One of Our Camellias is Blooming

Not the whole tree. A couple of blossoms on a lower branch.

Every January, I check the camellia buds. If they're still clenched tight and green, there's more freezing weather ahead. If they're cracking open, showing red or pink, then there's still plenty of rain and dreary weather to come, but the killing cold is past. I've never known them wrong.

This year I saw leaves turn early, because of the heat-scorch and the drought; I saw leaves turn late, because October and November, and even December so far, were warmer than usual. Then the windstorms started, and leaves both green and red were stripped from trees, reduced to sodden rags, and heaped into the mouths of storm drains.

I heard people say the fall bulbs had come on early. I heard people blame global warming. I heard people blame El Niño.

The maples thrash bare branches against a liquid sky. The camellias blaze pink in the pre-solstice gloom, engimatic and offering no clues about what's coming. I watch and wait.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside