Today's Flowers #38 & Lack Spring Almanac

A little dogwood at University of Tennessee Gardens.

We've had days of rain and the promise of more days of rain. My outside-loving dog, Dink, is relaxing in the yard in a respite (it's still really wet out there) from it, listening to the birds singing. When it lets up a bit I hope to go for a walk and catch some of the beautiful Tennessee Spring flowers. The neighbor across the road has some gorgeous purple and yellow orchids. And the maples in the front yard are fully leaved. How is it that they're barren, you notice one day that they've got little baby leaves on them, and it seems like the next day they're fully dressed?

I adore spring. Dink does too. Need to get my herbs planted this week too.

UT Gardens

While Brandon was interviewing for Tennessee Governor's Academy I spent a few hours browsing University of Tennessee Gardens in Knoxville. The tulips in particular were glorious. It made me long for a better camera, and a little patch of bliss at home. I particularly adored the trellised flowers, although I didn't get a picture that did the wisteria justice. The weather was glorious.

Spring is in the Air

Spring is only a few days away. Back in Ohio we'd laugh when the calendar said it was spring, we figured we had another several weeks before it really seemed like it.

Not so here in Tennessee. Spring springs right about when it's supposed to. The spring peepers (frogs) are singing in the woods, the flash of bluebirds is scattered in the sky, the forsythia and pear trees and plum trees are illuminated by the springtime sunshine, smiling daffodils litter the fields, and the sky is gorgeously, brilliantly blue.

I took this picture of the plum tree in our back yard today. It's about 70 degrees. I guess a trip into my back yard is not that much of an adventure but it sure carries promise of lots of them in the days to come (besides, I'm really, really happy with the photograph... most of the others I took were disappointing because of focus not being where I wanted it). I have spring fever pretty badly, can you tell?

I'll be back with more pictures of pretty flowers, since the dogwoods aren't blooming yet.

Spring in February

That's Dink enjoying the sunshine. Last Saturday it felt good enough that Bran and I went to the little park in town and took the dogs for a lap and up to the bridge. Temps have almost reached the 70s the last week. It's dropped down to 40s-50s today and I expect another cold spell soon. When Russ got off work Saturday (he's working only half days on Saturday now, yay!) we went up to City Park in Cookeville and walked to the waterfall. There are waterfalls in all kinds of amazing out-of-the-way places in Tennessee. Now that I have a camera I intend to document all kinds of them.

In other news, Bran tried out for the WCHS tennis team yesterday. Updates to come, though coach says he's very likely to be on the team.