Towards the beginning of the month my mom and I made a road trip to some of the towns in southern Indiana as part of our yarn crawl. this is when all the yarn stores of the area hold a special events, sales, and prizes. New patterns are debuted in a yarn that’s been dyed specially from the artwork of a native painter. It’s a lot of fun – both browsing in all the shops and admiring the yarn, and also traveling around our state and enjoying the scenery and architecture of each town.
This particular Saturday afternoon found us in Nashville, IN at their sweet knitting store, the Clay Purl (I love that name). I had been drawn there specifically to check out the pattern that they had made with the special-dyed yarn. I had seen a teaser pic online and loved it. After making the proper inquiries and putting in place steps to make the project (read, “I ordered the additional yarn needed and bought the pattern), we wondered around the rest of the town for a while before heading home.
While coming out of a garden shop, this brightly bloomed bush caught our eyes and we went over to inspect it. I don’t remember ever seeing it blooming before and it was a delightful treat for our eyes! Full of deep salmon rose blooms, it had enticed bees from heaven knows where to it and for a few minutes it looked and felt like spring. The bush is a flowering quince, called “Cameo” and it reminds me of an old plant you would find around homestead gardens. I like to imagine that it was planted there when the town was just starting to bustle with farms and gardens.
Quince are actually late-winter bloomers and come in a variety of colors. They bloom early specifically to attract the bees attention and take claim exclusive rights on the honeybees’ pollination services since there are no other blooming plants at the time to distract them. Clever quinces…. In a rather odd situation (and one I’m slightly embarrassed by) – I don’t recall having seen quince before. I’m primarily acquainted with the name “Quince” because it is a brand of yarn that is highly sought after but hard to find. Anyway, I thought it strange that in the search for yarn, I should be stunned by the beauty of an actual quince bush (and not it’s wooly name-share). It was quite a magical experience to delight in her shower of blooms with the honeybees in March.
Blessings to you,
Sarah
anordinarymiracleday 
I have a love-hate relationship with my Japanese quince hedge. I dislike its thorns and rapid growth, needing trimming several times a year as it tries to take over our walkway, but I LOVE its spring blooms as do the hummingbirds, which I always know have returned when I see them visiting the flowers. It’s enough to keep it around, otherwise it might have been dug up years ago. 😉