Those first green shoots

"Before the seed there comes the thought of bloom."
- E. B. White 

It's a cold rainy night with a prediction of snow in the wee hours of the morning.

While the rain falls and the wind blows, I'm cozy inside dreaming of seeds and blooms and thinking of the green shoots appearing in my garden.

I'll be ordering some seeds later tonight, but there are a few blooms that I won't have to wait for.

 This African Daisy has survived all winter in a container on my deck. 

This bud and another appeared this week. It's my hope that tonight's cold snap won't destroy them.

And one of my favorites, the pincushion flower, has begun to bloom.  I love the way it looked earlier this week in the morning light with raindrops glistening on it.  It's not a showy flower, but a reliable one that blooms much of the year.  When it's at it's flowering peak in the Spring, I love to use it in little nosegay vases with dianthus blooms.

 Yesterday was a warm day, and the rain earlier this week softened the ground around the weeds making them easier to pull out by hand.  I spent several hours cleaning and clearing the beds all the while thinking of how it would be transformed in just another month or two.  I was reminded of the scene in "The Secret Garden" when Mary first discovered the tender shoots of green, for there were shoots of green everywhere in my garden - daffodils, Easter lilies, columbine, daylilies, salvia, sedum, verbena, and more.

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 'she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow'.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Each year, when the green shoots appear, it's like a miracle all over again - 

as if it's the first time those green shoots have appeared.  What joy! 

 Is this what we wait eagerly for - not the blooms - but instead the first signs of new growth? 

Even though the winter has been warm and we have early and unexpected blooms, the thrill that I receive from the miracle of Spring will not be diminished.