This week the flowering plum tree out front started to bloom. We have a view of it out our bedroom window. Most mornings when I make the bed, I ask Bracken: “What do you see out the window?” (I’ve discovered that sometimes it keeps him occupied for just a moment so I can make the bed quickly and we can get on with our day. Otherwise he loves to race me to all the parts of the bed that I want to make and lay on them, giggling. Then I’ll race to the other part of the bed and he’ll try to beat me. It’s a fun game and we enjoy playing it from time to time. But some mornings I want to get the show on the road and get the bed making done so we can head downstairs. Know what I mean?) Sometimes Bracken will tell me that it’s raining or he might see a bird. At times, I’ll say: “Do you see anything else?” And he might say trees or exclaim with excitement over a blue sky, but this week his answer has been: “Pink Flowers!” When we go outside to care for the chickens, we’ve been visiting the pink covered tree. Bracken started asking for a few to bring inside, so Jeff or I would give him a little branch with flowers on it. (But Jeff reminded him, only a few, since we do occasionally get a few red plums off that tree.) The first time Bracken got the flowers, when we got inside, he asked for some water and Jeff gave him a little bottle to use for a vase. I watched as Bracken walked over and set his vase of flowers carefully on the shelf in his wooden play kitchen. I was touched by that, and then realized that he had seen me put vases of flowers in our kitchen window before. It’s my favorite place to put them because I love to look at the flowers and watch out the window while I do dishes. I must say, on a dark and rainy day it is a lovely thing to see bits of color about the yard, and right now it’s yellow daffodils and tiny pink blossoms.