"When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd"

Lilacs "bloom'd last" in this dooryard in April 2010. They're late this year in Seattle and just starting to bloom now. I ran out and took this picture Saturday when there was a spot of sun and blue sky. Then Sunday was rainy and yesterday cold and windy. Last night we had record low temperatures (are you tired of hearing about the weather yet?) I was just watching the early morning news and 70 degrees is finally predicted for Thursday and Friday. Oh, happy day.

Who doesn't love lilacs? I'm going to cut a big vase for the house today. There are so many beautiful lilac poems, myths, legends and stories. In American literature the most famous is Walt Whitman's long elegy to Abraham Lincoln called When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. It starts like this:

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd,
And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night,
I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring...


The apple tree is finally blooming too, and a silly sparrow couple started a nest in an ornamental bird house before deciding it wasn't a good idea raising kids 3 feet above the ground. But it makes a pretty picture.

We have some "nice" birds like Bewick's Wren nesting out in the hedge (I hear them singing now) but our old place is a house sparrow ghetto. I guess some people actually have the energy and determination to knock down their nests to discourage them, but it would be a losing battle. Countless generations of sparrows have started their lives right here.