Shadow of a dream of spring

For winter's rains and ruins are over, 
And all the season of snows and sins; 
The days dividing lover and lover, 
The light that loses, the night that wins; 
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, 
And in green underwood and cover 
Blossom by blossom the spring begins...   Swinburne


The tree paeony I planted in my garden as a slip took several years to produce one single solitary bloom. But in a year it has doubled production. Two this April. Four next year? I am hopeful.


The blooms are so very very vibrant and brash and brightly coloured and NEW, it seems appropriate that I am merely a shadow beside them..