Half-fledged leaves twitter in the breeze, light and shadows at play. A male cardinal stands in unmown grass at the base of a tree looking like a late-blooming tulip. In rough, scruffy places, woodland's edge and along back roads, wild Russian olive trees lift their branching arms as if in prayer, their open, creamy, bell-like blossoms releasing their sweet, sweet scent.

Daffodils, jonquils, narcissus all have gone to seed. Actual tulips (ones not birds) are done blooming. Dogwood petals fall.