the way.  For the next few weeks, I’ll make a picture of the dogwood each Sunday, and I’ll use the photos to track Spring’s progress.  That’s happy and lovely!