It rained a bit this weekend. We got 0.2 inches over Friday and Saturday. Not much, but very welcome.

The warm weather we’ve been having has fooled some of the plants into thinking it’s spring. I understand their eagerness, but am worried that we’ll get a hard freeze and they’ll be damaged.

There’s a Redbud (Cercis canadensis), or eastern redbud, tree near our house and I hiked over to it to see what it was doing. I heard on the radio that some redbuds in the area were already blooming and was curious about this one. Sure enough, it was covered in tiny red buds. These aren’t opened yet, to form the full flower.

Young Redbud blooms

The redbuds bloom before they have their leaves back, which seems like it’s backward, but they know what they’re doing. It certainly makes for a striking image – bright red/pink buds and blooms on gray, bare branches.

Young Redbuds blooms (close up)

The buds each had a little water drop forming on them which just added to the beauty. If you look closely you can see rain drops forming streaks in the photograph.