While most of us know that it is not polite to spit, there are some who refuse to follow even this basic tenet of manners.

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.

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.

I guess that it is true that you can’t have it all. Wood anemones should know this adage well since they lack much.