Thursday Thirteen

April Thoughts

1. The way redbuds hold their color like they’re not quite convinced it’s time to commit.

2.  A cardinal perched on the shed roof, giving that clear, insistent tseeer it uses when the air feels like rain.

3. The annual negotiation with the pollen: you again. Achoo! Somebody hand me a tissue.

4. The first evening you realize that it is still light at 8 p.m. Longer days, more sunshine.

5. The small, stubborn pleasure of finishing a task you’ve been circling for days. Taxes are in the mail!

6. The kind of silence you only get when the ground is thirsty and even the insects seem to pace themselves. We're in a drought; you can see the cracks in the dirt make the uneven land look like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle.

7. A stack of envelopes that all want something, and the quiet satisfaction of telling them they can wait. Or maybe they can all be dealt with online.

8. The particular blue of the sky that only shows up between fronts.

9. A Wordle solved in a way that makes no sense to anyone but you.

10. The dogwood buds that look like they’re holding secrets. And then that wild spectacular white when they finally bloom!

11. The relief of a sentence finally landing the way you meant. And then the wondering if that ever really happens.

12. The smell of the ground warming, that odor of leaf mold and damp bark, and the particular scent of something green thinking about becoming greener.

13. The steadiness that comes from naming what’s here, not what’s missing.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 954th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.