Flash in the Pan

As I admired the delicate blossoms of her red bud trees, my friend Mary lamented that their blooming cycle is a "flash in the pan."  So true!  How we wait so long to have blossoming trees, only to have their showy beauty last for only a short time.  Now is a fragrant, beautiful time of year when the lilacs, flowering crabs, red buds and magnolias are in bloom.  A driving rain, a gust of wind, however, and the entire spring scene changes and the blossoms fall to the ground in little mounds of spent petals.  Although their beauty may be short-lived, I bask in the loveliness of mid- to late-May, when all is green, pink and white and the scent in the air is enough to make you never want to leave spring.