Before the Rains Come -- Early Spring!

Our star magnolias are blooming and the saucer magnolias will follow soon and then the Japanese cherry trees which are just about ready to bloom. Imagine being only a couple of weeks behind DC -- it is usually at least a month!

Our lavender azaleas look really nice this year. For years we had no blooms.

Every year I look up the name of this flower and every year I forget it. These were particularly vigorous examples.

The nature goddess must know that I am leaving for NC in a couple of weeks and has provided me with a very early spring here in Upstate NY. It is supposed to rain for the next few days so I dashed out to take pictures of the trillium and other spring flowers before they got all muddy (and not so picture worthy!). Of course, I hadn't noticed that I had managed to smash my UV protective lens on my camera yesterday when I dropped it. It took me a bit of time and a heavy duty wrench from my husband's toolbox to get the lens off as I smashed it in somehow as well. Thankfully, it came off eventually and their was no damage to my camera or the main lens. I hurried to the local photo store to get a replacement lens (and of course look at all those lovely digital SLRs which are beckoning me.....).

So I went out again and took more pictures. My neighbor has managed to cultivate trillium (trillia?) by planting the seeds around the yard from the old plants. She has quite a few of the white and purple trillium now and they are at their height of beauty. The white will eventually turn pink before they die. It was really surprising to see them so soon and if Sharon hadn't pointed them out, I might have missed them as I never expected to see trillium in mid-April.