Winter battled with spring this month. Sleet bowed my daffodils’ heads just as they donned their yellow bonnets. The delicate pear blossoms froze, along with my Texas tulips. Nevertheless, spring is now victorious! The perennials are waking up everywhere, with fresh green foliage and the promise of beautiful flowers. The following is a list of a few blooms in my garden and an abundance of “blooms” in my life during the month of March.

* ‘Lipstick’ strawberry plant (I like this little strawberry because it bears pink petals rather than the normal white flowers. Although it is mostly ornamental, my boys and I like to eat the small berries when we spot them!)

* The excitement sleet lends to a Sunday

* My eight-year-old’s laughter during a family game of chase on roller blades

* Falling in love with Australia:

* My father-in-law’s generosity

* Horses, wearing purple blankets, grazing in rolling pasture

* Jumping and laughing with my son at a seaside 1950s-style trampoline park

* Lorne, a beach town from a picture book

* Eating hot pumpkin soup while enjoying a cool breeze blowing off lavender fields at Bridestowe

* “Jumpster,” the kangaroo at the wildlife sanctuary that hopped after my son, following him up the path

* A shooting star, seen from the car window

* The McDonald’s in the Australian town of Colac that sold hot tea in a white teapot, complete with a scone and jam and cream (Their drive-through lane was lined with blooming multi-hued tea roses!)

* Soft, green hills behind a sparkling beach at Apollo Bay

* My son’s bag, forgotten inside the airport, found by a kind woman!

* Family and friends loving on Little One while I was away

* “Welcome Home” drawings all over the front sidewalk from Little One and his grandma

*  God’s love song

* ‘Lavender Twist’ weeping redbud (My aunt-in-law surpised us with this little tree about four years ago. A slow grower—at least in my yard— it is still tiny, but this year it is blooming better than it ever has. It reminds me of Colin in The Secret Garden . . . still weak but learning to stand. I’m rooting for you, little redbud!)

* Marveling at C.S. Lewis’s intellect while reading The Screwtape Letters

* The opportunity to say goodbye to my grandfather, as birds chirped just outside his bedroom window

* A kind pastor, found at the last minute, to officiate my grandfather’s service

* Looking at old family pictures and keepsake books at my grandparents house with my sisters

* Tea on the back porch of a friend’s house in the country on a perfect spring day

* Phlox subulata (This creeping phlox grows only a few inches high. Right now, my small mound is blanketed in diminutive pink blooms.) Welcome spring!

* Hubby tinkering on a radio-controlled truck at the dining room table

* Running into a friend at the grocery store

* Millions of purple wildflowers on the way to church

*Uncle Dean, whose car was hit when another driver ran a red light, jumping out of his wrecked car, neglecting to turn off the engine . . . Why? Because his first thought was to make sure the other driver was okay. I want to be like you, Uncle Dean . . . because you exude Christ’s love!

* Sitting with my extended family on quilts in the public garden, surrounded by tulips!

– Tasha Tudor, when asked if she was enamored with her illustrations, used to answer that she worked in order to buy more bulbs! (The Private World of Tasha Tudor, p. 17)  I couldn’t help thinking of her while gazing at the tulips at the arboretum. She wasn’t after much, was she? Just heaven on earth!

These February bloomers are still flowering in my garden:

Aristocrat pear

Carolina jessamine

Coral honeysuckle