Nature

"And for all this, nature is never spent;
   There lives the dearest freshness deep down things..."

Gerald Manley Hopkins
From, God's Grandeur 

The Star Azalea bloomed, and the Bleeding Hearts popped out of the bare ground, literally overnight.

Speaking of hearts, when ours are so very heavy, there's comfort knowing that it's business as usual with Mother Nature. In fact, maybe better than ever, with pollution levels dropping to unheard of levels around the world. 

And here's a happy sight.  It looks like we didn't kill the plum tree-- tiny sprouts are starting to grow out of the amputated branches and trunk. By the end of summer, it will probably be a bushy old thing again. There won't be plums for at least 2 years, but hopefully the aphids are gone with the diseased branches.

The sun came out early yesterday morning, and hit the the Mason Bee Condo perfectly.  The central heating is on and the vacancy sign is up.

In the last two weeks, the little cocoons all hatched, not a dud in the bunch. Thank you, Nancy, if you're reading this.

I had the nursery jar in the kitchen window planter, right under their new home.

Yesterday, I saw a couple of small bees tangled together in the coir fiber on the bottom. A fight to the death? It's kinda hard to tell with such small critters, but hopefully this Mr. and Mrs. Mason during a private moment.