First the daffodils, then the forsythia, Bradford pears, redbuds and now the bright pink creeping phlox.  God is waking up Oklahoma with flowers.  Dogwoods are next.  My azaleas are about to burst into bloom.  Which makes me very happy.

Azaleas are nostalgic.  I spent my first six months--after Ken and I got married in 1956--in Pensacola, Florida.  I had never seen an azalea before that.  Down south, in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Georgia, they grow like weeds.   Blooms are everywhere.  The bushes are humongous.  Flowers bank the walls of almost all the houses.  

In Oklahoma, you have to work at it to get that kind of blooms from azaleas.  But in the last sixty years, they have perfected cultivars of azaleas for Oklahoma that can make it through the winter.

At NEO, where I taught math for twenty years, the building South of the cafeteria had a wall of ten foot tall lavender azaleas that bloomed every spring.  Just gorgeous   I've never seen that anywhere else in Oklahoma.  They may exist, but I don't remember seeing lavender azaleas at all. 

In a week or two, it will be time to go to Muskogee and see the Azalea Gardens. It isn't Florida or Alabama, but it certainly is a testament to the Oklahoma spirit to keep trying.  Check to see when they will be in full bloom this year.  It's definitely worth the drive.  My neighbors, Jean and Dean went last year and brought me back a red azalea.  It's going to burst open today or tomorrow.

Spring is God's way of saying, "I haven't given up on you yet."  Shelley said, O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?