There is nothing prettier in the spring that the Bradford Pear trees.  They literally burst into bloom and look like white ice cream cones.  They are in full bloom right now and breathtaking.

But they are weak trees and can't stand up to the Oklahoma winds.  They have lots and lots of branches, and when the wind blows, they split.  Sometimes they are totally destroyed.  You seldom see one that doesn't have a scar down the trunk.

But people keep planting them because of their size and beauty.  They never get very big--probably because they keep losing their limbs.

The red-buds are blooming now also.  This is the earliest I have seen a red-bud bloom in Oklahoma.  They usually bloom at the end of March--on my birthday.  That's how I remember.  Once, when Jon (youngest child) lived in Houston, he called me the first week in March and said, "Happy Birthday, Mom."

"It's not my birthday," I told him.  "Well," he said, "The red-buds are blooming."   "That's because you are in South Texas," I told him.  "But I appreciate the thought anyway."

When I lived near Washington D.C., we could enjoy the cherry blossoms at this time of year.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted..." Ecclesiastes 1, 2b

God is giving us an early Spring.  I am so thankful.  I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt.