Tulip After Rain

It's not that unusual
When everything is beautiful
It's just another ordinary miracle today
Isn't it remarkable?
Like every time a raindrop falls
It's just another ordinary miracle today
- Sarah McLachlan, Ordinary Miracle

It was raining in the morning, and I wanted pictures of my flowers. So I went out, armed with camera, as soon as it drizzled to a stop. I've had good luck with daffodils; but tulips, not so much. I've planted lots, but just a few come back each year.

The sun had just come out as I was kneeling by a pale yellow tulip in the front flower bed, and I looked closer to see that every raindrop was like a lens, the light shining through each droplet onto the petals below. I tried the shot in color too, but I preferred it in monochrome, and you may see that shot above.

In further news, the prime bird real estate in our yard - which is to say, the huge lilac bush just outside our bedroom window - has a new inhabitant this spring. In prior years, the site has hosted baby robins and even last year, a single new cardinal baby boy (who looks, as he grows up, an awful lot like his colorful papa).

This year, the blue jays have built a large, sturdy nest in the big lilac bush, and Ms. Blue Jay is on the nest. I did not want to disturb her, but I couldn't resist a photo. And so you may see this lovely bird sitting on her nest in the extras.

I try not to go on and on too much about miracles, though I do believe in them. There are big ones, which perhaps we seldom get to see: when a life is saved when there was no hope at all, when the fallen are redeemed; when those who cannot, DO, against all odds.

But it was the everyday, ordinary miracles that touched my heart as I walked around our yard upon this day: raindrops lit up like tiny shining lamps atop a tulip bloom; new life springing forth in the nest.

The song to accompany this posting is one I have used just one time before on blip: Sarah McLachlan, with Ordinary Miracles, some of whose lyrics appear above.