These lovely baby lavender blooms caught my eye today. I didn't even see the spider web line as I took the picture. I love the general soft green that fills the landscape. These petals look soft and they are, already fragrant too. The leaves smell wonderful and taste pretty good too. I've baked lavender in bread before, but only recently tried it on its own. It's slightly spicy and bitter at first with a very sweet aftertaste that lasts for a long time. Definitely worth the initial bitterness.
Also new this week were these red eyed cicadas. Apparently the Joe Schmo every year cicadas have black eyes, but the ones that are cyclical, with long underground larvae stages have red eyes (or other colors). These guys live years- from 2 to 9 years underground where they feed on plant roots. Then they emerge for a few weeks to shed their skins, grow their wings and mate to create the next generation. The one who love my Iris leaves have most likely been underground for seven years. Today they are slow, barely moving around. They look like I feel- trying to take it all in and wondering exactly what's going on!
I found this shell, left by a cicada probably earlier today. There were many on the sword-like leaves or the giant irises. I thoughts this one was truly remarkable, so tenuously hanging on to the very tip of a tiny vine. It made me wonder in the little guy climbed out there purposefully to lose his shell, or if he was just exploring and got stuck when the change started. I think it just goes to show that any time, any place, can be a ripe time for change.
Well, as I'm writing this my daughter has just said, "Mommy Mrs. Sun just gave me the most wonderful present!! She knew I wanted to use my 'slipping slide' today and so she's making it hot!! My body says 'get in the water right now! Can we?" Oh my. Well at least one of us likes Spring!
