Texas - The New Winter Wonderland

From my Dallas Texas front porch at 7:30 am this morning. Sparkling ice trees. They weren't kidding about the ice storm at all. Dallas is shut completely down. Having grown up in Michigan, I'm used to it and know how to handle it. I'm praying all those on the street were able to get to a warm place.

   

FMF on Monday: Trees

When I saw the prompt for trees for Five Minute Friday this week, my mind went blank. Really. Blank. I couldn’t think of a thing to say about trees and what was funny was I spent five whole minutes trying to think of something to say about trees. I decided not to push it. Sometimes the words are just not there. Fast forward over the weekend with a couple of chilly rainy nights to Monday morning when I opened my front door at dawn and saw this:

The crepe myrtles in front of my house had given a very poor showing this year due to the scorching heat of the Texas summer. The blossoms were pale and few from their otherwise luscious mauve and had dropped quickly. The brilliant scarlet and orange of the leaves this morning brought on by the recent cold snap took my breath away. They had more than made up for their poor summer showing. Instead of a blank five minutes of Friday I had a very full five minutes of fall beauty on my chilly front porch this morning.

It made me realize how sometimes the deep beauty of nature can come towards the end of the cycle of life as well as the beginning and the middle. I'm beginning to believe that its true for people as well.

Joining with Five Minute Friday sponsored by Lisa-Jo Baker. On Friday, Lisa-Jo posts a one word prompt and for five minutes we write what the prompt brings to mind. No rewrite, nor editing just letting the words flow.  Friday's prompt was Trees.