Spring!

[sister_luck]

This night, the rain suddenly stopped and from about 2.30 on the birds were happily chirping and tweeting. I know because I was wide awake at that time. I managed to catch some sleep before it became light and then indulged in a long lie-in this morning. I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the late mornings with breakfast in bed and then possibly another nap.

You wouldn't believe it, but there was sun and blue sky when I finally got up. Of course, by the time we were ready to go out and have a walk, the blue had been replaced by cloud cover, but you could still glimpse the sun and there was NO rain.

I do need the exercise - I'm slow and easily tired. I took it easy and had a break on a bench a couple of times. But really, I need to get a little strength back - my doctor told me that if it wasn't for my oddly-shaped uterus she would've sent me back to school at least two weeks ago, so it's ridiculous that I'm shuffling around like someone who is twice my age and who is completely out of shape.

(Yes, that means, everything's fine, but I'm still on sick leave. I'm lucky that with my civil servant privileges I remain on a full salary, so there's no financial pressure for me to get back to work. I'm trying to enjoy that without feeling too guilty about it.)

But I've come here to post my pictures - this time it's mostly plants. For the next outing, I plan on trying to capture some of the wildlife, i.e. ducks and other birds.

The trees are still bare:



Proof that we're about a month behind due to the long and hard winter:



Usually about this time of year, the magnolias are in bloom and the time of the crocus is long over, but here they are all in their glory:







Even the daffodils aren't yet ready to show off their yellow flowers - I guess they're waiting for a couple more days without rain.

The trees are still leafless:



Because I like the structure, here's some bark:



Odd flower:



That's it for today!

Comments

[lijability.livejournal.com]

Nice pics, especially of the crocuses. It's good to see things in hiding, as they are in 'hibernation,' then you are more open to even the littlest of life showing up, such as these flowers.

Just a first impression, but is your "odd flower" a wild hyacinth?

Your violet blue flower that is somewhat carpeting the ground looks similar to a wild woodland flower we have over here that I call the white foam flower, because it looks like foam covering a woodland floor.

Is your tree bark pic of a "plane tree" - what we call a sycamore over here.
...

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I like discovering things, so these walks always show me something new.

I just had a look through my "What's that flower" paperback and the "odd flower" is called Gewöhnliche Pestwurz and wikipedia tells me it's usually called common butterbur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Butterbur) in English. Its German name - pestilence wort - is also mentioned, though I'd usually translate Pest with plague.

The wild hyacinths or grape hyacinths (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_hyacinth) are very different, but they turn up in the park, too, though we'll have to wait a couple more weeks:



The violet blue flowers carpeting the ground are crocus, too - someone must have been a little generous with the bulbs.

We've got a white foam flower, too - I'll take some pictures when I come across them.

Yes, the tree is what we call a Platane or 'plane tree'.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Lovely flowers!

Take care of yourself! :)

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Thank you and I will do!

[comava.livejournal.com]

The bark structure is pretty. It looks sort of familiar but I'm terrible at recognizing flora so I can't place it at all.

I like the contrast of the new flowers among the dead leaves.

I'm glad it's springtime. :)

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

The bark is from a Platane, see my reply above. They're typical for parks and cities here.

Yay for spring. It's overcast again today, but as long as there's no rain I'm happy.