I have been very blessed lately, and I bet that you have been too.

It is not an epidemic of good fortune, but rather an overabundance of pollen that has brought all of those “bless you’s” in response to the seemingly never-ending supply of sneezes.

The fields are blushing.

It is for good reason that the meadows are red-faced. Blame it on embarrassment, but more likely it is sorrel that is the cause. Red sorrel has created that crimson glow.

Red sorrel, also known as dock, sheep sorrel, cuckoo bread, sour weed and field sorrel, might be compared to a blushing bride. Its red stems and flowers color our late spring world.

But its presence indicates more than just a bit of self-consciousness.

They’re back, we hope. Within a week or two, the nymphs may emerge from the ground where they have hibernated for 17 years, occasionally sipping on water and other nutrients from the roots of trees and shrubs which they pierce with their beaks. The nymphs emerge from the ground, hatch into adults and start their mating cycle. “They” are periodical cicadas, the ones that make that high-pitched harsh squealing sound that can get on your nerves on warm early summer days.

I can “azure” you that it is finally spring.

It wasn’t a little birdie that told me; rather, a small butterfly. This butterfly has all the reason in the world to be blue. For that is the color of the spring azure butterfly.

If you blinked last week, then you might have missed it. The shadbush bloomed.

Shadbush is a quick-change artist: its flowers are here one moment and gone the next. Before leaf-out of most other woodland species, the slender five-petaled white flowers of the shadbush appear and fade away quickly.

The ability of pigweed to grow cannot be denied. It grows just about anywhere and may grow to be six feet tall. Last May we discovered it in our community garden plot at the Farm Institute, which is not too surprising since it is a common garden weed.