spring is early

I returned from our trip to Chicago to find the fern fronds uncoiling in the sun, peeking into our windows. It seems like things are awakening earlier this spring. There's spring beauties all over our back yard and Dutchman's breeches scattered through the woods, and the bluebells are blooming already, too.

When I went out back for a closer look, Heather noticed that our little redbud tree is beginning to flower. Beginning, as in, it's never flowered before. I read that it takes seven years before they produce the characteristic "red" buds, and we didn't know how old the tree was; it's still pretty small. Just after we moved in, Heather suggested planting a redbud behind our place. But when I started researching the tree (so I could find one to transplant it), we realized that the little sapling back there was a redbud. And now it's starting to bloom.