I turned down our street yesterday afternoon and it felt as if the world had burst into amazing technicolor. Like Gone with the Wind after years of black and white movies. It had a lot to do with the sunlight after all those days of gray and drizzle. But the world is bursting with color, spring has exploded all around us.

Last fall Neel planted dozens of tulips like the one above, and they are all coming up now. My favorite flower, all over our yard.

I love the azaleas too. We have these droopy, blousy-white ones in our yard, and I love their cool beauty, but get a look at these, across the street...

Here's a close-up:

The shock of all that pink in a head-high hedge leaves me absolutely giddy. I love the embarrassment of color.

As I write this, it's a regular Monday evening around here. Ina's roasted potato and fennel soup is burbling on the stove, making the house smell like licorice, a deep winter dinner on this early spring day. The dogs keep slamming into the porch as they work out the wiggles after a day cooped in the house. Callum's thrown a strawberry cheesecake popsicle from the Ice Cream Man into the freezer for after dinner and he wants nothing more than to climb a tree. I'm tired, but happy, and I realize that I'm filled with a lot of hope. My birthday is on the horizon, as is the one-year anniversary of this blog, and yeah, I have a lot of hope. Neel's home, I just now hear the slam of his car door. We're coming up on the anniversary of our first date and he's still the person I want to see most at the end of the day. In my heart, hope and gratitude walk hand in hand..