Sarvisberry

When we lived in Charleston I came to associate my birthday (today) with the blooming of dogwoods and redbuds. Here in Canaan Valley it is too cold and the growing season too short for dogwoods and redbuds (although if one takes a short 30 minute drive down off the mountain there is a relative abundance of them). Instead, we have sarvisberry (serviceberry) trees. Less showy than dogwoods, sarvisberries are none the less an attractive sight - standing out from the leafless trees that surround them.

Local folklore holds that the flowers signal the time when traveling preachers on horseback would return after the snow's retreat...and the ground would be soft enough to bury the winter's dead.

Glad tidings and birthday wishes, eh?

Regardless, like the Junco pictured below, I welcome the sarvisberry's bloom.