Promises, originally uploaded by BKHagar ~ Missing Jamie.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Jamie.

Photographer BKHagar ~ Missing Jamie tells us about this image: This shot was taken on January 8th, at our home on the Elk River, in Athens, Alabama, which is in Limestone County. This year had a very cold start for us, going down to 9F degrees for several days, with a little snow. We don’t usually see much snow, and we generally have limited ice, but with temps that cold, we’ve been frozen for weeks at a time this winter, only to jump back up into the 50s here and there! This has been great confusion for the daffodils, which quickly jumped through the icy leaves. The original bulbs were given to me by my mother, and were divisions from plantings that had been my grandmother’s!

I shot this photo with a Nikon D5000 at ground level, using a gorillapod and remote shutter.

February In Phenix City AL. Daffodils, originally uploaded by saturnram1.

Photographer saturnram1 tells us about this February 15, 2009 image: The picture was taken in my front yard in Phenix City, Alabama (across the river from Columbus GA.).

These daffodils are sweet!

Daffodils, originally uploaded by SepiaBillo.

Photojournalist SepiaBillo tells us this February 10, 2009 photo was taken on Highway 36 in Cleburne County, Al. near Heflin. The flowers were next to a farm.

Spring is near, originally uploaded by SepiaBillo.

Photojournalist SepiaBillo tells us about this February 2, 2009 photograph titled “Spring is near”: It was taken on McClellan. It’s a closed military base in Anniston Alabama. It used to be called Ft. McClellan. It was taken along Summerall Gate Rd. last week and usually for me they are the first sign of spring!

Not too far away…, originally uploaded by Wren’s Nest Cottage.

We wrote to the photographer, Cindy, to ask if we could post this January 23 2009 photo on our blog, and to find out the story behind the daffodils and the berries in the photo. Read on, for a timeless tale of connection and rebirth.

Thank you for asking, because these are such special daffodils!

25 years ago, my parents sold the house and land that were my childhood home near Birmingham, Alabama. They had built the house right after WWII, on land that been given to them by my mother’s father. At the time the place was sold, I was a young twentysomething, busy with my life and my first apartment. I deeply loved the old home place, but didn’t think as much about leaving some things behind as I did in later years.

When I bought my own house (Wren’s Nest Cottage, Homewood, Alabama) in 1997, it really made me begin to think about what I had taken for granted about my old home. I remembered the drystone walls my father built, and my mother’s lovely flowers and shrubs. So…a few years back, my sisters and I went back to the old place. The house had tumbled down, and the lawns and the hill behind the house had been completely reclaimed by the forest. Our goal was to secure some stones from the old walls to use in our gardens, but we found something else, equally wonderful – Mama’s daffodils were blooming thick amongst the undergrowth. We dug up a bucketful, wondering if they’d survive being transplanted while in bloom. As you can see, they are thriving! And the red berries are from my mother’s nandina bush. My sister pulled up a wee one almost as an afterthought while we were gathering the daffodil bulbs. It is now waist high and gives us many baby nandinas every year. And yes, we did get lots of lovely old stones for our gardens as well.

So please feel free to use my photo – I’m grateful to you for asking. It gave me a tear and a smile to remember. My parents have both passed on, but I have much love and beauty from their lives to fondly recall.

Spring is coming…, originally uploaded by blathanna.

Photographer blathanna tells us: These daffodils were planted in November in Birmingham, Alabama. They are either Fortissimo or Gigantic Star, from Brent & Becky’s Bulbs (www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com).

This image was taken on January 9, 2009.