Melman is blooming! And he's pink!

Those were the words I said last night when I randomly looked out into the backyard to see if it was raining (it was; Cy always brings rain home from work with him these days) and was shocked to see that Melman was blooming. Which was kind of like a St. Patrick's Day miracle, since I was pretty convinced Melman was dead.
At this point, I should probably back up and provide some context. Who/what is Melman? Melman is our Jane Magnolia tree that we planted last summer. He hasn't looked so good since day 1. We planted him too late in the year (so we didn't get to see him bloom last year), so he spent most of the summer looking dry and wilty and yellow and. . .dead. In fact, we were so convinced that he was dead that we didn't even bother covering him up at all when the temperatures dropped below freezing so many days this past winter (I say "past" because I am hopeful that we are done with the freezing now).

I guess that for those of you who are not my sister, I should also explain why the Jane Magnolia tree is named Melman. Rachel was staying with us for a few days last summer when Melman arrived. Melman showed up on our doorstep one day in a 6 foot tall cardboard crate. Rachel and I hauled the crate through the house and onto the back porch and then had quite a time trying to cut Melman out of the crate. Partway through, Rachel realized that the whole scenario really reminded her of the scene from the movie Madagascar when Melman the giraffe washes up onto the beach and is stuck in his crate. So she started calling him Melman, and we have just been calling the tree that ever since. We are weird, I know.

But anyway, imagine our surprise and delight when we discovered that not only is Melman not dead, but he has gorgeous, big pinkish purple blooms!