Mayspring

This is the time of year when scissortail flycatchers, with their nine-inch scissoring tail feathers, dance in mid-air, capturing insects. The daylilys in our small front yard plant section are just past their peak, while the plethoras of daisies keep growing on a full head of steam. The lantana is not yet in bloom, but its green leaves promise things to come. The tropicana roses look lovely.

I pass by fields of showy evening primrose, a lovely, delicate pink, beneath dark storm clouds more appropriate to April showers. At night the television puts me on alert for possible tornadoes in rural counties to the northwest. Everywhere small rabbits run. This is the time of year when the air can be snowflake-tinged with floating cottonwood seed pods, and when the thistle bloom appears, a purple burst amid roadside weeds.