Fringe-Cups – Lithophragma parviflora – April 16, 2014 – at Hill Farm
AN EASTER CAROL
Spring bursts to-day,
For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.
Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.
Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.
Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.
Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.
Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead.
Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.
All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.
Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything.
All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.
~ Christina Rossetti
Meadow Pasqueflower – Pulsatilla pratensis ssp. nigricans – April 8, 2014 – at UBC Botanical Garden
Leaves & Pages 
Yay to the spring! I like “thou but yesterday a Thorn” — it’s so true, roses do appear suddenly like that.
I love the structure of this poem; where it really caught my attention was in the last few couplets – Sing, Creatures, sing, /Angels and Men and Birds and everything./All notes of Doves/Fill all our world: this is the time of loves. – because though the Angels are not in evidence, 😉 the Men (okay, mostly really the women here, but I’m going to assume a universal application of the term) and the Birds are hard at it, inspired by our own long-awaited spring. The songbirds are back and are in full courtship mode; it’s wonderful to hear them once again. Such a long winter we have had…