Spring has Sprung

I apologize in advance to anyone whose internet connection objects to this many pictures in one post. It was hard to decide which ones to include so I included a bunch.

It's no secret: I am not a fan of Spring. March and April generally leave me feeling bitter and resentful, mourning the passing of winter, poor excuse for winter though it may be.

Blatantly disregarding my own feelings about Spring, I ventured out this weekend with Lori and my camera with the purpose of documenting the sunshine and green grass and blue skies.

This post is dedicated to Dorothy, who has so unselfishly shared her Canadian winter with me - well, with all of us but that includes me. Also, this is for Kim, who is quite tired of her Michigan winter and in need of a dash of sunshine and flowers.

Here's to all of you who are longing for a little dose of Springtime.

Springtime in California's Capitol City

The view from our hotel window. I think this is an Episcopal Church (the domed building). There were so many crosses on the rooftops. It is a beautiful church.

Except as noted, these pictures were taken in Capitol Park, at the corner of 15th & L Streets in Sacramento, California this past Saturday. Both the California Firefighter's Memorial

and the California Veterans Memorial

are located in Capitol Park. The Capitol Park website has better pictures of the memorials. (I was focusing on "Spring" pictures not "memorial" pictures.)

For the macabre among you - and I know there are those among you - this is not very far from the house at 1426 F Street where, in the 1980's, Dorothea Puente murdered several of her boarding house residents and buried them in her yard. Though she was only convicted of three murders, 7 bodies were found in the yard. We didn't go looking for the house on this visit. Which is a good thing, I guess, because I had it in my head that it was on 17th Street instead of F Street. Actually, I'm not really even sure if the house is still there. I will have to find out one of these days.

It was mostly clear on Saturday, a few wispy clouds, as you can see and and the temperature was in the upper 60s or maybe 70 degrees. All in all, just a perfectly pleasant day. These pictures are a mere fraction of the bazillion pictures I took. I was going for artsy in some of them but mostly, I was just taking pictures of whatever caught my eye.

Before our visit to Capitol Park, we went yarn shopping in Fair Oaks (more on that tomorrow or the next day) and then to Old Town Sacramento. It has been a long time since I had visit Old Sac and it has become much more touristy since my last visit. We had a decent lunch but aside from that, it was by far the least interesting/entertaining part of our day. I took a few pictures there including this one of

the Gold Rush History Center building. (I mostly took it because of the flag - you can see how windy it was.)

These are the old buildings next to the Gold Rush center.

Then we went to the park....

We parked across the street from our hotel and entered the park from the L Street side, where we were greeted by these camellias.

From a distance, I saw this craggity looking treeJust begging to have its picture taken.

On the way to craggity tree, we came across the bamboo.

I stood very close to the bamboo.

Then I looked up toward the sky through the bamboo. Once I got close enough to the craggity tree, I discovered that you could see our hotel just across the street.

Walking a little further, there was this very tall tree.

Here is the first purple tree we came across in the park.

The flowers were beautiful up close.

Have you ever seen a black and white St. Bernard? I hadn't before Saturday.

There was a great deal of squirrel frolicking going on in the park.

Walking along this path,

and off to the right, we saw this

one of the bell towers of this mission.

(If I were to do a little searching, I'm sure I could find out which mission this is but for now, I don't know. It might be just a plain old church but California has lots and lots of missions and this is consistent with the style.)

This is the second purple tree of the day. This tree was swarming with bees. Bees be damned, I took my life into my own hands and stood under this tree to take a shot from underneath the tree.

This park is just covered with great big trees.

A view from the park bench where I sat a did a little knitting.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day, sitting on the ground looking up at the sky from underneath the cool tree shown at the top of this post.

The last picture I took as we left the park was of this tree, all full of white flowers.

SUNDAY, SUNDAY

I took these while out at my parents' house Sunday afternoon. The sky was crystal clear and the flowers were all showing off.

This tree is just starting to bloom.

See?

My blossom pictures are a little fuzzy; even the camera was more interested in the blue sky above.

The pansies are particularly vibrant this yearMama and Daddy have lots of varieties, including these that make me think of those close up pictures you sometimes see of the sun.

These two colors grow from the same plant. I thought there were two separate pansies planted close together but I got down and inspected and, indeed, it was two different colored flowers coming out of the same plant.

My sister Carrie referred to this as the fluffy pink bush. I don't know what sort of plant it is but fluffy pink bush will suffice.
Here's its neighbor, the not so fluffy purple ground cover.

I leave you with this cheery little lot. This is the parade of pansies that leads up to my parents front door.
Dorothy and Kim, I hope these will tide you over until Spring makes it's way to Sioux Lookout and Flushing.

Today's Quote:

"Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!" - Sitting Bull