Gary and I went to the Palm Sunday service at St. Paul’s this morning. It was a lovely, sunny morning, a little cool while the congregation gathered on the church steps for the procession with the palms, but nearing 80 F an hour and a quarter or so later, when the service ended. The sky was a bright, bright blue, the grass green, and it felt like spring had really come, with Easter just around the corner.
St. Paul’s is almost directly across the street from the grounds of the University of Virginia, and as I do every year once daffodils, tulips, and flowering trees begin to bloom, I wanted to walk through the hidden gardens behind the brick serpentine walls bordering the Pavilions set on both sides of the Lawn, and soak in the ambiance of these special spaces. With the sudden warmth that has come to Central Virginia, daffodils, tulips, periwinkle,bluebells, hellebores, weeping cherries, redbuds, have all come out almost all at once, although the earlier blooming daffodils are already past their prime. The scent of the old boxwoods bordering these gardens was heady, their dark green foliage inhaling and exhaling the warm spring air.
High in a tree we spotted a large robin, singing a variety of melodies, one after the other, seemingly making the most of the bright morning.
Driving back home after leaving the idyllic grounds of our Alma Mater, the beauty of our own piece of countryside came into view, leading us to appreciative exclamations. Perhaps that robin felt something similar, moving him to song.