a multi-ethnic word

azalea

have you been outside? Sure, they've been threatening for a couple weeks, but not like this. Winter comes in this way too, you know. Christmas rolls around and one thinks, "gee the winter's mild here." Then the end of January brings the wrath of old man winter down in its fiercest SC manifestation. Always a surprise. It is so slow in arriving that one forgets from one year to the next.
So it was with the arrival of the azaleas. For two weeks, scattered colors in the lawns of every home. Very pretty. Suddenly you open your eyes and they've exploded. Thousands of blossoms tugging downward on the limbs. Overwhelming eye candy. Static lawn fireworks.
I like to call them Ezekiels out there prophesying the advent of spring.