In my own yard and in the yards of other island gardeners. The Hilton Head Orchestra closed its 19th season Monday with a musical tour of Scotland. Director Mary Woodmansee Green and violinist Tamas Kocsis led the capacity crowd at First Presbyterian Church through a musical sampling of Scotland's turbulent political history, its notoriously fickle weather and the prickly Scottish temperament. Sap quickens in the pear trees, as white clouds dot the sky. South Carolina's state flower, gelsemium, flashes its Spanish gold blooms and shares the stage with the reds of the swamp maples.
Azaleas burst into bright colors.
Cardinals start their songs as dawn breaks, opening the chorus of bird songs greeting the day. And chattering gray squirrels streak with their tails streaming banner-like in the opening days of this frenzied new season.