it's spring!

that makes us feel like this!

Winter has lasted much too long this year and we feel overdue for spring.  It just started to feel warm recently and today was especially beautiful.  The cherry blossoms are in full bloom in our area right now, and with it, a host of other beautiful spring blooms, bushes, and trees!

my very favorite tree.

This is my very favorite tree.  They are all over DC (we just noticed dozens of them around Georgetown Hospital today), but there is only one on campus.  In the last two or three years, I realized how briefly this tree actually looks like this.  During the winter, it loses all of its foliage and is bare branches.  It's a sign of hope for me when I begin to see buds beginning to form.

just magnificent.

I actually have no idea what kind of a tree it is, although it is not a cherry blossom (at least, not like the ones our city is famous for).  The blossoms are actually more like magnolias.  Could it be a pink magnolia tree?  Do those exist?

gardenia-like blooms.

After a week or two (if we are lucky!) of beautiful pink blossoms, the tree drops them all and starts to fill out with green foliage, which will stick around until fall when it begins to drop leaves again.  Unfortunately for me, I'm on a trip to Texas for work with a few extra days of family thrown in (super yay for family!), beginning tomorrow evening.  So I'll miss the blossoms this week!

such a beautiful tree!

Sad as I am to miss my favorite tree in bloom, I'm more sad to miss this guy (and also our four-legged friend):

Mark!

He and Moses will play studious bachelors while I am gone.  Since we've been married, Mark and I have only spent one night apart.  This trip will be five sleeps.  I'm a little nervous about missing him!

what a view!

Although, he'll get to look at my favorite tree.  And snuggle with Moses.  And have his nose in the books the rest of the time.  Right, Mark?  He probably won't miss me at all!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

. . . . . . . .

{this moment} ritual from Soulemama

 

look at my cute little dog.

We've (I've) been getting better at going for walks of late, and since spring is here in full bloom, I've been taking lots of photos on our walks. More and more I feel like I'm noticing annual things for the first time. How fast the blooms fall from the tree by our building, how vibrant the purples get, how delicate the cherry blossoms. How spring smells. I've been loving that about our walks. Now, if only I could remember all of this when I think of walking up and down that stupid hill!

"I'm even cuter when I lie in grass strewn with flower petals, aren't I?"

this is the garden where we'll have a plot this spring/summer/fall.

very interesting tree fungus

"Um... mom? That's enough pictures, I think..."

delicate cherry blossoms

"Nasi!?!"

look at these crazy purple buds!

by some strange and incredible act of nature the clusters of these things grow at equally spaced intervals on each branch. My kinda tree...

"I think this 'puppy in petals' picture thing is starting to get a little old..."

spring is coming!

From the signs and sights on our Sunday afternoon walk, Spring is on it's way!  I can honestly say I'm not that sad about our absent winter. What, no getting stuck driving in the snow for 12 hours?  Aw, shucks. I'm sad not to repeat that experience (NOT. I was terrified the whole time). Here's what we saw!

blossoms or berries?

Moses enjoys the sunshine more in spring.

things are beginning to flower!

cherry blossoms are already pink.

I see buds!

surely, daffodils in bloom are signs that spring has sprung.

and... Moses found a baseball while on our walk. I think that if people are playing baseball, it must be spring.