The Beauty of Growth

I'm often amazed by the way nature works.

It's so easy to completely take it for granted, to overlook the beauty of a simple growing plant, but have you ever just stopped and looked, really looked at the process and the change it goes through?  The different stages?

I never used to until we moved to this house and I found myself with a beautiful lemon tree in my back yard.  Since then I've been astounded by the changes it goes through, by the bad times and the good times cause see even the lemon tree goes through stages where it's not so pretty, where it's limbs are poorly and break off on their own.

But it also picks itself right back up and starts blooming, little green shoots here and there, beautifully scented flowers that turn into the cutest little green lemons before growing, and growing and growing some more into big juicy yellow goodness.

Truth be told, the day we have to leave this base, I think my lemon tree is the only thing I will miss.  I will have to take as many lemons as I can with me and keep the seeds for planting, maybe I'll be able to grow it in our new home, would be nice to have a reminder of my tree.  

Have you ever smelled the sweet flowers?  The scent is indescribable, I spend many an hour out there under the tree, surrounded by the scent and the pretty flowers.

Some of the leaves and branches look sickly, so I'm going to have to do some research and found out what I can do to help this poor tree out.

I think one of the reasons I love it so much is because I always have readily available lemons for my baking and cooking.  Here I am using the lemon peel to make my Greatgrandma's Rice Pudding.

I think I'm going to step back outside and revel in it's beauty for a little bit longer.