an april morning walk

Our crazy early spring continues, I was reading in the paper yesterday that the farmers are so far ahead of planting and I can just imagine them out in their fields, with the fresh greeness of spring all around them.  These last few days have actually been considered 'normal' in our temperature department, it was kind of nice to feel 'seasonal' April. 

I want to document this, and savor it, and look at it in the dead of winter, when I have lost hope that spring will ever arrive again.  So I brought my camera along on my walk Tuesday morning,

to give you a glimpse into early spring in our own little corner of the world.  And I have been trying to get you these pictures now for two days....but I am not going to rant about computer issues today.

The crabapple trees:

The lilacs:

The tulips:

And just to remind ourselves that spring is not all glorious, the dandelions and creeping charlie...

Mowers have already been sounding throughout the yards-time to get ours ready to go!

Look at this house, like something out of a children's fairy tale!

Here are shots that I took from people's gardens.  I didn't go in their yards, these were just taken from the sidewalk.  I hope they don't mind!  A lemon yellow bush (don't know the name of it:)

Iris:

Cushion spurge (mine looks teeny compared to this one!)

This looks like ajuga:

A front door:

or two:

Now is when I wish I had smellevision, the heady scent of the lilacs and flowering trees is amazing.  ( I do keep encouraging Charlie to work on that....)

Even the pine trees are showing signs of new life:

Fresh phlox:

Bleeding hearts:

We love our little corner of the world.  And on a day like this I can ignore the exorbitant property taxes, and the ever-expanding fees and laws governing our city. 

I even spied a shady area, under some trees, where ferns were unfurling their pretty heads.

It's a wonder all of the things are blooming, what with these guys running rampant through the yards. Sometimes I play a game on my walk to see how many I can spy.  The little critters really like our neighborhood. Although I just read in the paper today that the reason so many tulips have survived is that with such warm temperatures, the rabbits have had a smorgasboard of plants to choose from!

How many squirrels can you find?

A Japanaese Maple-I took a photo of this one last fall too!

This has to be the world's largest crabapple tree (at least in my neighborhood).  Wonder how old it is?

And home again, to my own little cottage.  I've got some planting to do!

Hope you can get out for a walk and enjoy this early spring too!