Wednesday, May 28, 2014

My Third Spring: Cherry Blossoms Start the Season in Seattle

I found these two examples of flowering cherry trees when I was in the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle last month.  I loved that I could frame the picture so that the branch of darker cherry blossom puffs frame the more delicate pale pink cherry branches. Don't you think its pretty?

Time marches on, these blooms have faded in Seattle, but miraculously I am experiencing my third Spring this year.  When I arrived in Seattle in early April, I was thrilled to see a magnolia tree in full bloom outside of our hotel.  I remember being so happy about this sign of Spring that I texted a picture of the tree to show my mom.

When I returned home to southeastern Michigan in early May, I hadn't missed a thing! The flowering crabs on the side of our house were just leafing out.  The dogwood tree was still dormant and the Bradford Pears were just about to bloom. My roses in the rose garden were alive (I could see small wisps of leaves at the base of each plant), but I'd lost the bulk of each cane to the cold winter temperatures. I've given them a lot of care over the past 2 weeks (pruning, Rose Tone fertilizer, Neptune's Harvest fish emulsion and a coating of bug spray) and I have high hopes for a healthy blooms by late June.

Now I am up north and everything is just starting to bloom here!  How can I be so lucky? The lilacs are just coming out, the forsythia makes vibrant swaths of yellow here and they and I saw the river lined with Marsh Marigolds today! I have been able to experience a "second Spring" by traveling north to the cottage, but I never dreamed I'd be able to start with the tulip festival in Washington on April 12 and still watch bulbs develop by the cottage in Michigan on May 30. That is a lot of Spring and I enjoyed every minute of it.  

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