Thursday, March 6, 2008

Got Spring?

I was chatting over the Scrabulous board with a L&TM5K reader of the Cleveland area this morning, and it seems that crappy late-winter weather has been wreaking all manner of havoc on that fair city. There has been a burst water main, traffic has come to a standstill, and many schools and offices shut down for the day on Wednesday. A snow day! In Cleveland! What a hoot.

Now, this time of year, it is usually my habit to write my good friends in Boston a nasty, gloating, upbeat little Email message about the glories of early spring, the joys of taking meals on the porch in one's shirtsleaves, how wonderful it is to feel the world come back to life in late February, and so on.

Alas, my seasonal good cheer this year has been dampened somewhat this week by a bad case of what I will, without going into unpleasant details, simply refer to as "the Festival of Vomiting." I probably deserved it. But, I managed to rise from my sickbed this morning for long enough to capture this small portfolio of Spring's arrival at Castle 5000. This one's going out to you, Boston! And Cleveland!

A variegated bloom on the Castle5000 camillia tree.

Sweet little purple primrose blooms in the side garden.

A neighbor's camellia tree gets carried away with the whole spring thing.

The first blossoming of trees over by the park. I saw them again six or seven hours later, and they were WAY more pink.

An odd little flower I like.

OK, that's all for me. I'm gonna go lie down.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is very good to see. Somewhere there is green! We are expecting by some accounts a foot of snow by tomorrow morning.

I would welcome ragweed at this point! The tree blossom is so pretty. I get excited seeing the tips of green poking through the dirt, flowers are like a party.

Ooh! Sorry about the festival. Hope it passes quickly. All the winter bashes here did, but they came so often. Stop shaking hands for a while eh?

Anonymous said...

I like the "An odd little flower I like" picture, nice image.

Dug said...

Oh yeah? Well it hasn't snowed for days here and today's weather is sort of nice if a bit cold. Take that you Pacific NW snobs!
Don't puke on the lovely flowers. In fact I hope you've stopped puking entirely. Nobody really deserves a festival of vomit-well a few people come to mind but you're not one of them. Sorry I missed a map quiz, I've been spending too much time doing work at work I guess.

Unknown said...

Beautiful! Now get well, so that you can enjoy it.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

This Chicago winter has been the coldest thing ever. Tomorrow morning I have to play paintball in 20 degree weather. I hate paintball. At least the rest of the itinerary IS what I like to do: Binge drink.

Rebel said...

I'm so jealous. My 'garden' looks like crap at the moment. I don't know what you're talking about with the sitting on your porch in shirt-sleeves though. I'm more into the double shirt & wool hat look right now.