Temperatures are rising, showing summer is just around the corner, so my husband and I have escaped to our mountain perch to enjoy a slower pace and cooler weather. In the beauty of this mountain retreat, I can’t help but reflect on the beauty of my first spring season living in Middle Tennessee.
The Trees
When we moved to our College Grove neighborhood in mid-December, the streets were lined with what appeared to be dead trees. From the couch on my back porch, I saw a hill in the distance; grass, brown, and tree trunks, bare. When I took Boone for walks, one route took us to the back of the neighborhood, which bordered a cow pasture. I know it was a cow pasture because I heard the cows’ mooing, a reminder of home.
The first signs of spring appeared in March. Tiny green leaves appeared on the trees lining the streets. As the weeks went by, the hill I could see from my back porch “disappeared”, replaced by tall trees thick with leafy branches. A few days before we left, we walked by the houses next to the cow pasture. It surprised me that a dense grove of trees obscured the pasture.
The Flowers
Spring brought an explosion of color to the neighborhood. Pops of purple, pink, red, white, and yellow replaced the dull brown. My favorite flowers were prolific—pansies, peonies, roses, and later, hydrangeas. My plant identifier app on my phone came in handy for the flowers I was unfamiliar with. I could not help but smile at the beautiful palette God provided.
We traveled to Florida for a few days in early May. We arrived to see gardenia bushes overflowing with fragrant blossoms. Evidently, the climate of middle Tennessee is not conducive to growing gardenias, so I will miss that. Thankfully, there are many more blooms I can enjoy in my new home.
The Birds
Every morning was like an avian concert. They would start just as our bedroom got light from the soon-rising sun. There were so many birds, especially robins. I have a bird identification app on my phone, which I love. You can identify birds by either sound (by recording) or sight (by taking a photo). One day, when they were being especially raucous, I recorded their calls and songs to identify them. There were the usual robins, cardinals, and crows, but many more I did not recognize. I put my phone back in my pocket and continued my walk. When I went to record again, I discovered I had not turned the app off. I had recorded for ten minutes of my walk and identified twenty different birds. Amazing.
We had somewhat of a bird nursery at our house. Robins built a nest in the hedge in our backyard and also in the gutter’s crook on the front of the house. The babies were cute, and it was fun to watch the mom and dad deliver bugs and worms to them, but boy, were they messy! A barn swallow couple built a mud-encased nest on a ledge above our front stoop. We never saw babies, but they were messy too. Many of the trees lining the streets had bird nests as well.
The Neighborhood
I grew up in Florida, where one can be outside all year long. Not the same in Tennessee. The thing is, I have a dog who likes to walk. Every day. There were days in the winter when I would bundle up in my heavy coat, put a fleece on Boone, and trudge through the frigid neighborhood, often never seeing another soul. As the weather warmed, children headed outside to play, evidenced by the laughter. I saw more people out walking; neighbors greeting each other and chatting at the school bus stops. The golf course and pickleball courts were busy, and a few days before we headed to the mountains, the swimming pools reopened. It was as if the neighborhood was ending its long winter hibernation.
The Reminder
I think my favorite thing about spring in Tennessee was the striking reminder that God makes all things new. Winter was cold, dark, quiet, and lonely. In contrast, spring was a burst of color, warmth, light, vibrant, and full of life. The change of seasons reminds us of what God can do. He can, and he will take the things in life that are cold, dark, and seemingly dead and replace them with glorious new life.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5
One important lesson I learned in this first change of seasons is to get all of your inside work (like unpacking boxes) done in the cold, dark winter because once spring arrives, you will want to spend all your time outdoors enjoying the trees, flowers, birds, and neighborhood.
Kim Wilbanks 