A couple of days ago I noticed those bush/vines with the bright yellow flowers are coming out (I looked them up so I could tell you the real name – they’re called ‘forsythia’).
To me those signal ‘Spring is beginning’. This is my favorite time of year, visually. I look forward to seeing blossom everywhere soon, followed by that intensely bright green color of the tree leaves when they are new. There are crocuses and snowdrops around and one or two daffodils are out. It’s a time of rapid change and growth, but not so rapid that there aren’t at least a few days to go appreciate each new thing.
Which is probably behind where many of you are – I think Spring happens earlier in the UK and in many other parts of the US.
The weather tends to be all over the place in Chicago in late March and April. This year Spring Break began with an exceptionally good couple of sunny days in the high 70s but it’s often still 40s or very stormy this time of year. So, weather-wise we never know what to expect but visually it’s beautiful and I love to walk around and see what’s happening. Even though I don’t know the real names of much of what I’m looking at. I only found out a year or two ago that many trees I thought were cherry blossom trees were actually apple blossom ones.
Blossom fascinates me because it’s so profuse and so transitory. It seems ridiculously extravagant of trees but, who am I to judge, I suppose. And it’s so pretty that I’m entranced every year when its at its height and sorry when it’s over. The day when a storm pulls the aging blossom down creating a sea of petals all over the ground always seems to come too quickly. But it’s not here yet – I’m at the other end, the time of anticipation, watching and waiting for the glorious extravagance to happen.